About thirty feminist activists tried Friday, November 19 to block access to the Théâtre de La Colline in Paris, where the premiere of a show whose music was composed by Bertrand Cantat, convicted of the murder of his companion Marie, was being played. Trintignant.
Arrived shortly before 8 p.m., the activists, caps and black masks on their faces, wanted to lock the doors of the theater, directed by Wajdi Mouawad, with padlocks, before being repulsed by the police.
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Entitled
Mother
, the show, created and directed by the director of the Théâtre de La Colline, was to start at 8:30 p.m.
"Cantat assassin, Mouawad accomplice!"
,
"He killed her and you applaud him!"
,
"Defend the victims!"
, chanted the demonstrators.
"The goal is to prevent the play,"
one of them told AFP, without giving her identity.
Shortly before 9 p.m. and after the police intervention, they left the scene and the public was able to enter the room.
The activists denounced the holding of this show, the musical programming of which was entrusted to the musician Bertrand Cantat, convicted in 2003 for the murder of Marie Trintignant.
The revelation in mid-October of this collaboration, within one of the six national theaters, had caused controversy, in the midst of a movement to denounce sexual violence in the middle of French theater.
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Invited on France Inter in mid-October, the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot had said
“regret”
that the musician was
“invited”
to create the music for the show. For his part, the director of the theater Wajdi Mouawad had refused to deprogram Bertrand Cantat or the director Jean-Pierre Barro, arguing that he did not want to
“take the place of justice”
or participate in a
“unilateral”
movement
that
“does not suffer. of no nuance ”
. Jean-Pierre Barro is directing another play for La Colline. He was the subject of a closed rape complaint.
Bertrand Cantat was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2003. He served four years before being released on parole in 2007. His judicial review ended in 2011.