Europe's largest theater festival falls victim to trade union activists
The 57th Avignon International Theater Festival will not take place after all. Its director, Bernard Febvre d'Arcier, announced this yesterday. The famous theater forum was supposed to take place from July 8 to July 28, but never began due to a protracted strike of contract workers - some of the actors, but mainly of assemblers, lighting technicians, carpenters and other inconspicuous stage servants (for the development of these sad events, see " Time for News” on July 9 and 10.) The unprecedented decision to cancel the festival was made for the first time in the history of its existence. Europe's largest show of theatrical achievements was supposed to open last Tuesday with an equestrian performance by the Zingaro Theater (so beloved by the Moscow public) and a ballet to the music of Mozart. Alas, there will be neither one nor the other - the strikers won. The protest demonstration of the theater workers' union ended with a powerful rally near the walls of the Avignon Papal Palace. About eight thousand contract actors and technical personnel took part in the demonstration. The march was organized by the CGT trade union, which has close ties to the French Communist Party. Activists demanded that the French government abandon the current version of the welfare reform bill for actors and stagehands, which implies stricter conditions for access to unemployment funds. Of course, there were many actors who were dissatisfied with the calls to continue the strike, since the financial situation of stage workers directly depends on performances at the festival. "It's simple - if we don't perform, we'll die," said Jan Rezo, a 24-year-old actor who received a 15,000-euro loan to fund his production. The world-famous horseman Bartabas, the founder and director of the famous “Zingaro”, also does not like the new proposals of the government at all, but, in his opinion, the conflict situation cannot cover the main duty of the actor - the duty to the public waiting for his spectacles. “A real artist does not look at his watch all the time and does not count the time he has worked. The artist is consumed by the fire of passion. These union guys can fuck off. We don’t need them at all,” Bartabas said decisively. But his invective did not help matters. The losers were the artists, the public, the theatrical community of Europe and numerous journalists who dreamed of decorating the pages of their newspapers with Avignon reports. At the same time as Avignon, its close relative, the opera festival in Aix-en-Provence, was cancelled.
