The administrator chooses himself the directors

Similar to what it was three centuries ago, but in perpetual motion. Ultraclassique, marked triple royal institution (Louis XIV creates in 1680), Imperial (Napoleon fine in 1812) and Republican, but also place of creation and boiling... The Comédie-Française is the theatre of all paradoxes. Up to the motto of his troupe, by its Director, Muriel Mayette, forever: "Simul and singulis be together and be yourself.".

Is Muriel Mayette, forty-six years, not itself a bit paradoxical Bright, flamboyant, actress heart and soul, can imagine happy haunting experimental scenes, she had as a Professor as radical as Claude Régy master. And yet, it seems perfectly comfortable under the ors of the room Richelieu - shelf as in his Office, which gives on the pleasant place Colette. Entry in "the hive" (emblem of the House) in 1985 at the age of twenty, she now speaks "French" as a person, assuming a legacy of tradition and rebellion: Molière, Corneille and Flemish funky TG STAN same fight!

It is not easy to be the captain of a theatrical vessel also singular. But, after four years of mandate, it is not really "waste" air Mini-drames (OPA missed on the MC 93 Bobigny, the eviction of Dean Catherine Hiegel, one of his relatives) are painful memories, but they did not erode its faith and its certainties.

Place of excellence

French remains "a place of excellence", according to it. Its three main pillars - the permanence of the troupe, the alternation of performances (which allows to offer to the public 850 performances per year) and the upgrading of directory - demand sets the bar very high. With a fine selection, their special status and their mode of intense work, the 58 French actors are probably among the best in France, "more efficient". The troupe, strong of its stars (Denis Podalydès in head) continues to renew itself, as evidenced by the arrival of the young Marie-Julie Parmentier revelation.

Very eclectic in their game ("there are 58 different schools...") (), the French actors "mature and flourish" scrubbing the great texts and putting their talent at the service of Directors with the sometimes conflicting views. In the 2009-2010 season, they placed several times "in danger": the Spanish Andrés Lima has asked them to improvise for some scenes of the "happy wives of Windsor", Shakespeare; they tested the game exploded and surreal TG STAN; they had to turn into "storytellers" to interpret Dario Fo - as the leadership of Muriel Mayette... Some began the new season in songs, in the Studio-Théâtre du Carrousel du Louvre, with journalist Philippe Meyer to head of choir...

From such novations can annoy the traditional public... Muriel Mayette defends neglecting the directory: "It is the essence of the shows presented each season (30 total)." Itself advocates a return to the classics, attacking personally, in October, in a staging of "Andromaque". Root is the passion of the moment: "The music of worms" (before the rehearsals, she did working keyboard to the actors), "the truth of the feelings expressed in the struggle between passion and reason."

It must of course hear on what means the word "directory": "on the 3,000 texts which are, 1,000 more are known to the public.". This corpus has continued to evolve and to open up - to the contemporaries, to foreign authors. Sometimes with delay: "Chekhov did his"enter"after the second world war." Jarry, only there two seasons. But the hive has often also created the news, or even the scandal: with "The marriage of Figaro", Beaumarchais, 1784; or the battle of "Hernani" of Victor Hugo, in 1830.

Paris failures and successes

Muriel Mayette, however, has not missed the train of modernity: entry to the directory of Bernard - Marie Koltès ("The return to the desert" that it was staged in 2007) and of Jean-Luc Lagarce ("Just the end of the world", mounted with brio in 2008 by Michel Raskine). After the great Mediterranean authors (Lope de Vega, Filippo Eduardo, Dario Fo), it is the turn of knock America: "A streetcar named desire", Tennessee Williams, will be mounted next February.

The administrator chooses himself the directors. An assay reasoned big names (Jean-Pierre Vincent, André Françon, Laurent Pelly, Alfredo Arias, Bob Wilson,...), of troublemakers (as tg STAN last year or Jérôme Deschamps in December for "Wire leg", of Feydeau), and hopes of the scene (Marc Paquien) - not to mention home vocations.

Of course, there are failed paris (Christophe Perton and pseudo-branchée reading of "The madness of Heracles"), appointments missed (Deborah Warner, who was never able to break free to this day). But Muriel Mayette can boast of stories: "The great magic", of Eduardo De Filippo, blithely directed by Dan Jemmet, or "Three sisters", Chekhov, mounted with grace by Alain Françon's. On the whole of last season, the figures speak for themselves: 87 fill, it is an enviable score.

A second room in the term

A few months of the end of his term (renewable...), Muriel Mayette is not bad projects: after the Russia in September, a tour in China, then why not, in the Persian Gulf; the output of films (the real, simple "capture" step), produced by filmmakers of renowned (Matthieu Amalric, Ducastel and Martineau) from the directory, with actors of the troupe... Not to mention the interim move imposed by the work of the Richelieu room in 2011-2012.

The Comédie-Française will invest a kind of zenith in the gardens of the Palais-Royal. This place of representation rudimentary, but also more flexible, awakens the desire of the administrator to have term of a second room - the scope of Richelieu (the Vieux-Colombier and the Studio-Théâtre, too cramped, being dedicated to experimentation or the small forms). "We would play shows more than three hours, to invite other companies, large foreign troops, with which we work."

Tenacity pays more than mouth kicked... When more than three centuries of history behind itself, can calmly project in the future.