Mysterious characters masked to protect themselves from the plague strolling among the columns of Daniel Buren. A novice, ready to enter the convent, is threatened by a Minister of Justice who wishes to obtain sexual favors in order to save her brother’s life. With certain courage, this educated young woman demands that her voice be heard in the same way as the word of the man in power.
From August 11 to 27, The Scourge, a play adapted from Shakespeare with such current themes, will be performed outdoors at the foot of the Council of State and the Constitutional Council. Each evening, the 150 spectators will enter via Place Colette, near the Comédie-Française. They will be greeted by an actor: due to the pandemic, the mayor is calling for the closure of theatres, cabarets and other places of life such as brothels “for health and moral danger.” From there, small groups will form. Everyone will be free to follow the character of their choice. The Duke who entrusts his power to the Minister of Justice. The police arresting a young unmarried couple. A prostitute, a jailer… Eighteen performers will meet at each branch allowing everyone to follow the story as they wish.
After the success of The Secret, played for six months to sold-out audiences in 2018 on a magnificent and very unexpected factory unloading dock near Place Monge in Paris, then of Helsingor, Hamlet’s castle in 2019 and 2021, at the Château de Vincennes, the director Léonard Matton translated and adapted Measure for Measure, from Shakespeare, to create The Scourge, an immersive theater play. “I re-read all of Shakespeare during confinement and I was struck by the topicality of this play, says this 39-year-old enthusiast at the head of the Emersion Company. The scourge is the bar between the two scales symbols of justice, but also the closure of all places of life during the plague epidemic. It resonated well with our times. The quarantine, the absence of any contact… Apart from the ban on throwing latrines in the street, a lot of things are familiar with our Covid years.
Of its budget of 220,000 euros, only 35,000 euros come from aid from public bodies, such as the Center des Monuments Nationaux, and 75,000 euros from private sponsorship from the Polycarpe Foundation. The balance is provided by the ticket office. The prices will go from 26 to 47 euros but the troop already knows that it will play at a loss. “Mounting immersive theater plays is still just as complicated financially, there is no specific public aid yet, regrets the director. In order for the interaction to remain intimate and not lose the magic of the immersive, the number of spectators per actor must not exceed fifteen people. This necessarily limits the ticket office. The sinews of war is also to find the right place, large enough for the actors and the spectators to circulate without getting in the way. The layout of the site must allow several scenes to be played at the same time without any noise pollution between them. If private developers agree to rent their unoccupied sites between two construction sites, this is not yet the case for the town hall of Paris. For the moment.
At the start of the school year, the Compagnie de Léonard Matton will join the Cent Quatre, a program of residences and promotions of artistic projects of the City. The beginnings of a more sustainable project? Léonard Matton hopes to convince Carine Rolland, Culture Assistant, and Aurélie Filippetti, Director of Cultural Affairs, of the need for such a space, as there are in New York or London. “A supermarket suits me very well, I don’t ask for the Hôtel-Dieu”, smiles Léonard Matton. Among the Anglo-Saxons, these places are 9000 square meters and the immersive plays that are played there attract tourists from all over the world. And these shows of a new kind attract young people: 50% of the public who came to see Hamlet at the Château de Vincennes were under 30 years old and a third had never set foot in the theater.
» The Scourge, Measure for measure, from August 10 to 27, from 26 to 47 euros. Not recommended for children under ten.
