It is a threat that has been hovering for a few days. After the cancellation of his rehearsals at the Comédie de Genève on June 2, the Polish director Krystian Lupa and his play Les Émigrants, one of the most important at the Avignon festival, will finally be deprived of performances. Tiago Rodrigues announced the cancellation of the play on Wednesday.
“We regret to announce that the production conditions (calendar, financial and logistical constraints and impasses) do not allow the presentation of this project this summer in Avignon”, announced the festival in a press release. Lapidary explanations, which come on top of the rumors that were already hovering behind the scenes of the play, until then being edited in Switzerland. Divergences of “philosophy” and a non-respect of “the values” of the Comédie de Genève had in particular pushed the institution to cancel the rehearsals and representations of the Emigrants.
The real cause of this cancellation would be to be found in the behavior of the Polish playwright, who allegedly “exhausted” part of the technical team by subjecting it to “contradictory and chaotic injunctions”, according to Liberation. Still according to the daily, Krystian Lupa would have yelled in front of witnesses about his teams and in particular his longtime collaborator and translator, Agnieszka Zgieb.
The director had defended himself from any abusive behavior in an open letter also published by Liberation. “I shouldn’t have reacted this way and I was very affected by it. The next day, Agnieszka Zgieb and I talked about the incident again, and our relationship resumed, calmed down. I would like to take this opportunity to deny that insulting words were said against him, a contrary interpretation would be a distortion of my words, ”he wrote about the howls at his translator. “For these two incidents, I would like to officially apologize (…) During the first general rehearsal, punctuated by numerous interruptions and stopped by the technical team, there was no conflict on my part, but only a persevering request to get the correct execution of the light, sound and video composition (I always do) in order to avoid technical errors for the sequel. This, as it turns out, was considered by the technical team as a violation of the work standards to which they were accustomed, ”continues the playwright.
The co-producers hope that the show will still be able to see the light of day, in particular at the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe, where it is scheduled for January 2024.
