Pierre Arditi, aged 78, felt unwell on Wednesday evening while he was on stage, in full performance. The actor felt ill twenty minutes after the start of the play Lapin, at the Édouard VII Theater. Muriel Robin, his partner on stage, realizing that something was happening, signaled to someone backstage to say: “Something has to be done.”
“He did not collapse on stage but remained motionless, as if paralyzed. We could clearly see that he was no longer moving, says a witness. Muriel Robin came forward, she looked panicked, the curtain fell and we were told that we had to leave the room, that it was over. Then a Samu ambulance arrived. He had to be evacuated from behind.”
According to our information, around 9:55 p.m., Pierre Arditi was conscious. He was evacuated to Lariboisière hospital (10th arrondissement of Paris) in “absolute emergency”, according to information from BFMTV. He was accompanied in particular by his wife, Évelyne Bouix, who joined him as soon as the illness was announced. Shortly before midnight, however, his entourage confirmed to Le Figaro that the actor had not had a stroke, as had been assumed earlier in the evening.
Also read “In the theater, it is the audience who must laugh, not us”: the secrets of Muriel Robin and Pierre Arditi
After two days off, Pierre Arditi showed up at the theater early this evening to rehearse once again the play by Samuel Benchetrit that he has been playing with Muriel Robin since September 21. This discomfort came suddenly, even though he had never stopped working in recent weeks. It was Muriel Robin who thought of him to give him the voice in this comedy where everyone played their own role.
After the tour with Shouldn’t say it! until mid-May, the actor should have returned to September 2023 with Salut les amis, a play by Samuel Benchetrit, alongside Nathalie Baye and Thierry Lhermitte, already at the Édouard VII theater. But “too complicated”, the project fell through.
Pascal Legros, the director of the Édouard VII theater, then contacted him to talk to him about Lapin, another play by the same author written in two weeks, at the request of Muriel Robin. The two actors play their double “Mumu” and “Pierrot”. On Mondays, the day off, the first has dinner with the second. They discuss their respective partners, their health, their disappointments, their hopes and their projects. One evening, they understand that they are not alone.
