Director of the Colline National Theater since April 6, 2016, Wajdi Mouawad said he would leave his duties in March 2026. A year before the initially scheduled deadline in March 2027 (which leaves the guardianships time to find him one or a successor a year before the presidential elections).
It would be tempting to see in this announcement of a voluntarily anticipated departure a seismic replica of the gesture accomplished by Stéphane Braunschweig. In 2024, the former director of the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe indeed gave up a third and last mandate to the Odéon. “I no longer had the means to carry out my artistic project”, had he then declared to World By activating the alarm signal: the deficit of the theater and the absence of state aid did not allow it to continue his work as he thought he had to lead him.
Two years later, the financial argument does not appear on the front line of mobiles advanced by the boss of the hill (which declined our maintenance request). Yet his establishment is subject to a drastic austerity cure. In February 2024, as part of the economy plan of 10 billion euros decided by Bercy, 500,000 euros in cancellation of credits were removed. A dry loss to which are added fixed loads (wages, heating, fluids, etc.) that must be honored without reinforcement of any kind. The hill is no exception to the common rule: here as in most subsidized places, the artistic margin is reduced in sight.
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