The Controversial Cancellation of “Les Emigrants”: Inside the Battle to Keep the Play Alive in Avignon

2023-06-07 09:03:56

Director, actors and co-producers fought to maintain performances in Avignon at all costs, following the cancellation of the play “Les Emigrants” in Switzerland. The director of Avignon deprograms it in turn.

It should have been presented this month of June in Geneva before being one of the highlights of the Festival d’Avignon, for the first edition directed by Tiago Rodrigues. After the cancellation in Switzerland, The Emigrants by Krystian Lupa will ultimately not be part of the Avignon program either. Tiago Rodrigues announced the cancellation of the play by the Polish playwright on Wednesday June 7.

The management of the Comédie de Genève, supported by its supervisory authorities and first and foremost the Swiss municipality, announced on June 2 to cancel the rehearsals and performances of the Emigrants. At issue: according to the press release, differences in “philosophy”, and non-compliance with “values” of Comedy. Clearly, the exhaustion of part of the Swiss technical team subjected to “contradictory injunctions” and chaotic but also howls in front of witnesses towards Lupa’s most faithful collaborator and translator, Agnieszka Zgieb, who for her part considers today that “the absolute urgency is to save the show”.

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