Speech is freed in the world of theater. In recent days, many testimonials have been flocking under the hashtag
# MeTooThéâtre. Rape, sexual assault, harassment, gender-based violence… Thousands of testimonies were posted in a few hours on the social network Twitter.
The initiative was launched Thursday by Marie Coquille-Chambel, YouTuber and theater critic. “I was raped by a comedian from the Comédie-Française during the first confinement, while I was uneasy. He is still a member of the Comédie-Française, even if the management is aware of a complaint filed, ”says the young woman on Twitter, encouraging all victims of sexual assault in the theater to testify. “I invite all people sexually harassed, assaulted or raped in the theatrical environment to testify with the hashtag
# MeToothéâtre », She added in a second tweet, widely shared.
I invite all people sexually harassed, assaulted or raped in the theatrical environment to testify with the hashtag #metootheatre
We are no longer afraid.
Death to the omerta 🔥– Marie Coquille-Chambel (@mariecchambel) October 7, 2021
“His behavior changed on my 18th birthday”
Posted Thursday evening, Marie Coquille-Chambel’s tweet was the starting point for a wave of support, and testimonies. “During the Avignon Festival, a theater producer who kisses me forcibly for long seconds while I try to push him away. He apologized a few minutes later: “sorry, I thought you were an actress,” “says journalist Rauma Nolhent. An actor remembers him a manager who was sexually assaulted by a professor of the Florent course “during a show”, specifying that the teacher was not dismissed and that he now works in Avignon.
During the Avignon Festival, a theater producer who kisses me forcibly for long seconds as I try to push him away.
He apologized a few minutes later: “sorry, I thought you were an actress”
#metootheatre https://t.co/EI8XoCaYpK
– Rauma Nolhent (@raumanolhent) October 7, 2021
“He was my theater teacher, he had known me since I was 14, he was 42. His behavior changed the day I turned 18. I’m sure of it, because he wanted to be protected by law, ”another young woman also said on Twitter.
#metootheatre He was my theater teacher, he had known me since I was 14, he was 42. His behavior changed the day I turned 18. I’m sure he did, because he wanted to be protected by law.
– Juliette Pierron (@ PierronJuliett2) October 8, 2021
The French theater community already shaken by several scandals
The hashtag # MeTooThéâtre has been widely relayed, in particular by the NousToutes collective, by the actress Nadège Beausson-Diagne, president of the Even Not Fear collective, which fights against sexual violence, or by the elected environmentalist Alice Coffin. “Immense support and admiration to all the people who testify for #MeTooTheatre”, posted the feminist activist, specifying that she would intervene “in the Council of Paris next week on this subject”.
Since the outbreak of the #MeToo movement in 2017, several scandals have shaken the French theater community. Splashed by a case of alleged rape, the director Jean-Pierre Bar had left the management of the Théâtre des Quartiers d’Ivry (Val-de-Marne), under public pressure and a strike by the staff of the establishment calling for his resignation. In the spring, dozens of people had also demonstrated in front of the premises of Cours Florent in Paris to denounce the “silence” of the prestigious private theater school in the face of alleged abuse by some of its teachers, claims disputed by the institution.