The Comédie-Française and “Oublie-moi” dominate the 34th edition

The theater was in the spotlight on Monday evening with the Molières ceremony. And this 34th edition crowned the Comédie-Française, as well as a moving play on Alzheimer’s disease created at the “off” in Avignon.

The evening also shifted for a few minutes to the political field with the speech of the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, from the room. Something extremely rare during an event of this kind, she defended her record against two artists who had just challenged her on stage concerning the pension reform. Just before the evening, a few dozen demonstrators equipped with pots and pans had also gathered in front of the Théâtre de Paris, at the call of the CGT Spectacle.

A tribute to the “revolution in Iran”

The ceremony was also marked by Aïda Asgharzadeh’s tribute to the “revolution in Iran”, asking the room to dance briefly in support of five women detained for having danced in “crop tops” and whose video – which has gone viral on TikTok – was broadcast on a giant screen. The Franco-Iranian playwright was awarded the prize for the best living French-speaking author for her play Persian dollswhich is freely inspired by the story of his parents, politically committed against the Shah before they fled the country with the establishment of the Islamic regime.

Among the other winners of the evening, the new version of the cult show starmania won two Molières (musical show, visual and sound creation), a consecration for Thomas Jolly, director who will be at the helm of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics. He received one of the prizes alongside the co-creator of the original show, Luc Plamondon, who was very moved.

Alexis Michalik dusts off the ceremony

Master of ceremonies, the director Alexis Michalik tried to give a more dynamic image to this evening, opening the ball with a song which he interpreted himself, accompanied by a group of actors, in the style of musical comedy. This was followed by a succession of jokes, sketches, a drag performance, a tribute to theater legend Peter Brook or another to African-American music by the singers of the musical. Black Legends.

But the evening was above all that of the Comédie-Française on the public theater side, with four Molières, including three for The Bourgeois Gentleman. Behind Molière’s comedy stands “the golden couple” of the French scene: the member of the French Christian Hecq and the director and visual artist Valérie Lesort, who have already received several Molières in recent years. The venerable institution was also rewarded for Frozen, the forgotten storydirected by Johanna Boyé.

On the private side, the piece “Oublie-moi”, a nugget created at the “off” of Avignon in 2022, with a modest budget, won three Molières. This is a moving melodrama about a couple’s turmoil due to Alzheimer’s disease.