Theatre Head Dismissed

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31781, 11 September 1968, Page 17

Theatre Head Dismissed

(N.Z P A -Reuter—Copyriyht) PARIS, Sept. 10.

Mr Andre Malraux, the French Minister of State for Cultural Affairs, has stunned the theatrical world by dismissing the distinguished actor and producer, Jean Louis Barrault, as head of the State-run Odeon Theatre of France. When a tumultuous crowd of students occupied the theatre just after midnight last May 17 during the Paris demonstrations, Mr Barrault cried: “Jean-Louis Barrault is no longer the director of this i theatre. . . Barrault is dead.” [ Three and a half months ' later, Mr Malraux took him at his word.

I A curt typewritten note of ' seven lines from a senior offiicial of the Culture Ministry ■informed Mr Barrault last ’week that he had been dismissed after nine years because of “various statements” he had made. In one statement after the student occupation, Mr Barrault said the students “are not enemies. Far from it.” He added: “For nine years I have been proud and happy to be the willing servant of a theatre which belongs to the nation and has'its seat in the district of youth.” It was not a secret that !Mr Barrault, who is 58 this i month, and the Culture Minister, who is 66. did not see eye | to eye on what to do after the students, fresh from their I triumph in occupying the 1 Sorbonne, took over the

Odeon nearby in the middle of an international theatre season.

The Ministry publicly disowned responsibility for Mr Barrault’s remarks and made it clear he had disobeyed instructions to keep out of the building. But, despite an ominous silence on the theatre’s future after police retook it on June 14, it had been expected that Mr Malraux, himself a renowned writer, would put the quarrel down to artistic temperament and leave Mr Barrault free to continue his work at the Odeon.

Mr Barrault, sometimes accompanied by his wife, the actress, Madeleine Renaud, was a familiar figure in the Odeon during the early feverish days of the occupation while the students discussed their “revolution” in the gold and scarlet auditorium.

They pleaded with the students to give them back their theatre. But the students, led by Mr Daniel Cohn-Bendit, “Danny the Red,” refused to budge. Mr Cohn-Bendit said the theatre was an expression of bourgeois culture and added, “it would not be desirable to have Mr Barrault at the head of our movement.” Mr Barrault seized the microphone, turned to Mr Cohn-Bendit with a smile and said: “At the risk of disappointing certain people, 1 shall say that I am in complete agreement with you. Barrault is no longer the director of this theatre but an actor like any other. Barrault is dead.” It was on instructions from the Culture Ministry that Mr Barrault was at the Odeon to

“open a dialogue”. But four days after his dramatic announcement—which he let it be known was not a serious offer of resignation—he was told to evacuate all his staff and cut the electricity. Mr Barrault did neither. After the Ministry disowned the actor’s statements and presence, and some statements to the press by Mr Barrault, the matter rested until Mr Barrault’s dismissal.

The actor, who was preparing to launch a new season, had no comment except to say that he did not know what he was going to do. Mrs Barrault said: “We are dismissed but we shall go on. This is not the first harsh blow we have suffered. So far we have always managed.” A stage and screen actor, Claude Dauphin, said Mr Barrault’s dismissal was a catastrophe for the French theatre and French prestige abroad. Newspaper comment was even more indignant. Many writers described Mr Malraux’s decision as "brutal.” . Actors and directors in other countries have also been shocked at the dismissal. The British actors, Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud, wrote a joint letter to “The Times” expressing their sympathy and support for their French colleague. The Odeon now lies empty and shut while worktnen repair the ravages of the occupation and the Ministry studies its future.

Mr Barrault has refused to go through with a production of Moliere’s “Tartuffe” for another theatre dependent on the Culture Ministry, the Comedie Francaise.