The baroque facade of the Italian Comédie threatened by a facelift
Harlequin looks gray on the busy sidewalk of rue de la Gaîté. The merry joker of the 14th arrondissement of Paris is less saddened by the autumnal rain than by the future of the painting of gold and azure which, since 1993, has given its baroque charm to the theater of the Italian Comedy. The colorful facade should soon get rid of some of its tinsel. Not to change tones and ornaments, as this pretty Parisian address used to do, but to restore the first floor of the building to its original state. The enchanting bleusailles that frame the last commedia dell'arte landmark in France would then be reduced to the simple ground floor of the theatre. "Like a vulgar pizzeria", indignant Attilio Maggiulli, artistic director and director of the Italian Comedy.
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The sources of this new threat hanging over the building: a banal facelift. That of 19, rue de la Gaîté, which corresponds to the entrance to the theater as well as to a storage space located on the first floor, behind two windows covered with a tarpaulin in the colors of the pastel pediment. “The ground floor remains unchanged; on the other hand, the 1st floor of the facade will return to its original state”, indicates a letter of November 3 – that Le Figaro was able to consult – addressed by the syndic Nexity to Attilio Maggiulli. "The condemned 1st floor windows will be reopened", while its colors will take up the milky tone of the building, "in harmony with the rest of the floors". So many points aimed at correcting work “carried out without prior authorization”, specifies Nexity. And which could eventually lead to a pure and simple expulsion, without compensation, of the troupe, is alarmed the artistic director of the theater.
A situation that provokes the disbelief of Attilio Maggiulli, almost 50 years after the foundation, with the actress Hélène Lestrade, of the theatrical company dedicated to the commedia dell'arte. "It's ridiculous!" Vigorously denounces the man of theatre. "We won an out-of-category prize for the most beautiful shop facade in Paris in 1995. The look of the Italian Comedy is part of the heritage of rue de la Gaîté." His memory in hand, proudly framed, the director assures that at the time of his award, the mayor of Paris Jacques Chirac, about to be elected to the presidency of the Republic, had promised him the classification to the historical monuments of the facade.
This politeness has never had an effective follow-up, as the Nexity manager did not fail to point out in his letter: "After research (of a possible classification of the facade, editor's note) with town planning by the architect, it is not so and the architects of the City of Paris have given their agreement to a return to the original state. An approach confirmed by the Town Hall, which did not wish to comment on the file, apart from the simple reminder of the usual procedure. “The architects of the buildings of France (ABF) gave indications as to the nature of the materials used for the renovation. We followed the opinions and recommendations of the ABF”, replied laconically to Figaro la Ville de Paris.
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The soul of rue de la Gaîté
A cold shower, for the Italian Comedy. Established in 1980 in the small police station at 17, rue de la Gaîté, where Modigliani and Picasso once sobered up, the institution was extended to 19 in 1993, when the theater took on its current form thanks to the takeover of a former sex shop. “The building had lost its value before our arrival, recalls Attilio Maggiulli. When we offered to buy out the lease of the sex shop in 1991, the residents were over the moon. We increased the market value of the site, and it was at this same time that we united the facade. It had to be said that the previous sign and its trinkets for women had been replaced by a theatre! It wasn't a problem for anyone then."
Supposed to start on November 15, the renovation work has still not been started. Portable toilets and scaffolding at arm's length, the only group of workers who arrived in front of the theater were pushed back with the help of a nearby restaurateur. Between a pressing trustee and absent public authorities, Attilio Maggiulli hopes to gain some time. A request for protection under the Historic Monuments of the facade of the Italian Comedy was filed on November 21, in the hope of benefiting from the aegis of the State. And at the same time, a petition was also put online at the beginning of November, on the change.org platform, in order to mobilize the public.
“We feel less alone. Our theatrical neighbors on rue de la Gaîté don't give a damn, but at least we have received a little word from the Théâtre du Soleil, the Théâtre de l'Odéon..., lists Attilio Maggiulli. We resist!” Signed, since, by more than 20,700 people, the petition also intends to raise awareness of the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot and the president of the Regional Council of Île-de-France Valérie Pécresse to the cause of the Italian Comedy. The director, however, holds out little hope. This isn't the first time the theater has struggled to keep its head above water.
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In the summer of 2020, the bluish and Italian lair owed its salvation to the sale, for 300,000 euros, of a Marilyn Monroe handkerchief, a pop souvenir that once passed into the collection of Andy Warhol and gallery owner Leo Castelli. And in early 2021, the theater came close to being taken over by Productions de la Plume, Dieudonné's company. Recipient of one-off financial support from the State and the City of Paris in the context of aid to private theaters closed during the pandemic, the Comédie Italienne continues to produce as best it can its show of the moment, Et vive la commedia dell'arte. From ten permanent actors, the troupe has gradually been reduced, over the past five years, to two people, while the obligation to control the health pass forces the theater to turn away the unvaccinated public. A thousand concessions and precautions that would satisfy local elected officials, suspects Attilio Maggiulli.
Alone against all
The sulphurous director does not have his tongue in his pocket. Nor the foot on the brake. Author of caustic shows on George W. Bush and Silvio Berlusconi, Attilio Maggiulli was particularly in the news in 2013, after having thrown his car against the gates of the Élysée. Today, the artist prefers to laugh at this “semi-improvised” episode. “I had boozed the day before with Wolinski (Charlie Hebdo cartoonist, murdered in 2015, editor’s note), tormenting myself about the melting of my subsidies. He smoked big cigars and told me laughing “but go see Holland!”. The next day, I found myself near the Élysée and, without having thought about it too much, I said to myself that I really had to go and have a closer look!”.
The artistic director of the Italian Comedy has since been convinced that the accident has united against his theater a cohort of political adversaries. “At the town hall of Paris, at the Region, at the Ministry of Culture, … They were all socialists at the time. I have become, in their eyes, persona non grata, believes Attilio Maggiulli. They gossip about me in the corridors of the 14th arrondissement town hall”. The rescue, at the beginning of November, of Tango, a gay nightclub in the Marais, completes the bitterness of the director: “The City of Paris takes over a dance hall from 1997 for 6.7 million euros rather than our theater. It's political."
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The mayor of Paris concentrates the resentment of the artistic director of the Italian Comedy. A feeling shared by the few passers-by in rue de la Gaîté caught up in the banner summarizing the recent vicissitudes of the theater and the risk of partial disappearance of its facade. "A scandal", "an incomprehensible stupidity", "a shame", he whispers to himself in front of the building, between two references to the #SaccageParis movement, which is currying the current management of the capital online. On the other side of the street, on the other hand, the long queue which stretches out in front of the Bobino theater seems to be uninterested in the torments that the Italian Comedy is going through.
Indifference does not reach Attilio Maggiulli. Not without malice, the king of Harlequins entrusts the Figaro weaving for next spring a show dedicated to Anne Hidalgo. A scene from the play, already written, will feature the current aedile ordering the ripolining of the Lascaux cave and its redecoration with works by Paul McCarthy, the contemporary artist behind the controversial half-tree, half-tree statue. anal plug, exhibited in 2014 on Place Vendôme. A facetious trickery in the purest tradition of the commedia dell'arte.
