The director of the Avignon Festival shows his solidarity with Alexis Michalik after RN censorship

The director of the Avignon festival, Tiago Rodrigues, expressed the “solidarity” of this event with the director Alexis Michalik, whose play Passport was canceled by the new RN mayor of Castres. “My responsibility is to defend the mission and values ​​of the Avignon festival. If we think about the founding of the festival and its progressive, republican, democratic values, I think it is the responsibility of any director of the Avignon festival to do so in complete freedom and by refusing work with the extreme right.declared Tiago Rodrigues on France Inter.

He recalled that he had already stated in the past that he “would not (work) with an elected RN, mayor of Avignon”. The director of the festival, whose next edition starts on July 4, insisted on “the need for this space of freedom of creation, of freedom of expression (…) which is also a space of solidarity, for example with artists like Alexis Michalik”.

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Last week, Alexis Michalik, author and director of Passporta story of the journey of exiles, had denounced the announcement made to him by the town hall of Castres, which passed into the hands of the RN in March, to deprogram his play, which was initially to be performed there in February 2027.

The mayor of the city, Florian Azéma, told AFP that this piece, if “it’s the promotion of illegal immigrants and (…) quite particular treatment from the police, obviously”did not match “to what he had defended during the campaign”. In a press release, the elected official also said he was the victim of a “certain pseudo-cultural environment, and above all very politicized” who screams “censorship against a town hall managed by elected officials who do not please them”.