Thomas Jolly and Theatre

Given recent conversations about the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, I wanted to learn more about director Thomas Jolly. In 2022, Jolly left a regional theatre artistic director position in Angers to focus on the Olympics ceremonies.   

Director Thomas Jolly (b. 1982), grew up in La-Rue-Saint-Pierre, a small town outside of Rouen. He made a big splash with a 2006 production of Marivaux’s Arlequin poli par l’amour (Harlequin Refined by Love) that toured for several years. Jolly also has a reputation for directing large-scale productions, notably a durational performance (18 hours) of Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays and a recent revival of the Canadian rock opera Starmania. He often talks about being bullied in school as a child, and creating theatrical performances at home, supported by his family.   

There are lots of great interviews with Jolly in French. Here is one in an English translation, in which he discusses his interest in spectacle and de-hierarchization of culture: https://www.exhibition-magazine.com/articles/thomas-jolly-and-claire-bonnot A notable quote: “I think there’s refusal of the spectacular today in our discipline so I am interested in re-theatricalising theatre.”

In another interview [Eric Schol and Letizia Dannery, “Thomas Jolly Je fais du théâtre pour refédérer,” L’Express 19 October 2023, p. 206], Jolly expands on his practice as a director and

“There is a challenge of writing for the stage, with the desire to create a spectacle that will enchant the eyes, the ears, the heart, the soul and the spirit; it must touch those five areas. I love big works, epics, because I have within myself a ravenous appetite for narrative, for fable, and I also want to push the walls of what a system (public theatre in my own work) is capable of containing.”

He goes on to discuss his interest in building community through the shared experience of theatre:

“The theatre is more than 2,500 years old and it is still here, in spite of all the revolutions, whether artistic or technological, that have passed over it. When the curtain goes up, there is a general raising of consciousness that we are all living in the same place, at the same time. In the same room, the same city, the same country, or the same continent. The ephemeral community of a theatre is the start of a solution for beginning to create humanity, which also remains valid for a stranger encountered on the street. I make theatre to reunite, to rediscover a community detached from another during a period when there is an expansion of each individual’s singularity. How can we balance the individual and the collective in order to create humanity?”

I really enjoyed this Radio France interview (in French), especially the end when they get to rapid-fire questions. Asked, “Molière or Shakespeare?” Jolly chooses Shakespeare without hesitation. But he seems much more conflicted about choosing Mylène Farmer over Beyoncé. Earlier segments focus on Starmania (which had sold 700,000 tickets at the time of the interview) and planning for the Olympics: https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/l-interview-de-9h20/l-itw-de-9h20-du-mardi-24-octobre-2023-5343945