Thomas Jolly: “We are always sent back to where we come from”

Almost a year ago, France was buzzing with excitement at the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. As artistic director of the opening and closing ceremonies, Thomas Jolly created bold and extraordinary shows. At 43, this actor, theatre and opera director, a fan of spectacular productions such as his acclaimed version of Starmania , received an honorary Molière at the end of April.

If, in French class at school, there hadn't been a reading of Molière's The Doctor in Spite of Himself and this first sentence by Sganarelle that opens the play, which I pronounced in an extremely theatrical manner, banging on the table: "No! I'm telling you that I don't want to do anything about it, and that it's up to me to speak and be the master." I was in 6th ^grade , I didn't know the theater, it was the first time I had delivered a tirade from the repertoire. But I knew that I had to "set the tone," and the teacher had asked me to put an angry intention.

I did it and made my classmates laugh. Suddenly, it wasn't the same everyday, difficult laughter I heard in the playground, in the cafeteria, on the bus. This different kind of laughter continued as I read. In the evening, when I went back to my parents' house, I wanted to do theater. I had the feeling that it was a place where, although you were overexposed, you were protected.

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