Lazare Herson-Macarel
What better place to build a theatre than a garden dedicated to youth? When, in 2009, Lazare Herson-Macarel invites his companions to build, far from Paris, a stage that will soon become the Nouveau Théâtre Populaire, it isn't to flee the capital, but to establish a place where they can guarantee for themselves “a youth lovely, heroic, and fabulous.” Borrowing from Arthur Rimbaud's A Season in Hell, Lazare Herson-Macarel chooses for his motto the perseverance to “to hail the birth of new labour, new wisdom.” Every August in Maine-et-Loire, the NTP organises a festival, which fulfills the conditions of this renewal. Members of the company trade places, become alternately actors and directors, and are thus able to stave off the lethargy that habit engenders. The spirit of Jean Vilar no doubt guided the company to Avignon, seeing as how they already live his ideal of a theatre open to everyone every day in Fontaine-Guérin. MC, April 2014
