While poetry is experiencing a resurgence of interest, is theatre also feeling these tailwinds? For several years, some specialist houses have been playing the card of porosity between these two genres, neighbors in the statistics of the SNE (see box) as well as on the shelves of many bookstores.
A pioneer in the field, the “Writings for Speech” collection was launched by L’Arche in 2017 with The new old ones, of Kae Tempestan epic poem, between rap and spoken words. “We work to break down the barriers between genres through friction with other forms, other voices and spaces, pleads Claire Stavauxdirector of L’Arche. This collection is a Trojan horse to get people to read theatre to their own surprise.”
Other hybrid collections have emerged, in 2020 at Éditions Théâtrales with “Lisières”, then in 2021 at Espaces 34 with “Hors cadre”. “We seek to free the texts from the straitjacket of the word “theater” to open them to the broader field of the poem, of poetic prose, of the story,” underlines Sabine Chevallierdirector of Espaces 34.
The text-show couple in question
For these houses, it is not only a question of showing that theatre texts are not only performed on classical stages, but also of dissociating them from the show as such. “At Éditions Théâtrales, 90% of our publications are texts that have no creative prospects. I also ask authors to remove any overly scenic references from their texts,” details the director Pierre Banos.
At Actes Sud-Papiers, the leader in the sector, we do not believe, from an economic point of view, in the separation between text and performance. “It doesn’t work, especially if the author is not known. We might sell 150 or 200 copies…” considered Claire Daviddirector of Actes Sud-Papiers, which joined the new Pôle des arts de la scène in early 2024, which also includes publications on music and dance. Present at the Avignon Festival, which takes place from June 29 to July 21, she will attend Tear, of Caroline Guiela Nguyenhas Stage Door, d’Ahmed Madanor even to Common places, of Baptiste Amannall released a few days or weeks before their performance.
The observation of a need to break down the barriers between departments is, however, shared. “We encourage booksellers to position the plays elsewhere than in their dedicated section where only theatergoers go!” reports Claire David. In bookstores, in fact, several initiatives tend to strengthen the visibility of the genre. In 2024, theater was at the heart of the Libraires de l’Est program, with an actress touring the network’s bookstores to perform texts. Organized since 2002, the Rencontres d’été Théâtre & Lecture en Normandie are growing and returning from July 20 to August 25.
Vigilance and recognition
The gamble of breaking down barriers has paid off for L’Arche. While the “Des écrits pour la parole” collection only has 27 titles, it represents 100,000 euros in turnover, compared to 300,000 euros for the theater strictly speaking, with 450 titles. “We remain a theatre publisher,” assures the director of this house which publishes in particular Bertolt Brecht et Jon Fossewinner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2023. In addition, L’Arche is redeploying this year to essays, while continuing its activity as a theatrical agency, which is in full swing.
Strengthening through diversification is the choice made by many specialist houses, particularly in the post-Covid period. “It’s an economy of great vigilance. We have reoriented production to restore turnover with essays, beautiful books,” indicates Claire David. At the Théâtrales editions, the distribution structure created in 2017, Théâdiff, is also a success, with around fifteen houses distributed including Espaces 34, Deuxième époque, Esse que, L’Œil du prince, Les Solitaires intempestifs, and La Librairie théâtrale.
Precarious balance
There is still a long way to go to recognize the work of these publishers. “We carry out a long-term work of identifying texts, discovering and supporting authors”, supports Sabine Chevallier. “Claudine Galea, the most published author, only blossomed on stage four or five years ago, that’s a very long time!” she cites as an example.
In this precarious balance, youth theatre offers a breath of hope. In addition to flagship collections, such as that of L’École des loisirs, created in 1995 by Brigitte Smadjawho died in 2023, many publishing houses devote a section of their catalogue to it. In 2019, for the first time in the history of the Montreuil Children’s Book and Press Fair, a play, Babïl of Sarah Square (éditions Théâtrales), was in the running for the Pépite fiction junior prize. Until now, no play has gone so far as to win the title. A next act to write?
Together, that’s all
While a project was to make it possible to distinguish the sales figures of the “poetry” and “theater” departments in the next annual report of the SNE, the splitting of the sub-segment is no longer on the agenda. This was “conditional on obtaining a sufficiently large and representative number of respondents in the poetry sector. Unfortunately, poetry publishers have responded little or not at all to the call”, comments the SNE. Together, theater and poetry represent 0.3% of the turnover of French publishing, according to the latest report on “Publishing figures” for 2022-2023.
