It is an astonishing, dissonant building, whose futuristic look, represented by its white envelope with rounded shapes, leaves no one indifferent. Tourists praise its “impressive structure” of 25,000 m², work by Zaha Hadid, winner of the Pritzker Prize, the « Nobel » architects. The inhabitants see it as a new emblem of their city. The contemporary response to an older landmark, the nearby Hassan Tower, the remains of a mosque, now disappeared, built more than 800 years ago.
Since the summer, the great theater of Rabat located on the banks of the Bouregreg, the river which separates the capital of Morocco from the neighboring commune of Salé, even appears on a new 20 dirham note. As a symbol of “the richness of socio-cultural development” of the country, according to the kingdom’s central bank. Except that its work may have been completed in 2021, the building remains closed. No spectator has yet crossed the threshold of its 1,800-seat theater, “the largest in Africa”as the Moroccan press describes it.
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An inauguration by King Mohammed VI, synonymous with official opening, is on everyone’s lips, but the arrival of the sovereign is delayed. It has been the subject of endless speculation for several years. “End of 2021, after the coronavirus pandemic”, « Courant 2022 », “In the last quarter of 2023”… Each time, the newspaper predictions fell through.
Will 2024 be the good year? “No one knows”blows a municipal source, who assures that the city’s elected officials are kept aside. When contacted, some refuse to speak while others require anonymity, a sign of character. « sensible » of the file. This « initiative royale » would, it is said, be supervised from the palace, Mohammed VI having personally chosen the project of Zaha Hadid, who died in 2016. In fact, it is the last work designed by the Anglo-Iraqi architect before her death, but which has not yet opened.
Rather invest in rooms already available
Delays and overruns accumulated in any other project, especially if it concerns cultural equipment, would certainly go unnoticed. But the grand theater in Rabat should have welcomed its first visitors in 2019 and it cost a whopping 190 million euros.
Its constantly postponed opening raises questions behind the scenes, especially since another large theater, in Casablanca, also designed by a renowned architect, the Frenchman Christian de Portzamparc, required 130 million euros and it is in the same situation: finished but still closed. Together, these buildings cost three times the amount of the budget allocated in 2024 to the Ministry of Culture.
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