“How to do the Vendée Globe”: Eric Ruf, who will leave the Comédie-Française at the beginning of August at the end of his mandate as general administrator, is directing “Le Soulier de satin”, which he sees as a “theater festival “by seven o'clock.
Questioned by AFP about his assessment, he proclaims his faith in the future of theater, “a place where we sit together in the same direction of gaze, where we turn off our cell phones, where we are not obliged to comment immediately”.
Rarely performed since its birth in 1943, “Le Soulier de satin”, performed from Saturday until April 13, is the story of an absolute and impossible love in the Spanish Renaissance. This long play, reduced by a “small third”, should not impress, the theater of its author, Paul Claudel, being “funny” and “truculent”, assures Eric Ruf.
QUESTION: What assessment do you draw from your 11 years as an administrator at “Français”?
ANSWER: “Time will tell… I tried to make sure to embrace as intelligently as possible the times that the Comédie-française is going through. It is capable of change and is supposed to present all theaters which are being done, and I believe I have succeeded in doing that.
I was also passionate about teaching, to ensure that all audiences could come, to diversify the rooms, the troupe.
We can also be proud of the way in which the house reacted during the Covid period, in particular with the installation of a web TV.”
Q: And the financial situation?
A: “Our own resources – ticketing, tours, audiovisual and sponsorship – we have managed to develop them sufficiently so that the lack of subsidies will not be glaring for the years to come (the State subsidy is 25.5 million in 2025, that of 2024 was cut by 5 million euros, editor's note).
We are in a world where return on investment is the key word and, when you run a theater, return on investment is the smile of a child or a personality that grows after several shows. Impossible to put in a graph.
Politicians need to say 'yes, it serves culture'. More and more, some are saying +what’s the point?+. That worries me. Theater is a work of civilization, it is not just a social work.”
Q: What future do you see for theater?
A: “I am convinced that the theaters will fill up more and more, because having a place where we sit together in the same direction of gaze, where we turn off our cell phones, where we are not obliged to comment immediately, where we potentially accept being bored without being able to get up, ultimately, it's out of the norm compared to all of our practices And since it's out of the norm, it's caviar!
Q: Why stage the epic that is “The Satin Shoe”?
A: “We proposed it during the health crisis in 2021, in a +table theater+ version (read by the actors around a table and broadcast by web TV, editor’s note). On this occasion, I I verified that the fact of having practically no decorations did justice to this writing.
I had also observed that those who had never worked with Claudel had an a priori that his theater was similar to great, somewhat incomprehensible lyric poems.”
Q: But, according to you, Claudel is anything but that…
A: “His theater is funny, teeming. Claudel's models are Shakespeare and the Spanish Golden Age, picaresque books, great stories. He alternates large political scenes, clown scenes, and others to high emotional intensity.
To play, it's joyful, colorful. Profuse. Like a theater festival.
The young actors, after working for a week, told me +what extraordinary material!+
What I like is that the actors commit to a long day and so do the spectators. It's like doing the Vendée Globe, it's also crazy. It's like an apnea, totally shared between the stage and the room.”
Q: Is this a way for you to say goodbye?
A: “Yes and to have the pleasure of working again with the troupe and as many people as possible, to have a peak of intensity with them.”
