« C“It was frustrating to have to get into your car with the curtains barely down and go home,” notes Emmanuel Alzuri, mayor of Bidart. The 1930s cinema, redeveloped into a theater, was unveiled to the Bidartars, after major work, on Saturday morning. The end-of-construction visit gave a certain foretaste to the future spectators, who came in large numbers, who were able to discover the immense “conviviality room”, with a panoramic view of the Rhune and the Jaizkibel. Located behind the pediment, 9 chemin des scolaire in Bidart, the theater will complete the Bidart cultural offering with Toki-Toki.
“A show is good, but being able to chat afterwards, meet the artists, have a place to live, is even better,” underlines Jérôme Potiès, head of the culture center at the municipality. The former theater garden has thus become a large reception hall, complete with its bar, which will be able to welcome the public before and after the performances. A south-facing terrace completes the living space. The inhabitants of Bidart were also able to discover the tiered performance hall and its 160 seats.
The Bidart theater hall changed direction during the work, the stage took the place of the stands.
Émilie Drouinaud / SO
Émilie Drouinaud / SO
The bar in the reception room will be run by local associations, to whom the profits will go.
Free price
The Beheria Theater needed expansion. During the work, the diagnosis revealed a ruined frame. The simple extension work ultimately became a huge renovation project costing 2.5 million euros. Of the theater, only four walls remained. Today, despite the tarpaulins and plasterboards still exposed, we can already imagine the companies treading the boards and the spectators toasting together after a comedy.
5, 10 or 15 euros? Visitors will be able to contribute up to their capacity on these three rates. “We did not want to impose fixed prices to adapt to all budgets on the basis of trust,” assures Jérôme Potiès. It is the public service of live performance. » With an online ticketing system or at the on-site ticket office, spectators will be able to secure a place.
Emilie Drouinaud / SO
The garden has been transformed into a reception room and terrace.
With Toki-Toki, a cultural nerve center
On February 18, a new public meeting is planned for the very last details, in the presence of architects and decorators. But above all to unveil the long-awaited artistic program. Jérôme Potiès has already revealed some clues, since we already know that the baptism of Beheria will start with wonder, humor and fantasy, on March 15 and 16.
Émilie Drouinaud / SO
Many Bidartars came to discover their future theater. The next meeting is on February 18.
The head of the cultural center is planning an “artistic fireworks display” for the first month of opening. On March 21, the artist Thomas Croisière, columnist on France Inter, will take the stage of the municipal theater with a comedy show, followed by Bidart en rêve, the traditional magic festival, which will appear first April weekend. “We have a few surprises in store for February,” announces Jérôme Potiès mischievously.
For the fifth year of the Toki-Toki media library, the opening of the new theater will create a real cultural nerve center in Bidart. The programming of the two places will be carried out in harmony, in order to offer a coherent cultural offer.
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