LMarilyn Monroe’s handkerchief won’t be enough. This small square of fabric, sold by Attilio Maggiulli for 300,000 euros, last June, was to allow him to pay off his debts. Las. “That sum will have just been used to raise the mortgage that weighed on our theater; the second confinement will have been fatal for us, ”says the Neapolitan director who created this establishment, dedicated to the commedia dell’arte, in 1974.
Forced to cancel the performances of his last show because of the health crisis, the septuagenarian is now being pushed by the banks to separate from this place, death in the soul. “We have a hole in the fund of nearly 40,000 euros. The 100-seat room is ours. But the adjoining room which acts as a reception hall is rented for around 7,000 euros per quarter to a real estate company. But we are no longer able to make ends meet, ”explains the man of the theater.
On the verge of bankruptcy
Since the fall, the situation has been tense again. So much so that Attilio Maggiulli confides that he is no longer able to maintain the building. He gladly visits the place to prove it. The roof of this former police station on the rue de la Gaité in Paris is flooded. The old degreasing cells, which saw Modigliani and Picasso pass by and are now transformed into lodges, are no longer heated and threaten ruin.
In the old courtyard where Marcello Mastroianni came to take shelter from the gaze of the paparazzi when he was playing at the neighboring Montparnasse theater, the basin which served as a swimming pool in summer is in poor condition. “It’s heartbreaking, but if I want to save the place, I have to get rid of it,” says the director, pulling nervously on his cigarette when he is supposed to have quit smoking. “It undermines him,” sighs his wife, the actress Hélène Lestrade.
Old financial troubles
The stormy Attilio, trained in Turin by the great Giorgio Strehler, has been chasing money for years. In 1999, he had to go on hunger strike to get the Ministry of Finance to grant him a tax cut. “The tax authorities treated us like a commercial company whereas we have, from the beginning, an associative status”, he says. With the gradual disappearance of subsidies from the Ministry of Culture, the Île-de-France region and then the City of Paris, his theater found itself in serious financial difficulty.
“As I was fed up with begging with my friends, I followed the advice of my friend Georges Wolinski when he told me to go knock on the door of the Elysee,” he continues. The episode had caused a stir since, unable to enter the presidency, he had tried to force the passage by car. “I had a little blow in the nose,” laughs the director, a defiant look in his eyes. It was in 2013.
Who to take over?
While he has indicated his wish to hand over, the buyers do not jostle however at the gate. “We thought we were saved, before the summer, when a couple of lovers came to visit the place, telling us they wanted to buy the place while offering us to stay within the walls”, confides Claudine Durand-Simon who assists Attilio . “We didn’t hear any more about it after an expert estimated the building at more than two million euros. Then came a succession of predators, property dealers and other vultures, who gave up when they learned that the vocation of the theater could not be changed, ”adds the fantastic director.
Three other surprising proposals followed. The pornographic actor Rocco Siffredi has expressed his interest in the place. An evangelical pastor, Chriss Campion, also stood as a candidate. He wanted to set up his church here. The son of Marcel Campion, the “king” of the fairgrounds, confirms in Point to have “made a request some time ago on a possible takeover, but an agreement was not found. As a result, the project was canceled, ”he said.
The only remaining offer comes from the company “Les production de la Plume”, the company of the controversialist Dieudonné. The actor, convicted on multiple occasions for anti-Semitic and negationist remarks, has been looking for a room since 2017, when he was expelled from the theater of the Golden Hand, in the 11e borough. The lawyer for the company headed by his wife confirmed in writing that her client was willing to rent the room for an amount of 86,400 euros per year.
The idea of giving way to this “odious character”, in his own words, saddens Attilio. Especially since, as the actor notes with bitterness, the intermediary, in this sale, is Isabelle Coutant-Peyre who defended Ali Rizat Polat, close to the killers of Charlie and Hyper Cacher, sentenced to 30 years in prison for his complicity with terrorists. (Contacted, the lawyer did not respond to our interview request, at the time of this writing). “Poor Wolinski who drew all of our show posters must be turning over in his grave,” sighs the Italian.
In the absence of any other solution, it is nevertheless Dieudonné who should get his hands on this theater with its blue and gold rococo facade. His team has visited the premises three times in recent months to see if it was possible to increase the capacity of the room from 108 to 130 seats. “They harass us. Even if we are still in complete disagreement with his remarks which we condemn, our association, following the loss of all its subsidies, is forced to sell the lease of our theater ”, complains Attilio Maggiulli.He warned the Ministry of Culture of this in October, in the hope that his officials would take measures to save the Italian Comedy. His cry for help was not heard. “I regret that you are tempted to give up the lease of your theater to (face) your difficulties. The ministry (…) is not, however, in a position to prevent this sale, ”he was told in December. “They do not care that we give way to this guy,” analyzes the director.
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