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The Paris Fringe theatre festival returns with its fourth programme in June. But this year, as a result of the coronavirus lockdown, it will all be streamed online and for free.
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The curtain will still rise on the 20 performances of Paris Fringe next month after it devised an innovative way to overcome the lockdown in France: it has moved its performances online.
This means it now has the potential for a global audience for the festival when it starts on Saturday June 6. “People dont have to come to a theatre in Paris this year, they can watch us from any country in the world,” says programme director Anton Bonnici.
It will take place over all four weekends in June, with performances starting each Saturday and Sunday on their website at 2.30pm Paris time and running into the evening.
Paris Fringe was established in 2016 and has enjoyed three successful previous outings. It is now run by Bonnici and a team of volunteers.
“We had already started planning this years festival, we were working with the same venue wed used last time in 2018 and had launched the application process for companies, when the coronavirus crisis hit,” explains Bonnici, speaking with FRANCE 24.
Many major international theatre festivals have been forced to cancel as a result of the pandemic, including Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Avignon Theatre Festival.
“We had the choice to postpone it, cancel it or put it online, but even postponing was tricky. So we decided to try a new thing and make the whole thing virtual.”
Bonnici contacted all of the theatre companies who had already applied and asked whether they would be interested in being involved in this innovative concept. Twenty companies soon replied to say they were up for the challenge.
'See it or miss it'
The productions involved in the 2020 festival come from Australia, Brazil, Albania, Canada, India, Italy, Belgium, the UK, USA and France itself.
There will be children shows, family shows, grown-up shows… There will beRead More – Source
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