French farce as theatre boss refuses to leave her job
UncategorizedJulie Brochen was fired in June as director of the Théatre national de Strasbourg by order of the ministry of culture (that’s how they do these things in France). Her replacement was named as Stanislas Nordey.
Julie was given the summer to clear her desk. Last month, however, the abrasive culture minister Aurélie Filippetti lost her job in a government reshuffle. So Julie is refusing to leave. The theatre has two directors and no-one knows whose orders to follow. Happy days.
Well the situation is even more “rocambolesque”. The contract between Ms. Brochen and the ministry of culture expired in 2013. The ministry of culture did not want to renew it, but it was forced into accepting that Ms. Brochen would stay one more year. But in this case, 1-year contracts do not exist, only 3-year contracts. So the minister renewed the contract for 3 more years, under the condition that Ms. Brochen would resign after only 1 year. Of course this was not a contractual clause; rather a moral gentleman’s (or -woman’)s agrement. Of course, Ms. Brochen claims that only the written contract applies, and so she intends to stay until 2016!