Thomas Jolly, actor, theater director, and showman extraordinaire, is worried about fish.
Its the most ambitious Olympic opening ceremony in history, and perhaps also the one with the greatest constraints.
Jolly cant rehearse in situ, or the closely guarded secrecy around the ceremonies would be blown.
WET AND WILDThomas Jolly, 42 photographed in the Seine, the site of a planned procession of boats and athletes for the Paris Olympics opening ceremony. Maison Margiela turtleneck.Grooming, Vi Sapyyapy. Fashion Editor: Max Ortega.
Most of all, hes determined not to disturb the natural habitats of the Seines aquatic life.
So there will be very little construction, he says.
Well use whats already built.
FIT FOR A KINGJolly in a 2022 production ofRichard III—part of his massive 24-hour Shakespeare tetralogy.
Only occasionally does he pause to own up to the everyday.
To be completely honest with you, Im worried about 10,000 things, he says eventually.
Luckily, as he puts it, risk is his best friend.
Above us, a school outing has assembled on the balcony.
He has a kind of aura, his longtime costume designer, Sylvette Desquest, says.
He gets everyone involved.
His stock-in-trade, she adds, is theater that is both demanding and popular.
In 2014 he staged all three of ShakespearesHenry VIplays in the 15th-century Popes Palace in Avignon.
The production included 150 characters and lasted 18 hoursfrom 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. the next day.
Everyone looked at me skeptically, he recalls.
The show cemented his reputation with the mainstream (the costumes were designed by Nicolas Ghesquiere).
(He played Richard III himself.)
H6R3,as he called this monumental production, became the subject of a documentary series on French TV.
Thats Jollys interest too.
Life can be put in parentheses.
But over 24 hours, it cant.
There were intermissionsfor meals, stretching, naps in the corridors.
You get to know your neighbor because youre sharing an adventure, Jolly says.
For Jolly, the Olympic ceremonies will be something like that.
Its a celebration of being alive, he explains, and of living together.
She and Jolly look to history for build their own staged universes.
(Its no surprise that Jolly admires fashion designers who are theatrical.
Its a safe bet that the Olympic ceremonies will follow this tradition.
The Olympics, in their founding legend, are curative, Jolly says, alluding to our political moment.
They heal the plague and they bring peace.
And the significance of the Seine?
So the Seine is a woman who resists a violent man.
Scientists are now frantically attempting to depollute the 483-mile river in the run-up to the Games.
After a few days of rain, the levels ofE.
coliare dangerously high; much of the citys plumbing system dates to the 19th century.
Linking sport, emotion, spectacle, water, and ecology really speaks to me, Estanguet says.
And Im extremely proud that Thomas Jolly has agreed to direct this ceremony.
Everything is in place for the Seine to be unpolluted, he adds confidently.
Thanks to the Games, people will be able to swim in it.
Im not in charge of that, Jolly says with a smile of relief.
Now, what Jolly really seeks to demonstrate is that there is room for everyone in Paris.
Maybe its a little chaotic, its true, but that allows everyone to find a place for themselves.
The opening ceremony will be a success, Jolly says, if everyone feels represented in it.
His parents, a nurse and a printer, allowed him to think anything was possible.
His grandmother made him costumes fit for a sultans disco.
Then he was bullied at secondary school.
I had yellow Doc Martens.
All day I was jeered at because of my yellow shoes.
I thought, Do you realize how absurd this is?
In the world of theater, he rediscovered the anything is possible freedom hed had in childhood.
I felt closer to myself than I did in life.
Jolly became the beneficiary of a democratic initiative begun in postwar France to decentralize theaters.
He became the artistic director of a theater in the West and took productions to the South.
His job with the Olympics is the first time he has spent an extended period in Paris.
Perhaps because of thisor perhaps, he thinks, because of the internethis interests have no hierarchy.
He can read an article about Plato while listening to Beyonce.
He loves it when he finds, buried in a Baroque opera, musical phrases he recognizes from Madonna.
Ordinarily, Jolly would be out at night much more often.
Given the chance of a chic occasion, he likes to wear tightly tailored suits and smart shoes.
For now, though, his life is quite austere.
It allows me to be in a world apart.
As he describes this, Jollys voice catches in his throat and his eyes fill with tears.
Its isolating, he says.
I know Im cutting myself off from my family and my friends….
But Ill catch up.
Theres one thing about Paris, Jolly reflects: Its pretty cramped.
Wherever he goes next, hed like it to be somewhere with a view.
I need the sky.
Produced by AL Studio; Set Design: Mary Howard; Julien Condemine and Anouk Bonaldi.
