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🇫🇷 France /Conflict & Security

Nice Attack Reading Canceled After Victims' Request

From Le Figaro · () French

Translated from French, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News From a news agency Outcome reported
  • A planned reading in Nice about the July 14, 2016, attack was canceled at the request of victims.
  • The reading, based on victims' testimonies during the trial of the attackers' accomplices, was intended to mark the 10th anniversary of the tragedy.
  • Organizers and the playwright expressed regret over the cancellation, citing the difficulty of confronting pain and the erosion of free expression.

A planned theatrical reading in Nice, intended to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the July 14, 2016, terrorist attack, has been canceled following objections from victims. The event, titled 'En attendant le futur' (Waiting for the Future), was set to feature a text by lawyer Me Olivia Chalus, drawing on her notes from the trial of the attack's accomplices.

The memory of the victims belongs to them before belonging to the public.

— Life for Nice associationStating their reason for requesting the cancellation of the reading.

The reading aimed to give voice to the victims' experiences of the horrific night and their struggles with the compensation and judicial processes. However, the association Life for Nice formally requested the cancellation, asserting that "the memory of the victims belongs to them before belonging to the public." Attempts at reconciliation between the victims' representatives, the playwright, and the National Theatre of Nice (TNN) failed.

The difficulty of facing pain ultimately took precedence over the project itself.

— National Theatre of Nice and Me Olivia ChalusExplaining the reasons for the cancellation in a joint statement.

The TNN and Me Chalus jointly announced the cancellation, stating that "the difficulty of facing pain ultimately took precedence over the project itself." They expressed regret over "the progressive erosion of freedom of expression when the risk of offense ends up making any representation of reality impossible." The statement also invoked the nature of tragedy, suggesting it is a space for conflicting truths that do not seek to reconcile or assign blame but to confront what tears us apart.

the progressive erosion of freedom of expression when the risk of offense ends up making any representation of reality impossible.

— National Theatre of Nice and Me Olivia ChalusExpressing regret over the circumstances leading to the cancellation.

Despite this cancellation, another play on the same subject, 'Prom 14' by Thierry Vimal, is still scheduled to be performed. Vimal, who lost his 12-year-old daughter in the attack, adapted poetic chronicles he wrote during the trial for the stage. This indicates that while some victims sought to withdraw their experiences from public representation, others are channeling their grief and memory into artistic expression.

Tragedy is precisely the place where contradictory truths meet without being able to reconcile. It does not seek to appease conflicts or distribute good and bad roles, it simply tries to look in the face what tears us apart.

— National Theatre of NiceRecalling the definition of tragedy in the context of the canceled performance.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Le Figaro in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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