In Avignon, “The Abolition of Privileges” continues its exceptional journey

A paradoxical story of a success that feels good, but protects against nothing: the epic of The Abolition of Privileges (adapted and directed by Hugues Duchêne from a novel by Bertrand Guillot) is the perfect example of a modest project that has managed to attract a wide audience. The reason for this enthusiasm? Its flexible form and its hard-hitting content which, under the pretext of retracing a historical sequence, strikes at the heart of contemporary concerns.

The fiction resurrects the night of August 4, 1789, during which representatives of the Third Estate, the clergy, and the nobility put an end to privileges and established universal taxation. An hour and fifteen minutes of jubilant debates disrupted by the hilarious insertion of societal themes such as feminism, patriarchy, and "wokism." "The novel describes a political upheaval that overturns an order established for four hundred years and proves that it is possible to bring about something new. Now, what night of August 4 are we dreaming of today?" asks the director, who, in his own way, takes up the torch of illustrious predecessors. Ariane Mnouchkine, Sylvain Creuzevault, and Joël Pommerat have, before him, given color to the French Revolution.

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