Silvia Monfort - On The Road

On The Road

During the 1960s, Silvia Monfort was passionate about cultural decentralization and so set out on the road with Jean Danet and her Tréteaux de France. Each evening, they played under a big top in a different town. She took an active part in this experiment, seeing to it that new and contemporary plays were staged alternately with the classical repertoire. She deepened her knowledge of popular theatre and of her audience and thus acquired a mastery of travelling performances that was subsequently very useful to her. On 23 June 1965, Silvia wrote to Pierre Gruneberg: "I've convinced Danet to schedule for September a series of performances of the Prostitute and of Suddenly, Last Summer under a big top around Paris (in this way the inconvenient returning directors will be able to come see it there if they need to). Oh, I would have done what I could."

Ceaselessly taking part in theatrical performances, she wrote at least once, sometimes several times a day to her companion Pierre Gruneberg. Scribbled on tablecloth corners, on the back of theatre programs or on hotel stationery, reactions, words of love and anecdotes were strung together.

In the collection of this correspondence, Letters to Pierre, Danielle Netter, assistant director, adds: "The Tréteaux de France was an extraordinary theatrical tool that gave us the occasion to present Sophocles and other dramatic poets before the tenants of the HLM, and one evening to hear a spectator declare at the end of Electra to Silvia, It's as beautiful as a Western!, which filled our tragedienne with joy."