Somewhere within the ramparts of the old city of Avignon, France, a close and determined crew have gathered in a small apartment. They are devising a major onslaught on the venerable theater festival, held every summer in Avignon since 1947 (and expected to draw 150,000 people this year).
But the aim of this group is true, and its objectives munificent, for its members intend to propagate their passion for the often-intimidating world of theater by giving out free tickets to all of the 450 shows that will take place between 10 July and 10 August. They will then document the shows immediately, on the Internet and across the city.
"If you want to understand us," said Manuel Aries, president of the freshly formed "Passion Theatre sur Internet" association, "generosity is one of the keywords."
Aries spoke with Wired News a few days before he was even sure that the event could take place as planned. While Aries had been promised a working space for his group by the French minister of culture, the offered location turned out to be available only from 15 July. At the last moment, the director of the festival found some rooms at a local college they could use, for a small fee. They filled the apartment with their borrowed computers, stacked up some mattresses in adjacent rooms, and brought a small fridge down from Paris.
"Generosity does not exist without the idea of sharing," Aries explains, describing the fundamental spirit he wants to establish. "The artists give us a free access to their work, trusting us to transmit our experience of their art to others. We become responsible and must, in return, share this gift with others."
Free tickets are only given to those who commit to writing a review of the show they're invited to.
Passion Theatre's method of ticket distribution has been tested before, on a smaller scale, on the mailing list the group set up a year ago, and more recently on the rec.arts.spectacles newsgroup that they established. Their notion of "review" is set loosely, and while the more mordant participants try to ponder the merits of restraint - after all, the tickets and the talk are free - all kinds of accounts are welcome.
The Avignon project is in another league altogether and "should give us a leap in notoriety equivalent to two years of our usual functioning" says Aries, who has mustered a group of 25 diehard list members who will take turns on the dozen networked computers that will produce the 5,000 giveaway invitations. The stalwarts will then gather and format the 2,500 reviews (accompanied by the 450 reactions from the show's directors) and maybe sleep, too, if they are not busy watching shows for their own enjoyment.
A critic for France Culture, a French radio station, Aries has no plans for a hegemonistic extension of his Parisian group. The group might help "explain and implant the concept," with branches set to open in other French cities, and there are some hot contacts with like-minded Canadians. But Aries, believing in the nature of the living theater, believes that localities must be preserved: He optimistically foresees a worldwide network of regional groups with infrequent but unwavering links.
