France’s Theatre du Soleil Loses Funding; Malcolm McDowell’s L.A. Stage Debut Set

It’s ironic that almost on the eve of the start of the Los Angeles Festival, word has reached us that France’s Theatre du Soleil, one of the brightest companies to illuminate our 1984 Olympic Arts Festival with its sunlit, sweeping productions of Shakespeare, is feeling a serious financial pinch--American-style.

The bottom has fallen out of state subsidies for the arts in France with a government newly dedicated to privatisation. Companies like the Soleil, heavily dependent on the public trough (an especially liberal one under the previous administration and previous minister of culture, Jack Lang), are hard put to undertake their carefully researched, months-in-the-preparation pieces.

Artistic director Ariane Mnouchkine sent an eloquent letter to the theater’s friends in June outlining the difficulty, her theater’s options and the course chosen.

“They tell us we have four possible solutions,” she wrote. “One: to call on the private sector, which means a ratification of the order of the day, touted by a government seeking to absolve the state of its cultural responsibilities and wishing to see theater as a marketable commodity. Two: to considerably increase the cost of tickets--which means making our theater difficult to afford by many, and tantamount to repudiating what we perceive as our obligation (to provide affordable theater). Three: to significantly reduce our artistic goals, which means fewer rehearsals, fewer actors, less research--in short, a rejection of who we are. Four: to lay off actors, which means forgetting about being a company and, sooner or later, disappearing altogether. . . . “

Mnouchkine’s solution--and request: a strictly voluntary inflation of the ticket price by patrons who can afford to pay more. Specially named patron-tickets ( billets-mecenes ) will sell for 250, 500 or 1,000 francs instead of the usual 120 (about $19 at the current exchange-rate range of a bit more than 6 francs to the dollar).

“In exchange,” she goes on, “we promise no buttons, no gala evenings, no little gifts, no minor privileges--nothing other than the opportunity of being the supportive audience of a free theater that refuses to give up anything.”

So, after six months of self-imposed inactivity (for all the economic reasons mentioned), Le Theatre du Soleil is at work on “The Indiad, or the India of Their Dreams” by Helene Cixous, a theatrical history of India 1937-48, covering roughly the same period and some of the same concerns as “Jewel in the Crown.”

(Cixous wrote the script for the Soleil’s previous work, a two-part, nine-hour “Terrible but Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia,” in which Georges Bigot played Sihanouk.)

We wish Le Soleil well, though painful experience has shown that it usually takes more than reliance on the kindness of strangers for survival. A lot more coaxing in a lot more places may have to happen yet, but Mnouchkine is right not to let her government off the hook. The arts are the soul of a country.

Anyone wishing to help or keep in touch with or buy tickets for Le Theatre du Soleil may write to Cartoucherie, 75012 Paris, France.

O LUCKY TAPER: Malcolm McDowell, the star of “Clockwork Orange,” “O Lucky Man” and “Time After Time,” is joining Swoosie Kurtz and “Hunting Cockroaches” at the Mark Taper Forum, Nov. 12-Dec. 13.

It’s the first time McDowell, who paid his theatrical dues in British rep and spent two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company, will set foot on a Los Angeles stage.

Did it take much persuasion?

“Not at all,” said “Cockroaches” director Arthur Penn. “Just a phone call to Rome (where McDowell is currently making the film “Buy & Cell”). We met when I was working with Mary Steenburgen (Mrs. McDowell). We’ve been wanting to work together for some time. It so happens his schedule allowed it.”

Rehearsals start Sept. 29.

COMINGS AND GOINGS: We’ve heard of movers and shakers, but “Bouncers” and “Shakers”?

Director Ron Link, himself a bit of a mover and shaker, has optioned a female counterpart to “Bouncers” from the same author, John Godber. “Shakers,” as it’s called, may go into rehearsal, probably at the Tiffany (where Link also staged “Bouncers”), “at the top of October,” Link says, after he opens “Bouncers” at New York’s Minetta Lane Theatre Sept. 17.

“They’re similar in writing style,” Link said, “but where ‘Bouncers’ is hard and square, ‘Shakers’ is circular and softer. The women who work in this bar are recognizable through the girls the bouncers portrayed (in “Bouncers”).”

That’s not all Link is up to. He’s also optioned two Australian plays: Michael Gow’s “Away” and David Williamson’s “Emerald City,” about the Australian film industry.

“It’s about the rivalry between Sidney and Melbourne, like San Francisco and L.A., or New York and L.A.,” he said. “Basically, it’s about greed and incompetence.”

And we’re all familiar with that.

Something should happen with both plays soon because, says Link, “I don’t like to tie up plays I’m not going to do.”

THE RUMOR MILL: They’re having a hard time casting “Coastal Disturbances” at the Ahmanson and if it can’t be done right, it may not be done at all. The reality is that the Tina Howe play, which began Off Broadway, may be just too small in scale for the house, which in turn could be keeping actors from saying “yes.” . . .

Watch for the national company of “Nunsense,” a musical spoof of the cloistered life enjoying a decent run at Off Broadway’s Douglas Fairbanks Theatre, to come to the Henry Fonda after the first of the year. The word from Nederlander VP Stan Seiden is that “it’s extremely possible. . . . “

PIECES AND BITS: The San Diego Old Globe is having a special benefit performance of its “Comedy of Errors” Sept. 14. Tickets are $35 (including a post-performance reception with the cast) and $25. All proceeds will go to the San Diego AIDS Assistance Fund and San Diego Center for Social Services; (619) 239-2255.