a spectator tells what happened

The actor and theater actor Pierre Arditi, aged 78, felt “a little unwell” this Wednesday evening, while he was on the stage of the Edouard VII theater. Murielle, a spectator who attended the performance, tells franceinfo how it happened.

The piece “Lapin”, in duet with Muriel Robin, had just started “for 20 minutes when we see Pierre stuttering permanently.” “The stuttering lasted a minute or two. But it was intense, you could tell there was something wrong.”

The public first thinks of a “twist”

Murielle and the other spectators sayt “that it’s part of the show, that it was perhaps a role play. He stutters again and there, Muriel (Robin) takes his hand. She sees what is happening and she asks for the curtain closes.”

Three minutes after the curtain closes “We are told: excuse us, the show is over, evacuate the room.” Except that the spectators think that it is “in a sudden twist”so they sit there and start “to laugh”. But a second person asks them to evacuate. Murielle explains that no one is moving. Eventually, “a third person asks to evacuate and there we evacuate quietly, serenely with a lot of pain at having seen Pierre in this state”says Murielle. “Pierre Arditi is my whole life. Pierre Arditi and Muriel Robin, we love them”

The Samu intervened 15 minutes later, according to the spectator. “There was a doctor in the room, so I think he was taken care of very quickly.”