He was appointed general director of the Théâtre de Sartrouville when he was 22; after his time alongside Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, he became co-director of the Théâtre National Populaire Villeurbanne in 1972, then of the Théâtre des Amandiers in 1982. Rooted in charisma and extreme exigence, his work in theatre and cinema left its mark. The current ways of directing have majorly gained from his clever way of working with actors, a way he painted as “animal, utterly physical, naturalistic and fully psychologic.” Actors who worked with him have much to say about the way he influenced them, from the volume of commitment he asked of them and from the great deal of physical and intellectual strength he always shared.
He directed several Troupe members; Dominique Blanc, who made her acting debuts in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, which also included Didier Sandre, or Eric Ruf and Marina Hands in Phèdre. He shared the stage with others such as Clément Hervieu-Léger, with whom he worked on several occasions. Carried by the collegial spirit that pertains to working as a troupe and by Chéreau’s sense of collective work, they devised this night as an homage to Chéreau, who died in 2013, and who used to say: “The work must be carried out in a complete state of doubt while looking for the answer: at this very stage second, why is theatre the only form to be able to express what it expresses? Why is it incomparable to any other art? Desire, passion, urges… his work was replete with a humanity this special night aims to honour.