The executive director of the closing ceremony at the Olympic Games has admitted he had to revise the script “for the umpteenth time” after a backlash against the opening event on the Seine.
Thierry Reboul reiterated his insistence that there had been no attempt to parody the Last Supper in the first spectacle but that it had referenced a 17th-century Dutch painting of the Greek Olympian gods.
He conceded, however, that the angry response to the ceremony, including death threats targeted at Reboul, the executive director of both ceremonies, and the artistic director, Thomas Jolly, had made him more careful about potential misinterpretations of Sunday’s ceremony at the Stade de France.
Asked about death threats, Reboul said he tried not to talk about it, saying: “You have to live with it and file a complaint, show that you won’t let yourself be pushed around or intimidated,” he said. “But they forced us to have to reread the entire show for the umpteenth time to be sure that there is no possible misinterpretation, that we are not made to say what we do not want to say.”
The Paris 2024 organising committee initially apologised to Catholics and other Christian groups over a scene in the opening event that depicted drag queens, a transgender model and a semi-naked singer sitting in a fruit bowl.
French bishops had regretted the “excesses and provocation” of the tableau, which they said amounted to “a mockery of Christianity” while Donald Trump described it as a “disgrace”.
It was only later that Jolly clarified the inspiration. “I think it was pretty clear. There’s Dionysus who arrives at the table … why is he there? Because he’s the god of feasting, of wine, and the father of Sequana, the goddess of the River Seine,” he said.
Rumours have swirled about who will perform at the closing ceremony since the stunning performances by Céline Dion and Lady Gaga two weeks ago. A stunt segment by Tom Cruise is expected while appearances by Taylor Swift, who is on tour in Europe, or Beyoncé have been mooted.
Reboul admitted that the section in the closing ceremony given over to introducing the next Games in Los Angeles in 2028 had been extended beyond the normal timeframe.
He said: “It’s usually a 12-minute sequence to launch future Games, this one will be a little longer. Los Angeles prepared it entirely, over there. But we’re co-producing it with them.”
Reboul, who has been overseeing rehearsals at the Stade de France between 1am and 5am to avoid clashing with the athletics events at the national stadium, said he had been delighted by the “pride, love, passion” expressed from many quarters about the opening ceremony.
He said: “We can dare to say that we’re proud to be French. Many people admit that they had a very defeatist approach to these Games, lots of people thought that the whole world was going to make fun of us on the evening of the ceremony. And it’s an overflowing love.”
Speaking to Le Parisien, Reboul did not offer any clues as to the script of the closing show except to say that it would offer a “moment of tolerance, sharing and communion, without a bad pun”.
“But, here, we are in a stadium,” he said. “It is very much Thomas’s universe, which is a bit like a theatre … it will be magnificent. But what we did on the Seine, we can only do it once.
“If all goes well, we will have a blast. But I do not know of any edition of the Olympic Games where the closing ceremony changed the perception of the opening ceremony. It is this one that triggers the entire perception of the Games.”
