You may know Monaco as a tiny country between France and Italy that is once a year home to the famous Formula One car race. This is held in the narrow streets where fast racing cars compete against each other in sharp turns and sudden changes of direction.
You may also know that the film star Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier in 1956 and gave up acting to bring up her family before sadly dying in a car accident in 1982. What you may not know is that she continued to support theatre and established a world festival of amateur theatre. This has been held every 4 years in the principality. I’ve been lucky enough to have been coming since the 90s.
I have the honour this week to be representing Great Britain at the 18th congress of the international amateur theatre association known as the Monaco Mondial, hence the little flag.
There are companies here from all over the world including Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand and the Philippines, 19 in all. The British entry called a A Man of No Importance a funny and clever story about a humble caretaker who dreams of being James Bond and is then suddenly sucked into a world of intrigue and struggle with the villain in MI5 It was all movement and action without dialogue – perfect for an international audience.
At the congress I put myself forward to join the council but it wasn’t to be so this time around although the final vote was close. Then I looked at those who succeeded They were all much younger than me and I realised it’s time to go with a younger set of people It’s important to recognise when it’s time to move on, you shouldn’t fight against it but accept with good grace as it’s good for democracy and the organisation.
In 4 years time it will come round again and I wonder what new challenges there will be But I don’t doubt that the Monaco Mondial will be here again bringing some many theatre people together from around the world.
