Far-right mayor cancels play about Calais refugee camp, sparking censorship row

In the Anglo-French playwright Alexis Michalik’s play Passeport, a young man has been beaten and left for dead in the notorious Calais refugee camp known as “the Jungle”.

When he wakes up, he has no idea who he is – and his only possession is a blue Eritrean passport containing the name Issa. With two others from the camp he decides to leave, not to take the perilous Channel crossing to the UK but instead to try to integrate into France and obtain the necessary papers to remain.

Michalik says the play addresses a serious contemporary issue through a human story of exile, endurance and identity. It has been performed throughout France since its 2024 Paris premiere but one town in which it will not be seen is Castres in south-east France, where the recently elected far-right mayor, Florian Azéma, has cancelled a date on its 2027 national tour. He dismissed Passeport as political propaganda that had no place on the town’s cultural programme.

His decision has caused outrage and protests as well as accusations that the far-right National Rally (RN) is engaging in cultural censorship. Michalik said the cancellation served as a warning of what could happen if the RN, which is leading in the polls for next year’s presidential election, were running the country.

“Creative freedom and the independence of cultural programming are neither rightwing nor leftwing. They are one of the cornerstones of our democratic way of life,” he said. “People have the right to like the play or not, but everyone should be able to see it.”

Speaking to the Guardian, he added: “They [the RN] have been saying all along: ‘we respect the independence of culture and free speech, blah, blah, blah,’ then even on a local level they show they do not.

“So we can imagine what would happen on a wider scale. It’s quite similar actually to what’s happening in the US. It’s a very Trumpish approach.”

The cancellation also prompted questions in the French parliament, where the culture minister, Catherine Pégard, said: “I would like to remind everyone that freedom of artistic expression is protected and enshrined at national level by the law.”

Passeport had been due to play at Castres theatre, run by the town hall, for one performance in February 2027 but just hours before the season’s programme was announced, it disappeared. “One minute it was in the programme, the next it had gone,” Michalik said.

“Normally the authority finds an excuse, like it doesn’t have the budget. In this case, the mayor was clear: it was a political and ideological decision.

“This was a turning point. An elected official should not be doing this. A theatre or any place that has a cultural programme should be free, just as the press and speech should be free,” he said.

“In France, the state supports the arts and we are very proud of this and attached to our cultural independence. This has touched a nerve.”

Azéma tried to justify the cancellation by saying the play featured “the promotion of illegal immigrants and a rather strange depiction of the police”. He told Agence France-Presse: “Obviously this does not correspond to what I stood for during the election campaign.”

Michalik, 43, whose mother is British, is one of France’s most successful contemporary authors and playwrights. He has won five Molière awards, the highest French theatre award and the equivalent of the British Olivier awards.

“It really saddens me,” he said of his play’s cancellation. “I grew up in a part of north Paris that is multicultural and that is my vision of France. I know that different populations can live together and it works.”

Michalik said he wanted to tell the story “from the migrant’s perspective and not the usual story we hear in the media”.

He added: “I’ve met a lot of migrants and I’m very touched by their incredible journeys and their efforts in just trying to find a way to fit in, find a job and live a life here in France or anywhere.”

He said he was saddened more than worried by the increasing hostility towards migrants on France and elsewhere. “Throughout history there have been migrants and through history it’s always the same people who label them as the problem and think that if they didn’t exist it would solve everything.

“But I also know there is no way any government can simply stop refugees coming, stop immigration and society is bound to evolve with it.”