total-news-1024x279-1__1_-removebg-preview.png

SELECT LANGUAGE BELOW

Meet the French Theater Director Behind the Olympics’ Drag Queens, Same-Sex Foreplay, Queer Last Supper Opening Ceremony

The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris kicked off on Friday with an opening ceremony that stunned and disgusted many, featuring drag queens frolicking in the street, lewd same-sex foreplay and a genderqueer re-enactment of “The Last Supper.”

There was also a bearded “woman” crawling around on all fours in a provocative blue bustier.

Who was responsible for this atrocity taking place in the art world? Enter Thomas Joly, a theater and opera director who was little known outside France until Friday’s broadcast (seen by more than a billion people worldwide) made him a global curiosity.

In an interview before the broadcast on Friday, openly gay Thomas Joly suggested he doesn’t intend for the opening ceremony to be a pride parade, but he stressed the importance of inclusion and representation.

“How do you write a show where everyone feels, at some point, part of this bigger thing, this bigger ‘we?'” he said. “It’s ambitious and complicated at the same time, because you have to broaden your image, your horizons, include everyone, understand everyone so that no one feels left out.”

Despite being a family-friendly event, Olympic organizers did not pre-announce the sheer number of drag queens and gender-free performers that would be appearing, nor did they mention the ceremony’s strangely sexualized atmosphere, which included performers engaging in simulated sexual acts.

They gave no hint at all about the parody of “The Last Supper,” which sparked immediate backlash among Christians, many of whom pointed out that Jolie would never have had the guts to mock Islam in the same way.

In the live performance, Jesus Christ is played by an obese woman in a plunging dress, and the disciples are mostly played by drag queens in brightly colored wigs.

Jolie, 42, has been hailed as a French theatrical genius who infuses classic works with postmodernism and avant-garde provocation, and has directed at some of France’s most prestigious theatres, including the Paris Opera and the Avignon Festival.

It’s clear that his eccentric interests influenced his Olympic choices.

Friday’s show also featured what appeared to be a male performer with one testicle protruding from women’s underwear.

One actress played the decapitated Marie Antoinette, singing the French Revolutionary anthem “Cha’ Illa” with the head.

Follow David Ng on Twitter HelloHave a tip? Let us know at [email protected].

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Telegram
WhatsApp