Téat Plein Air, Open-air theatre in Saint-Paul, France.
Téat Plein Air is an open-air theatre in Saint-Paul featuring two distinct performance spaces for different productions. The main stage accommodates roughly 1000 audience members while the secondary Badamier stage holds approximately 250 seats.
The venue opened in 1970 under the design of architect Jean Tribel and was created to serve as a cultural gathering place. The site later received official recognition as a registered historic monument.
The name is not a tree reference: TÉAT is the local Creole form of "théâtre", and the venue is also called Théâtre en plein air de Saint-Gilles. Its 1970 opening was marked by the first Festival de l'océan Indien, where folk groups from the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Réunion performed and the Comédie-Française played Racine's Britannicus.
The theatre sits on a ridge above Saint-Gilles-les-Bains, reached by walking up through vegetation to the ticket office; it is barely visible from the entrance. The site is in a dry, low-rainfall tourist zone relatively close to Saint-Denis. The garden was completely reworked between 2020 and 2022 to restore its original savanna character.
The theatre was inaugurated on 5 September 1970 with the first Festival of the Indian Ocean. At the gala, 800 spectators heard the 29 musicians of the Garde Républicaine orchestra play the Mauritian, Malagasy and French anthems, then the Comédie-Française performed Racine's Britannicus.
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