Lliure cancels Jan Fabre’s ‘Mount Olympus’ over abuse allegations

Barcelona’s Lliure theatre has cancelled one of its big shows of the season: ‘Mount Olympus’ by Belgian Jan Fabre, who last year was accused of sexual harassment. On Tuesday, the ‘No és cultura’ platform announced a protest on June 15 to coincide with the opening of the show. The goal was to “amplify” the allegations against Fabre, who was accused of an abuse of power, lack of professionalism,sexual harassment and sexist behaviour by a score of employees of the Troubleyn company. The show’s cancellation was approved by the theatre’s board at the request of new director, Juan Carlos Martel Bayod.

The Lliure said in a statement that it would return the money for all the tickets purchased to see the show. Yet, ’No és cultura’ in its announcement said the protest would go ahead even if the show was cancelled, as it considers the allegations against Fabre to be “very serious”, and it regretted that the alleged victims of the abuse have not been afforded the same protection and presumption of innocence that is “only reserved for the person accused.”

Fabre’s work, ‘The Generosity of Dorca’, was shown at the Temporada Alta festival in November, two months after the allegations surfaced. At the time, the festival director, Salvador Sunyer, said until a Belgian prosecutor began an investigation into Fabre they would presume he was innocent.