How young writer captured cultural heart of Paris by staging English theatre

Sitting in a bar one evening a couple of years ago in Montmartre, the Paris district that has been a magnet for artists and writers for centuries, the novelist Albert Alla lamented the lack of English-language theatre in Paris.

Not the all-singing, all-dancing productions of the established Chatelet theatre, or the weighty offerings from Paris-based Peter Brook, now 90, whom the Guardian recently described as a “human earthquake of modern theatre”, but something more fun, more fringe.

As the drink flowed, Alla, 31, decided to do something about it. He declared that he would stage a one-night theatre competition in the living room of his nearby apartment and told his friends to spread the word.

Within days, it was clear that the idea had outgrown not just the living room, but Alla’s entire Paris home. Thus was the Montmarte Dionysia theatre festival created.

On Monday, Alla and his writer friend, Chris Newens, will oversee the festival’s fourth biannual competition, featuring eight new plays and running until Friday.