Shortly before the health crisis of 2020, Robert Plagnol began rehearsals for the revival of Don't Go There (La Femme de ma vie) in Paris. As theatres were closing, he decided to perform Payne's monologue live on the internet, and very soon word of mouth made this proposal a success, with the press raving about the initiative.

Encouraged by this, he created the directautheatre.com platform and welcomed proposals from artists wishing to contribute to this new theatrical form which included post-performance debate with the audience..