Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, Department of French and Italian, and L’Avant-Scène will present the 15th edition of Seuls en Scène French Theater Festival, which will take place from September 18 to 26 at venues across the University’s campus and downtown Princeton. Most events will be in French, some with English supertitles or subtitles. All events are free and open to the public, however tickets are required for performances.
Seuls en Scène ushers in the 26th season of L’Avant-Scène, a French theater troupe of Princeton students. It also celebrates professional theatrical achievements from the past year: many of the invited artists to Seuls en Scène are prominent contributors to contemporary theater in France. The festival is organized by Florent Masse, Professor of the Practice in the Department of French and Italian and artistic director of L’Avant-Scène, and presented in collaboration with the Festival d’Avignon and the Comédie-Française
“Bienvenue to a new edition of Seuls en Scène,” said Masse. “This year we’ll continue our new collaboration with Festival d’Avignon, bringing to Princeton a recent production of the festival. It’s been exhilarating to direct and curate Seuls en Scène since its inception in 2012. I am thrilled to bring the fifteenth edition of the festival and already look forward to the fifteenth anniversary of Seuls en Scène next year in 2027! More than ever we need the arts and international theater makers to uplift students and local audiences.”
This year’s festival kicks off on September 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. with Barbara (par Barbara) by Marie-Sophie Ferdane and Emmanuel Noblet. This musical performance is conceived as a contemporary radio broadcast, blending interviews, archival material, and previously unseen love letters from the well-know French singer Barbara (1930-1997). Set in a studio space with all-white floor and walls, there is no physical presence of the incomparable singer—yet hers is the only voice you will hear. Every word spoken is authentic and reflects the singer’s freedom of expression, her cheerfulness, and her love for her craft as a “woman who sings.” The production stars celebrated French stage actress Ferdane, who makes her Seuls en Scène debut. This show is appropriate for ages 12 and up and will be performed in French in the Wallace Theater.
On September 19 and 20 at 5 p.m. Hugues Jourdain and Victoria Quesnel’s adaptation of Constance Debré’s novel, Nom, will be presented. In her third book, Debré pursues her relentless quest for freedom, charting a new course in her struggle: how to love better? She casts off the “corpses” haunting her life and abandons almost everything—family, marriage, career—even contemplating the abolition of her lineage and her family name. On a bare stage, where only the power of words resonates, Quesnel—whose work in Julien Gosselin’s productions has drawn acclaim—makes this raw voice her own, immersing the audience in an unfiltered, brilliant, abrasive train of thought. Constance Debré left her career as a lawyer to become a writer. She is the author of a trilogy of novels: Playboy, Love Me Tender, and No Name (Nom). This production marks the first time a text by Debré has been adapted for the stage. The play will be performed in French in the Hearst Dance Theater. This show is appropriate for ages 15 and up.
The U.S. premiere screening of De la Comédie-Française by Martin Darondeau and Bertrand Usclat will be presented on September 22 at 4 p.m. at the Garden Theatre in downtown Princeton, in collaboration with the Princeton Film Festival Society. The film depicts a nerve-racking opening night for Nina, who is directing Macbeth with her fellow troupe members. Nothing goes as planned before the curtains goes up. Critically praised, the film is an uplifting homage to the theater presented by an impressive roster of current members of the Comédie-Française playing an irresistible variety of roles. Guillaume Gallienne, Benjamin Laverhne, Marina Hands, Laurent Stocker, Julien Frison, Séphora Pondi, Christian Hecq, Florence Viala, Françoise Gillard, Serge Bagdassarian, Adeline d’Hermy, and Danièle Lebrun, among others, form the cast of what is being called the French comedy of the summer. The 72-minute film will be presented in French with English subtitles. The screening will be followed by an audience Q&A session in French with Françoise Gillard from the Comédie-Française. Gillard portrays the Minister of culture in the film and performs in L’Événement by Annie Ernaux, which will be presented as part of the festival.
Françoise Gillard in L’Événement by Annie Ernaux.
L’Événement by 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature recipient Annie Ernaux will be performed on September 23 at 8 p.m. in the Wallace Theater. Theplay recounts—in detail and with the perspective gained over several decades—three months of the author’s life between October 1963 and January 1964: the three months spanning from the time she discovered she was pregnant through the days following her abortion. During these months, her resolve clashed with the prejudices, moral codes, and violence of a world shaped by male domination. Confronted by an abortionist, she describes how she herself felt being born as a woman. The necessity of her narrative serves to dispel only one form of guilt: the guilt stemming from the fact that this “event” happened to her, and that for so long she had been unable to give it form through writing and share it with others. Performed in French with English supertitles, the play is appropriate for ages 18 and up. This production marks a new partnership with Comédie-Française. After Princeton, the show will tour throughout North America.
On September 24 at 4:30 p.m., a conversation will be held with Aurélie Charon, Emma Prat, and Oksana Leuta, who participated in L’Aube des questions at this year’s Festival d’Avignon, an event that kicked-off the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the legendary Festival. With director of Festival d’Avignon Tiago Rodrigues and scholar Patrick Boucheron, Charon co-designed L’Aube des questions to mark the milestone edition and formulated 80 questions for the future. Charon invited her artistic collaborators Prat and Leuta, among others, to take part in the special celebration held during the early hours of July 26, 2026, following the closure of the Festival. During the conversation, Léo Cohen-Paperman will also share his insights on this year’s Festival and its continued magic as the anniversary celebration extends into 2027. Cohen-Paperman presented four productions at the fringe festival: the classic Tartuffe, along with three episodes of a series on French presidents. The conversation, presented as part of the partnership with Festival d’Avignon, will be in French and take place in East Pyne 010.
Génération Mitterand – Huit rois (nos présidents), Episode 2 by Cohen-Paperman and Émilien Diard-Detoeuf will take the stage at Whitman College Theater on September 25 at 6 p.m. and September 26 at 5 p.m. In the play, Marie-France is a journalist in Paris, Luc is a teacher in Vénissieux, and Michel is a factory worker in Belfort. At 18 years of age, they lived through the events of May 1968. In 1981, they voted for François Mitterrand. Then, in 2022, they voted for Emmanuel Macron, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and Marine Le Pen, respectively. To understand why they no longer agree on anything—and can no longer stand one another—they take turns playing “their” president. Génération Mitterrand is the second installment in the series Huit rois (nos présidents). These deeply personal presidential portraits examine French society, looking at both those who shape it and those who live in it. At once tender, funny, and insightful, this second episode dramatizes the hopes and disillusionments of an entire generation. The show will be performed in French with English supertitles and is appropriate for ages 12 and up.
The team of Radio Live returns to Princeton for the fourth time to present a new installment of their fascinating series: Vivantes. Performed on September 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. in the Wallace Theater, Vivantes is a unique stage experience that transcends the boundaries between radio and theater. Conceived by Aurélie Charon and Amélie Bonnin, this hybrid work brings to life the voices of three remarkable young people: Oksana Leuta from Ukraine, Karam Al Kafri from Syria, and Ines Tanović from Bosnia. Through poignant personal accounts, filmed footage, and live drawing, they share their intimate stories and experiences shaped by war and exile. They offer a powerful perspective on resilience and commitment. In today’s world, where conflicts and migration are reshaping reality, Vivantes speaks to the importance of intergenerational transmission in paving the way for better times. This show is performed in English and is appropriate for ages 12 and up.
On September 26 at 2:30 p.m., renowned playwright Pascal Rambert returns with a work-in-progress, one-woman piece created in collaboration with actress Pauline Chalamet. The play follows a young woman with a master’s degree who is—temporarily—a window cleaner. Over the course of the performance, she expresses her anger at social stratification and grapples with loneliness in a world divided between “people who succeed and people who are nothing.” Losing Your Bag comes to Princeton before making its English-language premiere at L’Alliance New York’s Crossing the Line Festival in November. Rambert, who was a Visiting Belknap Fellow in the Council of the Humanities and Visiting Lecturer at Princeton, makes his eighth appearance with Seuls en Scène. Performed in the unique campus location of Blair Arch, the performance is in English and appropriate for ages 15 and up.
Tickets, which are free and required for all of the above performances including the film screening, are available through University Ticketing. The conversation event is also free but does not require tickets.
All festival events are held in accessible venues/locations. Learn more about accessibility of parking, routes, and venues. Guests in need of other access accommodations are asked to contact the Lewis Center at LewisCenter@princeton.edu at least one week prior to the event date.
Marie-Sophie Ferdane in Barbara (par Barbara) by Marie-Sophie Ferdane & Emmanuel Noblet.
In addition to the ongoing partnership with the Festival d’Avignon, Seuls en Scène launches a new partnership this year with Comédie-Française. The Comédie-Française is considered France’s premier national theater, dating back to 1680. Its new administrator, French actor and director Clément Hervieu-Léger, who has come to Princeton several times to present plays at Seuls en Scène and work with students, is keen on developing new collaborations with Princeton.
L’Avant-Scène anticipates a full year of programming beginning this fall with the presentation of Contes et legendes by contemporary writer Joël Pommerat at Whitman College Theater. Other L’Avant-Scène 2026-27 season highlights includes the presentation of Phèdre by Jean Racine at the Princeton University Art Museum on February 5 and 6, and Le retour au désert by Bernard-Marie Koltès at Rockefeller College on April 16 and 17. L’Avant-Scène will also host Tiago Rodrigues, director of Festival d’Avignon, in late November 2026, who will give a masterclass to students enrolled in the course “Theater Making in the Age of Climate Change” and hold a conversation with Masse on the events celebrating the upcoming 80th anniversary of Festival d’Avignon. Rodrigues will be in New York City for his production, La Distance, presented by BAM and L’Alliance New York Festival. Rodrigues’ visit at Princeton will be part of Seuls en Scène’s partnership with Festival d’Avignon.
Masse, who curates the Festival, was trained as an actor and director at Lille National Theater alongside his studies in American Literature and Civilization at the University of Lille. He later pursued his theater studies at Amherst College as a Levy-Despas Fellow and a teaching assistant in the Department of French. It is there that he originated L’Avant-Scène, a program that combines language and dramatic training. He has directed nearly 80 full-length productions of canonical and new works of French theater since arriving at Princeton in 2001 and has hosted several prominent theater artists. In 2017, he was named Chevalier of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2026, he was promoted to the grade of Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ministry of Culture.
The festival is presented by the Lewis Center for the Arts, the Department of French and Italian, and L’Avant-Scène with additional support provided by Princeton’s Office of the Provost, Humanities Council, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Study, Humanities Initiative, Department of Comparative Literature, Department of Music, Center of Excellence, Department of Art and Archaeology, Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society, and Rockefeller College. International partners and sponsors include Festival d’Avignon, Comédie-Française, Cultural Services of the French Embassy – Villa Albertine, Albertine Foundation, the Education Department of the French Embassy, and Institut français.
