Meanwhile, a young Afghan woman, Mahala, will do anything to flee to Europe, even give up her status as a wife. The young Englishwoman’s story provides the main thread connecting the two destinies. The use of several languages – Pashto, Persian, Arabic, Esperanto, and the mother’s unusual vocabulary – serve to reinforce the rich text, which tells us about the history of Afghanistan, past and present, as well as individual life stories, universal quests and destiny.
Looking at the dates of the play and how they coincide with History, the timeliness of the work is striking. Tony Kushner began writing Homebody / Kabul in the spring of 2001 and revised it after its creation in New York by Declan Donnelan in December 2001, almost three months to the day after the attacks on 11 September, during the American riposte in Afghanistan. But Homebody / Kabul is not only deeply rooted in reality, providing a photographic image of Kabul and the daily repression endured by the Afghans, especially the women. It is above all an intense drama, in the manner of a classical tragedy. French text by Pierre Laville

The American playwright Tony Kushner was born in New York in 1956. He was first known for his adaptations of plays, such as L’Illusion comique by Corneille and Stella by Goethe. His first play, A Bright Room Called Day deals with the rise of Nazism in Germany in 1932-1933. Kushner’s work marks a return to politics in American drama. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for Angels in America (first staged in France by Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman in 1994), a play in two parts – Millennium Approaches and Perestroika – both bearing the subtitle “a gay fantasy on national themes”. His more directly political play Slavs!, put on in France at the Théâtre national de la Colline by Jorge Lavelli in 1996, develops “thoughts about the longstanding problems of virtue and happiness”.


Born in Buenos Aires, Jorge Lavelli came to Paris to study under Charles Dullin and Jacques Lecoq. In 1963, with The Marriage by Gombrowicz, he won first prize for directing in the French competition for young theatre companies. He became a naturalised Frenchman in 1977, and was

He has staged plays by Arrabal, Bond, Boulgakov, Bourgeade, Copi, Fuentes, Handke, Ionesco, Kushner, Noren, Obaldia and Rezvani, not forgetting plays from the “repertoire”, with a partiality for Shakespeare. With actors from the Comédie-Française, he has staged Le roi se meurt by Ionesco (Odéon, 1976), The Tower of Babel by Arrabal (Odéon, 1979), and Life is a Dream by Calderón (1982). Plays directed by him at the Salle Richelieu include A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare (1986), Polyeucte by Corneille (1987) and Mother Courage by Brecht (1998).

For Antoine Vitez, drama and politics were intertwined. His ambition as an artist, setting aside all naïvety, was to “change the world”. His directing and teaching practices were an ideological driving force behind French drama for two decades (1970-1990).
In 1981, when he had just been appointed director of the Théâtre national de Chaillot, he gave a series of interviews to his friend Emile Copfermann, a writer, journalist and publisher. It is these fascinating interviews – a moment’s pause for thought between past and future – that Daniel Soulier is bringing to the stage. Soulier was a close colleague and friend of Vitez from his time at the theatre in Ivry-sur-Seine to that at the one in Chaillot. He is now daring to make drama out of Vitez, obeying the credo of the man who professed that you can make drama “out of everything”.
Antoine Vitez, who was also an actor, is in his dressing room where he is getting ready to play Œdipe à Colone. Alone, under the watchful eye of his friend who is listening to him, his conversation progresses in steps from the secular world to that of the stage. Episodes of his life spring up like confessions and serve as arguments to feed and sharpen what he thinks about drama. … The private interview is punctuated by the voice of the stage manager that can be heard throughout the theatre announcing the amount of time left before the curtain rises.

Daniel Soulier is an actor, writer and director. Alongside Antoine Vitez he performed numerous roles and took part in adventurous undertakings such as Les Cloches de Bâle after the novel by Aragon and a series of four Molière plays. At Chaillot, among other roles, he played that of Arlequin in Le Prince travesti by Marivaux. He has

Among the plays he has written, Après l’amour has been translated and performed the world over.
Conversation avec Antoine Vitez was first staged at the Avignon Festival in 1999 and performed the same year at Chaillot.

This fantasy in verse comes straight out of a secular drama from the Middle Ages, Le Jeu de la feuillée. It is about its own author, Adam de la Halle, who is confronted with a series of mishaps. Staged for the Evening Spring Entertainment in Arras in 1270, the work lies on the borders of comedy, fairy tale and social satire, and already heralds the satirical farces of the 16th Century.
The play revolves around the main character, Adam, a young poet who wants to leave Arras to continue studying in Paris. His friends try to talk him out of it by reminding him that he is married, but Adam retorts that is wife is now “heavy and bloated”, yet she was very beautiful when he married her. His father refuses to lend him any

appear a doctor, an alms collector, a minstrel, a band of revellers and a madman, who all comment ferociously on the morals of the bourgeoisie in Arras. This colourful bunch get together in a tavern (known as a feuillée in the Middle Ages), a place where people can speak freely about subjects as diverse as religion and poetry and where they can denounce hypocrisy and greed. To fully appreciate the work, you have to drop all expectations of coherence and rationality. Allow yourself to enter into the spirit of medieval fantasy, and enjoy the comic, caustic vein of a rare work that has freed itself from the codes of courtly literature.
For this production, Jacques Darras has translated the original text by superposing three different levels of language. Mixed in with the parts in Picardy dialect (the original language) are others in modern French verse with passages in what is more like our everyday language.
Born in Arras a little before the middle of the 13th Century, Adam de la Halle, also known as Adam the Hunchback (le Bossu) or the Hunchback of Arras, was one of the most prolific authors of the century and enjoyed considerable renown during his time. Much biographical information can be found in his works, particularly in Le Jeu de la feuillée and Le Congé. Writer, storyteller and trouvère, he composed a good many songs and motets and was also a great musician. He entered into the service of Robert II, Count of Artois, and followed him to Italy in 1282, where he put on a number of his own works, including Le Jeu de Robin et de Marion and Le Jeu du pèlerin. He died between 1285 and 1289, leaving a deeply original and poetic body of work, whose liveliness never ceases to surprise.

Poet, director, author and composer, Jacques Rebotier tries his hand at everything, and for several years has been creating unusual performances mixing poetry, dance and music. He was born in 1950, and was firstly responsible for programming and organising musical events at Sarcelles before founding his own company in 1992. He has staged a number of shows, including

When he was born, he weighed 9 kilos; at 3 months, he weighed 33; and when he was one year old, 49! Bouli is frightened of everything – the dark, walking, laughing – he’s even afraid of himself. To escape from his fear and dread, he eats and gets even fatter! And yet he has an understanding, considerate family: there’s Dadi Redondo, Mama Binocla and above all, cousin Petula, who “likes him chubby”. But Bouli begins school, where he has to deal with friends calling him names, such as “lump of fat”, “big fatty” and “balloon”. He “catches

worse when Petula has to go and live in Spain. He becomes a compulsive eater and almost squashes Mama Binocla without realising it. When he does realise what he’s done, he really reacts: he goes to the gym, loses weight and changes, becoming almost like everyone else. But luckily, Petula is keeping a watchful eye on him from Spain…
In this tale, which is both poetic and everyday, there is no moral. In Fabrice Melquiot’s world, you grow by confronting your fears, big or small. You don’t get rid of them but go through life learning how to live with them.

Fabrice Melquiot began as an actor, working in particular with Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota’s company. He then saw his first texts Les Petits Mélancoliques and Le Jardin de Beamon published in 1998 by the École des loisirs and recorded for France Culture radio. Then came other texts written for the stage and published by Arche Éditeur, including Percolateur Blues (broadcast on France Culture radio), La Semeuse, Kids, Perlino Comment and Bouli Miro. There were also L’Inattendu and Le Diable en partage, which were directed by Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota at the Théâtre de la Bastille and at the Comédie in Reims in 2002. Bouli Miro was staged by Patrice Douchet at the Théâtre de la Tête noire in Saran in January 2003, and then again on tour, notably at the Théâtre de l’Est Parisien in 2003.

This season, Christian Gonon, who has been a salaried actor (Pensionnaire) at the Comédie-Française since 1st July 1998, is directing a play for the first time, at the Studio-Théâtre. He has already staged two reading performances here, one of texts by Pierre Desproges (2002), and the other of work by Jean Vilar (1999). In recent acting roles, he has appeared at the Salle Richelieu in Le Malade imaginaire by Molière, directed by Claude Stratz and revived since each season, and The Merchant of Venice, by Shakespeare, directed by Andrei

he has been in Opéra savon by Jean-Daniel Magnin, directed by Sandrine Anglade (2002), Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, directed by Jean-Pierre Miquel (2002) and La Mère confidente by Marivaux, directed by Sandrine Anglade (2001). He has also played at the Studio-Théâtre in Sganarelle ou le Cocu imaginaire by Molière, directed by Thierry Hancisse (2001).

The play goes beyond the story of the plot, bringing opposing forces face to face, and making them clash violently. With political rivalry, rivalry between lovers, and a conflict between mother and son, Racine has the ingredients for a classical tragedy. The characters are given a power to match

The argument of the play, which is borrowed from Tacitus, goes beyond the historical context to concentrate on the psychological drama that unfolds among the three main characters, Nero, Agrippina and Britannicus, focusing on the ties and bonds – some acknowledged, others secret – between them.
By choosing to name his play Britannicus, Racine wanted to bring the young hero to the fore, and give him an emotional power that would move his contemporaries. “This young 17-year-old prince, who is noble-hearted, very loving, frank and unsuspecting (…) seemed to me to be able to excite people’s compassion”. Dispossessed of his throne and done out of love by his own half-brother Nero, who will also be his murderer, Britannicus symbolises the fragility of happiness on earth, a Jansenist theme par excellence.
Opposite the young man, two monsters, Agrippina and Nero play out a duel. Both characters are filled with evil intent, and obsessed by ambition and a will for power that will necessarily lead them to clash. There is no doubt that Nero is monstrous, sharply observed here in the early stages of his tyranny, “a budding monster” as Racine defined him.

Racine was just thirty when Britannicus was first staged at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1669, two years after Andromaque. After making an excursion into the realm of comedy with Les Plaideurs in 1668, he returned to tragedy, taking up his passionate interest in Antiquity again. His first play in the genre, La Thébaïde (1664) was initially put on by Molière’s company of actors. Britannicus, the author’s first Roman tragedy, was partly intended as a means to rival with Corneille on his own ground, i.e. historical tragedy. Indeed, in his 1670 preface, Racine clearly sides against Corneille’s supporters by criticising the playwright’s inability to abide by the three unities (place, time and action).

Actress and stage director, Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman founded the company Pandora with François Regnault in 1976, and directed the Centre dramatique national in Aubervilliers from 1990 to 1997. She has directed a number of plays, including those resulting from the major work she has carried out on Corneille. Before staging Britannicus, she had already worked with the Comédie-Française

actors on Elvire Jouvet 40, after lessons by Louis Jouvet, which was to be a huge success, The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams, at the Théâtre d’Ivry in 1991 and Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, which was created in 2001 at the Salle Richelieu and revived for the 2002-2003 season. The latest work she has directed, Viol by Danielle Sallenave, was put on at the Théâtre du Rond-Point in February 2003.

Two burglars, Nico and Léo, break into a house. Strangely enough, the alarm has been disconnected, the dog is dozing, the safe is open and the occupants are sleeping peacefully upstairs. But everything changes very quickly! Clive, the man of the house, surprises Nico, who has been left on his own. Then Léo comes back and takes control of the situation. However, Bonie the wife soon arrives and threatens the thieves. Strangely enough, the so-called owners don’t seem to know the house very well. They invent various roles for themselves, parodying the perfect happy family

had lost sight of for fifteen years. Strangely enough, although they have apparently never seen one another, Bonie and Nico fall in love instantly.
Who plays what – in the constantly changing situations that make up the fourteen short scenes in this “criminal buffoonery”? There are brother and sister, husband and wife, professional burglars, as well as thieves and cheats on the checkerboard of life’s feelings and emotions. The cards have been mixed up and the issues clouded. A vigorous writing style, ambiguous characters, the use of a play within a play, and suspense all bring the work a very original note of fantasy. The play will be directed by the author.

From Benin, and with French nationality, José Pliya was born in 1966. Along with his arts degree at the Sorbonne, he trained in drama. During his different posts abroad, he has always been involved in acting, directing, putting on shows, and more recently writing for the stage. José Pliya was director of the Alliance française in Dominica from 1998 to 2002 and created the Caribbean’s first exclusively Creole festival. Since September 2002 he has been a resident author at the CMAC, Scène nationale in Martinique. The up-and-coming writer belongs to the new generation of dramatists, and several of his plays have been performed in Africa and Europe. Among the works he has written for the stage are: La Conspiration (1990, recorded by Radio France Internationale), Nègrerrances (Édition L’Harmattan, 1997), Mémoires d’Anophèle (1996), Les Cambrioleurs (1997), Le Masque de Sika (written when Pliya was a resident author at the Festival des Théâtres francophones in Limoges and first staged in Roubaix by Jean-François Prévand in 2002), Le Complexe de Thénardier (published in 2001 by Éditions Avant-Scène Théâtre, read by Catherine Hiegel and Sylvie Testud at the Avignon Festival in 2001 and first staged at the Théâtre du Rond-Point, with Jean-Michel Ribes as director, in November 2002), Une famille ordinaire (2001), and Cannibales (2002).

As a counterpoint to the vanity of the courtly world, Les Fables, which were hugely successful the moment they appeared, have over the last three centuries become a popular work giving people across the board, from West to East, the possibility of learning something while having fun. Although they may be read to children and often shown as audio-visuals, their apparent simplicity is the fruit of great art and a free and cheerful mind. They are a digest of several forms, including oral tradition,

conversational art, argumentation, precise visual effect, and animal phantasmagoria. They are a pleasure at every turn, feeding the imagination and strengthening reasoning. They are wonderful pieces for actors to practise on, given that their concise dramatic energy, sharp argumentation, and perfect story flow require versatility, precision and eloquence. In the purest French, La Fontaine gives the power of speech to the whole world: people, animals, plants and gods. The charm of the work, which pours life into everything, travels through the ages, keeping the dialogue between man and nature intact. As at the time they were written, the lively and enigmatic Fables escape all forms of fashion, continuing to hold out against all literary genres, and in spite of the evolution of the world, pass on truths that can still surprise and are always a pleasure to savour again.

Jean de La Fontaine began his literary career late in life, when he was just over forty, and created a scandal with his Contes, which earned him exile from Court. The fact that he was kept well away by a king who would never forget that he was a friend of Fouquet, meant that the great success of the Fables created even more of a stir. He was a jurist by training – an advocate in Parliament – and a Forestry Commissioner, an office he inherited from his father. The knowledge that he gained from these responsibilities shows through his fables. A prolific author, he published mythological novels, poems and work for the stage. The art of writing fascinated him and he would have liked to make a career of it. He spent his life constantly journeying between Paris and Château-Thierry, the town where he was born. His good-natured personality won him recognition but also derision. His great popularity and the unusualness of his fables have given him a special place in literary history.

Robert Wilson, an American, is considered to be one of the most creative artists working for the French stage today. Recognition of his talent came from France in 1971, when he presented Le Regard du sourd, a mythical show that has since become part of the History of theatre. Aragon devoted an important article to him, speaking of him highly and showing that the formerly unknown stage director had just managed to do what the

His supremely graphic work, which also pays profound attention to the text, seems to encapsulate the theories of Gordon Craig, Noh plays and surrealist fantasies. The colour quality of his lighting is one of the peculiarities of his art. In addition to an intense programme of a variety of genres – theatre, music hall, opera and drawing – he has opened The Watermill Center for research and creation on Long Island, intended for young artists.

The one-act play comes straight out of the purist tradition of the Golden Age of Spanish theatre, providing a general picture of human life. Calderón, the great dramatist and poet, summons no less a figure than the World (personified by an actor) and has him enter into dialogue with an Author. Both are responsible for preparing a performance.

are Rosel by Harald Müller, Le Laboureur de Bohême by Johannes von Saaz, La Jeanne by Delteil and the play with the same title by Péguy. Mother Courage by Brecht, the last play he directed at the Théâtre national de la Colline, was warmly received by critics and public alike.

Gengis, a fruit and vegetable seller, is waiting for his execution with a rope around his neck. He hears three pieces of news from Auntie: capital punishment has just been abolished; he has been appointed head of “our once great nation”; and the bad news, capitalism has been prolonged indefinitely. But if that’s the way it is, Gengis will

advised by Auntie and Uncle, he begins to run his world without the slightest fear. This is because, as Uncle says, nobody has anything to say anymore, and those who are not on our side are only Pygmies. So Gengis can safely launch into great plans, such as building a monument to providence in the middle of a rice field, giving the people a superb Christmas present, and tackling issues like youth and taxes. Up until the time his function as king is also abolished, and replaced by that of manager.
What is the world coming to? For Gregory Motton, it’s sure that things are not going smoothly, and the people who govern us in this age of trade wars clown about like modern-day Ubus. However, we are, after all, in the theatre, a privileged place to satirise the world and try to solve its problems.


Born in London in 1961, to an Irish mother and an English father, Gregory Motton has written more than ten plays, most of which have been translated into French and published by Éditions Théâtrales. Several have recently been put on in France, including Downfall, directed by Claude Régy in January 1992 at the TGP in Saint-Denis, Ambulance, directed by Antoine Caubet in May 1994 in Dijon and revived at the TGP in 1995, Looking at You (Revived) Again, directed by Eric Vigner in Albi, then at the Théâtre de l’Odéon in 1994, The Terrible Voice of Satan, directed by Claude Régy at the TGP in 1994, Chicken, directed by Henri Bornstein in Bayonne in 1996, In Praise of Progress, directed by Lukas Hemleb at the Odéon-La Cabane in 1999, and Cat and Mouse (Sheep), directed by Gregory Motton and Ramin Gray, and first staged in French at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers in May 1999. Gregory Motton has also written several radio plays that have been broadcast by the BBC.

Actor and stage director, Thierry de Peretti has worked in films with Patrice Chéreau, Diane Kurys, Vincent Ravalec and Claude Berri, and also in television, notably with Laurent Bouhnik. In the theatre, he has acted in The Seagull by Chekhov, directed by Philippe Calvario, in Le Soulier de satin by Paul Claudel, directed by Pierre Vial, in Paroles

Mann), directed by Christiane Cohendy, and in Saleté de paix by Anita Langloff. He has also acted in plays that he has directed, including Quai Ouest, Sallinger and Le Retour au désert by Bernard-Marie Koltès, Une envie de tuer by Xavier Durringer and the revival of Valparaiso which he created at the Théâtre de la Bastille in 2002. He has been an extra-mural award winner of the Villa Médicis (2002) and won the French theatre revelation prize from the Syndicat de la critique for the 2000-2001 season.

This production of the play comes in two versions: firstly, five fragments designed to be seen separately, and secondly, full performances.

In Sicilia the king Leontes is greatly loved, as is his virtuous wife Hermione and the enchanting young prince Mamillius, a gentle, brilliant child. Polixenes, the king’s childhood friend, is preparing to return to his kingdom, Bohemia, and is looking forward to seeing his own son again. Leontes

to plead with him. The queen’s entreaties are successful and Polixenes puts off his departure. At this point Leontes is consumed with doubt and jealousy, which blind him completely. Everything he has believed in up to then – his love, his friend and his child – is caught up in a whirlwind of suspicion that seems to justify his black interpretation of the most innocent behaviour between his wife and his friend. In the first three acts, Shakespeare shows us the consequences of insane jealousy. The last two acts mark the return of light and serenity.

This tragicomedy is one of Shakespeare’s last plays, written in 1609 and performed in 1611. Drawn from Robert Grenne’s romance, Pandosto or The Triumph of Time, which appeared in 1588, the play takes up the latter’s plot and then strays from it completely. Shakespeare provides the play with a joyful rather than a tragic end. The fairy tale mixes in features from pagan Antiquity and Christian myth.

Muriel Mayette joined the Comédie-Française on 15 September 1985 and became the 477th shareholding member (Sociétaire) on 1st January 1988. She has directed the following plays at the Théâtre du Vieux- Colombier: The Rain Dancers by Karin Mainwaring in 2001, Chat en poche by Georges Feydeau in 1997 and revived in 1998, and Amants puérils by Fernand Crommelynck in 1993. She staged Clitandre by Corneille at the Salle Richelieu in 1996 and Oh, mais où est la tête de

at the Théâtre national de l’Odéon in 1990. At the same time she also directed Titre Pitre for Théâtre Ouvert, Conversation entre D. Sylvester et F. Bacon at the Théâtre de l’Athénée and Vert Petit Pois tendre at the Théâtre Gérard-Philipe in Saint-Denis. She founded her company, Jeu in 1985. She has also written plays and directed two of them: Qui veut noyer son chien at the Théâtre de la Bastille and Théâtre de la Métaphore, and The Dinner titre provisoire at the Théâtre Gérard-Philipe in Saint-Denis.

Once a season, we bring together everybody in the Comédie-Française for a marathon midday to midnight reading of a great work chosen from the world’s literary heritage. Last year we read La Légende des siècles by Victor Hugo.

The poet Dante was to devote about eighteen years of his life to this enormous work, which was probably begun in around 1300. The Divine Comedy is divided into three sections, Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, broken down into cantos. The first canto of Hell serves as an introduction to the whole work. Dante recounts that in the middle

the entranceto a dark forest, the memory of which alone causes him anguish. He tries to go forward, but threatening beasts block his way, and then the spirit of Virgil appears and proposes to guide him. Dante accepts and begins his long journey with the Roman poet through the world of souls. Virgil tells him that he will only accompany him through Hell and Purgatory and that when they arrive in Paradise another guide, Beatrice, will lead him into spheres whose threshold no pagan has crossed. But first, the famous peregrination among the tortured and the damned begins.

The Divine Comedy has fascinated an enormous amount of commentators, historians and translators of prose and verse in almost every language. It reflects Dante’s genius, his concision and ability always to go to the root of the matter.

Two opportunities for discussions and readings by Comédie-Française actors:

L’histoire du théâtre à la Comédie-Française
François Regnault invites us to a variety of events to learn about the history of drama from Aeschylus to Beckett, seen from the perspective of the Comédie-Française.
There will be conversations with personalities, and readings of scenes and poems by Comédie-Française actors, all revolving around great inventions or important moments in universal drama.
Saturday 25 October. Talma and the Comédie-Française. The three “meteors”: Talma between Germaine de Staël and Napoléon Bonaparte. Conversation with Bruno Villien, author of Talma, l’acteur favori de Napoléon 1er (Éditions Pygmalion, 2001).
Saturday 29 November. Autour de la taverne. On secular medieval drama. Conversation with Charles Méla, professor of medieval literature at the Université de Genève, and president of the Bodmer Foundation.
Saturday 21 February. Britannicus by Racine, and productions of the play at the Comédie-Française. Conversation with Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman, director of Britannicus.
Saturday 24 April. Autour des précieuses. Conversation with Myriam Maître, author of a thesis on Les précieuses, naissance des femmes de lettres en France au XVIIe siècle (Honoré Champion, 1999).
Saturday 19 June. Chateaubriand and the Comédie-Française. Conversation with Marc Fumaroli, member of the Académie Française and professor at the Collège de France, about his work on Chateaubriand.

Le Théâtre de…

This consists of an hour and a half in the company of a personality from the world of art, sport or politics. The subject matter ranges from memories being evoked to extracts of texts being read by Comédie-Française actors. We are invited to discover an ideal and intimate type of theatre.
Saturday 11 October. Daniel Buren, visual artist.
Saturday 13 December. Nathalie Dessay, professional singer.
Saturday 7 February. Gisèle Casadesus, honorary shareholding member (Sociétaire) of the Comédie-Française.
Saturday 3 April. Michel Cournot, journalist with Le Monde.
Saturday 5 June. Pascal Dusapin, composer.