Catherine Salviat joined the Comédie-Française on September 1, 1969, and became its 461st sociétaire on January 1, 1977, and later a sociétaire honoraire on January 1, 2006.

The numerous roles she had the chance to play include Solveig’s mother in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt staged by Éric Ruf, Hoopoe in Aristophanes’ The Birds put on stage by Alfredo Arias, F. in Nathalie Sarraute’s Pour un oui ou pour un non (For No Good Reason) directed by Léonie Simaga, Nazarovna in Chekhov’s On The High Road, staged by Guillaume Gallienne, Lizzie Berrill in Sean O’Casey The End Of The Beginning directed by Célie Pauthe, and Constance in Lope de Vega’s Peibáñez and the Commander of Ocaña (Peribáñez y el comendador de Ocaña) staged by Omar Porras.
Furthermore, she played the roles of Léonor in Corneille’s Le Cid, directed by Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman, of La signora Assunta La Bella in Pirandello’s_Les Grelots du fou (Cap and Bells)_ put on stage by Claude Stratz, of la Figure pauvre in Valère Novarina’s L’Espace furieux (The Furious Space) staged by the author himself, of Tante José in Marie Ndiaye’s Papa doit manger directed by André Engel, of Belise in Molière’s Les Femmes savantes put on stage by Simon Eine, of Madame Pinchard in Feydeau’s Sauce for the Goose (Le Dindon) staged by Lukas Hemleb, of Vittoria in Goldoni’s The Villeggiatura Trilogy in a staging by Giorgio Strehler, of Cydalise in de Crébillon le Fils’ The Opportunities of a Night (La Nuit et le moment) staged by Jean-Louis Thamin.
She further performed the role of Sister Constance in Bernanos’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, put on stage by Gildas Bourdet, of Hannah in Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana, staged by Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman. Since 2006, she has performed in more than fifteen plays, among them Thomas Bernhard’s Dramalettes, staged by Catherine Hiegel in 2014 and Agota Kristof’s The Illiterate staged by Nabil El Azan.