Bureau des lectures

Each season, approximately four hundred manuscripts of dramatic works are submitted to the Comédie-Française. These plays are read and assessed by a panel known as the Bureau des lectures. From these sessions, held under the guidance of the Maison's Literary Adviser, nine texts per year are selected and presented to the public in staged readings performed by the actors of the Troupe — nine appointments with nine authors, nine new plays, illustrating the vitality of contemporary dramatic writing. The three cycles will each address different repertoires: the first will focus on Francophone writing, the second on the vibrant field of writing for young audiences, and the third on writing in translation from other languages. Each cycle will give audiences the opportunity to vote for their favourite at the end of a conversation hosted by Literary Adviser Laurent Muhleisen.

Missions

The Comédie-Française holds a Répertoire comprising all the plays that its Troupe may perform on its main stage, currently the Salle Richelieu. For a work to be admitted, proposed by the Administrateur général, it must receive the approval of the Comité de lecture.

The Administrateur général may also establish a Bureau des lectures, responsible for reading all manuscripts submitted by playwrights or translators to the Comédie-Française.

Today, the Bureau des lectures is chaired by the Comédie-Française's Literary Adviser. It meets six times per season and reads approximately 350 texts. It is composed of ten members, drawn from within the Comédie-Française and from outside it. Each member is invited to share their impressions of the texts they have read, assessing their formal and thematic originality as well as their literary quality. Texts that attract attention are read a second, or even a third time.

Each season, an initial selection of approximately 25 plays is established, from which the Bureau des lectures chooses six for public readings across three cycles: one held at the Studio-Théâtre and two at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. At the end of each cycle, a group of "committed audience members" — those who have attended all the readings — is invited to give their views on the works heard and to identify their personal favourite.

With the authors' consent, all selected texts are available for consultation at the Comédie-Française library. The activities of the Bureau des lectures and the organisation of these public readings contribute to bringing to light authors and texts that are sometimes previously unpublished, whether within the Comédie-Française itself or through partner organisations such as association Beaumarchais association at the SACD, le Centre national du théâtre, la Chartreuse – Centre national des écritures du spectacle, and the Fiction department at France Culture. These connections enable authors and translators to gain greater visibility for their work and, in some cases, to secure material support in the form of creation or publication grants, or residencies.

Composition of the Bureau des lectures

  • Clément Hervieu-Léger, Administrateur général
    Laurent Muhleisen, , Literary Adviser

  • Sylvia Bergé
    Alain Lenglet
    Françoise Gillard
    Edith Proust
    Marine Jubin
    Louis-Gilles Pairault
    Florence Thomas
    Laurent Muhleisen
    Aurélien Hamard-Padis
    Séverine Daucourt
    Aristeo Tordesillas

Distinguished texts

Texts selected following public readings by the group of committed audience members:
 

Season 2022/2023
Cinq dans le nid by Cordelia Lynn, translated from the English by Blandine Pélissier and Kelly Rivière

Season 2021/2022
L'Arbre à sang by Angus Cerini
Les Toilettes de l'entreprise by Tristan Choisel

Season 2019/2020
Suzy Storck by Magali Mougel

Season 2018/2019
Les Chroniques de Peter Sanchidriàn by Jose Padilla, translated from the Spanish by Victoria Mariani
PIG BOY 1986-2358 by Gwendoline Soublin
Si je survis by Dominik Busch, translated from the German by Silvia and Jean-Claude Berutti-Ronelt

Season 2017/2018
Iphigénie à Splott by Gary Owen, traduit de l'anglais by Blandine Pélissier and Kelly Rivière
Delta Charlie Delta by Michel Simonot
Je reviens de loin by Claudine Galea
Canicule (évangile apocryphe d'une famille, d'un pays) by Lola Blasco

Season 2016/2017
 L'Affaire Harry Crawford by Lachlan Philpott, translated from the English (Australie) by Gisèle Joly
La neige est de plus en plus noire au Groenland by Yann Verburgh (Quartett Editions)

Season 2015/2016
Dévastation by Dimitris Dimitriadis, translated from the Greek by Michel Volkovitch
(October 2015 cycle at the Studio-Théâtre)
Extase et quotidien de Rebekka Kricheldorf, translated from the German by Mathieu Bertholet
(June 2016 cycle at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier)

Season 2014/2015
L'Étrange Incident du chien pendant la nuit by Mark Haddon
Bien lotis by Philippe Malone

Season 2013/2014
Les Morb(y)des by Sébastien David
Le Principe d'Archimède by Josep Maria Mirò

Season 2012/2013
Dancefloor Memories by Lucie Depauw
Voleurs by Dea Loher

Season 2011/2012
Une maison en or by Gregory Moss
Le Cartographe by Juan Mayorga

Season 2010/2011
Belgrade by Angelica Liddell
Lampedusa Beach by Lina Prosa

Season 2009/2010
Barbelo by Biljana Srbljanovic
Erzuli Dahomey, déesse de l'amour by Jean-René Lemoine

Season 2008/2009
La Maladie de la famille M. by Fausto Paravidino
Les Enfants de la pleine lune by Emanuele delle Piane

Season 2007/2008
Burn Baby Burn by Carine Lacroix
Le bruit des os qui craquent by Suzanne Lebeau