Heritage

Some of these exhibitions are available as virtual exhibitions.
It is possible to contact the library-museum if you wish to physically present them, in the form of reproductions.

2018/2019

Christian Lacroix and the Comédie-Française have been travel companions for more than twenty years. More than twenty years, during which, season after season, he has created costumes for the actors of the Troupe with a talent and a delight that never seems to wane. Responding to Éric Ruf's invitation, today he clothes them in pure poetry: “I realise”, he confides, “that I have now created [portraits] of the imprint, colourful as an illumination, that each actor, play after play, season after season, has subjectively left in me”. As reproduced on the site, Stéphane Lavoué’s portraits, illuminated by Christian Lacroix, are on display in the public spaces of the Salle Richelieu.

Somewhere between decorative arts and personal museum, the actor’s dressing room inspires curiosity and fantasies. A private sphere within the public space, where collections are formed and displayed. The exhibition proposes a journey through this particular history, based essentially on photographic records preserved in the museum-library.

Exhibition designed byCarole Allemand and Valérie Lesort

Between a visual artist’s studio and a cabinet of curiosities, discover, on the occasion of the revival of 20 000 lieues sous les mers, what lies behind the scenes of the production, the secrets behind the manufacture and orchestration of an underwater world combing puppet techniques and black-light theatre. Raw and synthetic materials are transformed, moulded, painted and handled by the actors to give life to the fabulous world of Jules Verne.

Photographs by Stéphane Lavoué

A place of work, rest, concentration and intimacy for the actor, the dressing room is a refuge that says much about its occupant: “show me your dressing room and I will tell you who you are” one could say about these photos that provide the public with a glimpse into a sphere usually kept behind closed doors. Stéphane Lavoué, the Troupe portraitist, slipped into these varied and fascinating worlds.

The Comédie-Française has always had a touring tradition, performing throughout France and in more than eighty countries to date. This exhibition takes the visitor from the first expeditions organised at the end of the nineteenth century – prompted by the temporary closure of the theatre – to the official tours participating in France’s diplomatic policies in the mid-twentieth century. A journey that is discovered through programmes, posters, photographs and objects testifying to this intense activity which, right up to today, provides the Comédie-Française with a “fourth stage”.