In 1994, the Sydney Theatre Company, in partnership with the Comédie-Française, the SACD and the Australian Embassy in France, partnered with the Maison Antoine Vitez to present an Australian theatrical repertoire. Six plays were translated and given staged readings  at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier during the Australian Playwrights’ Week in June 1995. This program allowed the public to discover, among others, authors such as Karin Mainwaring (whose Les Danseurs de la pluie premiered at the Vieux-Colombier in 2001) and Daniel Keene, who is now very much present on the French stage.

In 2019, thanks in particular to the presence in France of Australian playwright Lachlan Philpott, the Embassy proposed to associate MAV with Australia now in order to highlight a new generation of authors through the selection of another six plays, each written after 2010. 

The selection is composed of three pieces written by men and three by women, including a play by an Indigenous author, a play for young adults and a play for children. 

• Melissa Bubnic – I Do Believe in Monsters (translation Catherine Hargeaves and Adélaïde Pralon)
• Angus Cerini – The Bleeding Tree (translation Dominique Hollier)
• Jub Clerc – The Fever and the Fret (translation Aurore Kahan)
• Kendall Feaver – The Almighty Sometimes (translation Sabine Haudepin, Dominique Hollier, Séverine Magois et Adélaïde Pralon)
• Tom Holloway – Storm-Boy (translation Séverine Magois)
• Lachlan Philpott – Truck Stop (translation Gisèle Joly) 

Future Readings :

• May 18 at 19h : I do believe in Monsters by Melissa Bubnic

You can’t get a hairdresser’s appointment because everyone suddenly needs to get their hair done, wanting to look their best for the 6 o’clock news. A girl gone missing. A small town in crisis. the community quickly pulls together to find little Hayden. . .and pulls apart almost as quickly to protect their own dirty secrets. A disturbing, comic fable about itches that need scratching, the possible end of the world and bipolar tap dancers.

• May 22 May at 19h : The bleeding tree by Angus Cerini

“Girls, I think your father’s dead. I knocked his knees out. I conked his head. I shot that house clown in the neck.” In a dirt-dry town in rural Australia, a shot shatters the still night. A mother and her daughters have just welcomed home the man of the house — with a crack in the shins and a bullet in the neck. The only issue now is disposing of the body. Triggered into thrilling motion by an act of revenge.

Past Readings :

The Bleeding Tree by Angus Cerini 13 November – Paris, Comédie Française (Théâtre du Vieux Colombier) Reading led by Alain Lenglet

Truck Stop by Lachlan Philpott 5 March – Marseille, Théâtre Joliette Reading led by Carole Errante

Believe in Monsters by Melissa Bubnic 11 April, collective a Mots decouverts

In addition to the six plays selected for Australia now, this extensive reading has allowed Maison Antoine Vitez to discover other authors and inspire the MAV English committee to continue to explore and translate Australian writing into the years to come. More information on https://www.maisonantoinevitez.com