5 Fabulous French Women We Love

Let's put the spotlight on some of our favourite female figures in French theatre, both on stage and behind the scenes

1. Annie Ernaux

This prolific writer's pen is powerful, often poignant, and always personal. Never fearful to speak her mind, nor to give an intimate look at her childhood and adolescence, usually in correlation with modern historic events, Annie Ernaux boldly gives her readers strong insight into her personal life. She teaches in parallel to her writing, has won numerous literary prizes, and can be considered a standard of transparency, no matter the consequences. At the Théâtre le Ranelagh where we subtitle numerous shows, a modern play based on her book 'The Other Girl' was recently in production.

2. Bérénice Bejo

We love this internationally famous actress for many reasons, her talent being at the top of the list, but her openness coming in at a close second. Her versatility as a cinema actress and thespian of the stage is commendable, and not something that we often see. More than that, Bejo has been a rather significant advocate of Theatre in Paris and our goal of opening the doors to French theatre for people all over the world. She recently starred in Anything You Want at the Theatre Edouard VII.

3. Christiane Jatahy

An up-and-coming metteuse en scène working with prestigious theatres such as the Comédie française, Christiane Jatahy’s work questions our notions of the relation between actor and public as well as reality and fiction. Although born in Brazil, Jatahy lives and works here in Paris collaborating with 104 (or Cent Quatre), an urban cultural center that has brought together artists from all over the world, created a much needed cultural space in the northwest of Paris, and continues to push the boundaries of contemporary and experimental art.

4. Isabelle Boni-Claverie

Isabelle Boni-Claverie is a Parisian author, screenwriter, and director whose stories on both page and screen turn everyday experiences into art. She is best known for her groundbreaking 2015 documentary, Trop Noire pour être Française? (Too Black to be French?) that uses intimate accounts from the lives of black French citizens to reveal the realities of racial discrimination. Claverie’s stirring work provokes dialogue about the role that race plays in post-colonial French society. ​

5. Aurelie Ruby

Aurélie Ruby is the director behind Winter Guests, expériences d’exil (Winter Guests, experiences of exile), a theatrical platform for Syrian refugees here in France wanting to share their experiences through anecdotes, images, poems, dance, and music. Ruby and her husband Hamid Sulaiman, an artist and refugee himself in France, wanted to bring humanity back to the conversation on the refugee crisis and believed theatre to be a powerful and creative medium through which those who are living it on a daily basis could tell their stories. ​