PRINCETON FRENCH THEATER FESTIVAL: Antoine Mathieu and Marie Desgranges in “Ceux qui restent (The Ones Who Remain),” which will be presented on September 30 and October 1 as part of the Princeton French Theater Festival. Most performances will be in French, some with English supertitles, and are free and open to the public. Performances will be held at venues across Princeton University. (Photo Credit: Raynaud de Lage)

Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, Department of French and Italian, and L’Avant-Scène will present the fifth annual Seuls en Scène, French Theater Festival, which will take place from September 22 through October 6 at venues across the University’s campus. Most performances will be in French, some with English supertitles, and are free and open to the public.

Marking the launch of the 16th season of the student French theater workshop L’Avant-Scène, Seuls en Scène brings celebrated French actors and directors to the University and the local community. This year’s festival includes an acclaimed play from the 2011 Avignon Theater Festival, a hit of the 2015 Avignon Fringe Festival, works by some of the most noted contemporary French playwrights, and a dance piece. The festival will showcase the diversity currently on French stages, and, as in recent years, it will unite members of the new leading generation in French theater with their more prominent peers, as well as with early career theater artists. Seuls en Scène has been organized by Florent Masse, Senior Lecturer in the Department of French and Italian and director of L’Avant-Scène. While most performances will be in French, three productions will include English supertitles, and one will be presented in English.

Kicking off the festival, Roland Auzet will direct Anne Alvaro and Audrey Bonnet in Dans la solitude des champs de coton (In the Loneliness of the Cotton Fields)by Bernard-Marie Koltès on September 22 and 23 at 8 p.m. in the Frick Chemistry Building Atrium on the Princeton campus. In the play, in an undefined place and time, a dealer (Alvaro) and a client (Bonnet) meet. The two protagonists assess one another before launching into a quarrel of words, full of poetry. Auzet stages and sets this famous play by Koltès to music in all-new version, with a twist: each spectator will participate using a set of headphones.

Renowned playwright, director, and head of T2G-Théâtre de Gennevilliers Pascal Rambert will return to Princeton to present Clôture de l’amour (Closing of Love)on September 24 at 8 p.m. and September 25 at 5 p.m. He will direct Audrey Bonnet and perform in the play himself. Written for the 2011 Avignon Theater Festival, the play Closing of Love was awarded the 2012 Prix de la Meilleure création d’une pièce en langue française (Best French Language Play) by the Syndicat de la Critique and the Grand Prix de littérature dramatique by the Centre national du théâtre.

On September 28 and 29 at 8 p.m., Mohamed El Khatib, a prominent new artist who made a lasting impression at the Avignon Fringe Festival in 2015 will perform in his play Finir en beauté (A Beautiful Ending). From interviews, emails, texts, administrative documents and other “real sources,” Mohamed El Khatib, alone on stage, (re)constructs a delicate tale of mourning the death of his mother in a touching piece of work that achieves a certain timelessness. After studying at the CADAC (Dramatic Arts Center of Mexico), and completing a Ph.D. in sociology about artistic reviews in the French press, Khatib co-founded the Zirlib collective in 2008.

Caroline Guiela Nguyen, a prominent new artist on the French stage, will direct Mon grand amour (My Great Love) on September 30 at 5:00, 7:30, and 10:00 p.m. and October 1 at 3:00, 5:00, and 7:30 p.m., in a site-specific performance, which she recently premiered at Festival Ambivalence(s) of Comédie de Valence in the Rhône Valley region. With her company Les Hommes Approximatifs, and her French and Vietnamese actors, Nguyen often integrates her native Vietnam into her plays.

On September 30 and October 1 at 8 p.m., playwright and director David Lescot, will direct Marie Desgrangesand Antoine Mathieu in Ceux qui restent (The Ones Who Remain). April 19, 2013 marked the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, after which it was destroyed.