When a mother and daughter's love is conjugated in the imperfect tense. Mi madre nada is a metaphorical excavation into the memory of a mother who is losing her memory. In 2019, the discovery of a fragmented journal written by her mother at the onset of her illness reveals its last traces before the forgetting. The final entry: a single vowel, the letter "A." Confronted with this mystery, the daughter embarks on an impossible quest to recover the lost word, a quest that becomes a journey through love, pain and absence. Performed in Spanish, with French and English subtitles.

Mi madre nada

Château de Saint-Chamand

Festival regulars, you surely know this big party that closes out Crush Day (organized with La Loge, the TU in Nantes, and the Théâtre Sorano). Turntables, sound, glow, arms in the air, laughter: the party! It now takes place at L'Extra, for non-stop fun!

L'Extra Club

La Manufacture

An evening honoring Václav Havel, featuring the presentation of the Václav Havel Prize and the world premiere of a staged reading of an unpublished text by Havel, "Šeřík", under the artistic direction of Frédéric Poty.

Václav Havel Prize Award Ceremony

When You Sleep, You Don't Feel Hungry is an Afro-queer medieval tale. Taking as its starting point his two years of literary preparatory studies at the Lycée Henri IV, Anthony Martine sets out to reflect on the complexity of being Black and queer, and of having grown up and dreamed in a white, heterosexual world.

When You Sleep, You Don't Feel Hungry

A musical reading by Ludmilla Dabo, adapted from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's letter, with musicians Gilles Normand (guitar) and Anthony Capelli (drums, computer). Between electronic music and free jazz.

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

Performance in German and French, with French surtitles. A ventriloquist of an unprecedented kind, Sarah Hugentobler gives voice to three characters, three individuals other than herself, under the gaze of a fifth who splits in two within a video counterpoint. Bin ich das? examines societal constructions of identity. Presented as part of the SCH (Swiss Selection at Avignon).

Bin Ich Das? Ein Solo Für Viele

L'Intra

A one-woman show in which the surge of life, freedom and resistance of one of Gaza's most remarkable poets bursts forth. Performed in Arabic with surtitles in French and English.

Gaza, Oh My Joy

A young actress tries to create a show about Maria Schneider. In this one-woman show staged as an open rehearsal, she lays out the difficulties she faces. With plenty of humor, awkwardness and self-mockery, Marilou Aussilloux gets things wrong, fails spectacularly, and sometimes feels like giving up.

Only Like Maria

Performer, researcher, director, Daniele De Michele invites us into his kitchen, where he prepares one of the most popular dishes in Italy every evening: pasta al sugo con le polpette (pasta with tomato sauce and meatballs). Intimate and political stories of Italian cuisine.

Cònsolo

Theatre and DJ set. Adapted from Guillaume Dustan's 1997 novel, a night at the Loco club in Paris during a Gay Tea Dance. Presented by Le T.O.C. – Théâtre Obsessionnel Compulsif, directed by Mirabelle Rousseau, with Nicolas Cartier.

Je sors ce soir

La Bodeguita

A day of scouting and artistic encounters, a program of readings and project presentations open to the public, organized in partnership by La Loge, Le T-U Nantes, Le Théâtre Sorano and La Manufacture.

Crush Day

A concert like a confidence, in the cabinet of sonic curiosities at the Musée Angladon, where the voice circulates bare. Acoustic version designed for unconventional venues and decentralization.

Solo at the Table

Musée Angladon

A very personal show by Michael De Cock: an engaging solo on the question "Can art save the world?" For ages 12 and up.

Paris et Miki

We staged a show about sexual assault, with as much humor as we could muster. It's cynical, mean and sincere, a kind of misplaced, grating comedy. A real show, undocumented.

Martine au viol

Who has ever won anything here besides their salary? Company presentation: the company Modes d'emploi, directed by stage director Johanne Débat, sensitively, mischievously and dynamically questions our society and its rules of the game.

Jour de chance

Décréation. Live a long and happy life, our dear friend. Let us hope the reign of King Herod never comes to an end.

Les Filles Soso in Avignon

Participatory contemporary theatre performance played in Spanish, with English and French subtitles. Margarita attends funerals as if it were an addiction; confronted with this truth, she joins an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, somewhere between laughter and discomfort.

The Best Magic Trick Ever Seen

Théâtre non verbal avec surtitres en français. Inspired by the play Audience by Václav Havel. A beer-fuelled, absurdist piece in which two performers wearing large masks lead the audience through a dizzying whirl of nonsense.

Antiwords

As part of the Pavilion of the Future. Exhibition by Felipe Muñoz Tirado.

To Watch the Mist

Each year, La Manufacture showcases a country in its programming. This year, Chile is represented through several artistic productions.

Pavilion of the Future – Chile

Loosely inspired by the comic book The Reddest Rose Blooms by Liv Strömquist. Digital dating tools produce a spectral phenomenon, a proliferation of ghosts. Drawing on personal accounts and documentary material, A Redder Rose explores relationships haunted by these ghosts: spaces of power where waiting, fear of loneliness and strategies designed to hold the other person's gaze intermingle.

A Redder Rose

In Thank You for Being Here, your presence is essential. Ontroerend Goed, the internationally acclaimed theatre collective known for its innovative productions, celebrates one of the fundamental elements of theatre: the audience. In this clever and witty piece, blending video and diverse perspectives, the boundaries between spectators and performers dissolve. But there is no need to worry: you have nothing to do. Make yourself comfortable, relax, and let yourself be celebrated!

Thank You for Being Here

Tributes to Zézette, Patti, George, Virginia, Goliarda: 5 women! Exhibition by Laurent Goei.

5 Windows on La Manufacture

Two-person monologue by Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas; performance in English with French subtitles. Presented by Cie Bert & Nasi following L'Addition at the 2023 Avignon Festival.

Tonight

An autobiographical one-person show blending stand-up, concert and musical comedy around Gloria Gaynor's I Am What I Am, about spiders, crappy jobs and self-acceptance.

Thank You for Your Understanding

The non-story of four characters stuck in an empty room, whose door is nonetheless not locked. Between the absurdity of Beckett and the offbeat humor of Monty Python, a metaphysical cartoon.

Should I Stay or Should I Stay

A fantastical tale about justice, guilt and the dizzying experience of discovering who you really are. Sam and Kate, inseparable friends, lure the man responsible for the assault on Kate's sister into an alley and steal his heart. Thrown into a river, the heart keeps beating, opening a strange rift in reality and in their friendship.

J'ai jamais…

JIMMY is the true story of a young man who assumed more than 500 different identities. Not driven by the lure of money, but simply, he says, "to be loved." What unfolds is the story of an impostor who gradually begins to doubt the imposture of others.

JIMMY

Hybrid theatre. A solo in a world that is wavering. On an island of cardboard, Guillaume Bariou embodies a drifting man, traversed by his thoughts and the stories of the world. Blending theatre, dance, music and image, Who Cares ? unfolds a sensitive crossing, at the heart of what collapses and is transformed within us.

Who Cares ?

1990. At the Vatican, Christine, a Franciscan novice mourning her Mother Superior, meets the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, queer activists who take her along to Paris, into a world where faith goes hand in hand with tolerance, AIDS prevention and extravagance. Christine discovers a new vision of self-giving and her dilemma: choosing the vows that will make her a saint or a rebel.

Lost In Vatican

A woman leaves her child on the RER platform with a stranger, then disappears. In 5 seconds – the time it takes for the doors to close – everything tips over. The one who takes the floor is that stranger. A young man still living at his mother's home. Over the course of one night wandering with the child, he tries to put words to what has happened. He speaks at the child's eye level, like a brother, against the clamor of judgments. This moment will bring about a revolution for him. For, in the encounter of these little Thumbelinas, something unexpected emerges: an infinite tenderness. The show addresses the myth of the "bad mother," the masculine injunctions inherited from the father, and our ways of loving and of connecting with one another.

5 Seconds

Quirky, heartfelt and full of energy, PAËLLA is a show that feels good: a shared moment where you laugh and sing, a love letter to celebration and to community! In the small town of Gouzin, the multipurpose hall is the festive heart of the commune. When it is threatened with closure, a handful of residents decide to defend it by organizing a cabaret in which they will, for the first time, be the performers.

PAËLLA

A culinary history of the mouth, from the primal cry to the final breath. A culinary performance by Compagnie Dérézo, directed by Charlie Windelschmidt, with Mathilde Velsch and Robin Le Moigne, conceived with culinary author Miske Alhaouthou.

Par les bouches

Château Le Plaisir

Immersive adaptation of Les Aveugles by Maurice Maeterlinck, conceived by Julien Dubuc for INVIVO. The twelve spectators take their places on stage, equipped with virtual reality headsets. Presented at the Festival OFF d'Avignon.

Les Aveugles

Centre Magnanen

A stage adaptation of Édouard Louis's first novel, performed by Jessica Gazon and actresses from northern France. A modern tale of the ugly duckling tracing the painful journey of young Eddy Bellegueule in a village in Picardy in the early 2000s.

Goodbye Eddy Bellegueule

A solo performance taking the form of a race in search of emancipation, fleeing authority and freeing itself from norms. Based on Peines Mineures by Sonia Chiambretto.

Au Bon Pasteur – Peines mineures (2)

Four cowboys on a weekend. Deep down in their thoughts, they are heroes of the Far West, but in everyday life, their heroism is cruelly absent. With impassive faces, they analyze their relationship to the world, to work, to women, and to themselves. The image that Desperado gives of men is not very flattering. And that is what makes it so funny. Irresistible, biting humor.

La Manufacture

Jul 20, 2026

Mi madre nada

18 - 20 Jul, 2026

L'Extra Club

La Manufacture