Director Daniel Benoin wields art as a scalpel to probe, unsettle, and inspire.
A theatre’s worth lies not in walls or seats but in the audacity of its programme. Over the course of a dozen seasons, Théâtre Anthéa in Antibes has become the stage where craft and message meet, where intellectual authors hold the door open for the radical experimenter. The new season raises the curtain on productions teeming with originality, emotional resonance, inventive reinterpretations, and collaborations across theatre, dance, opera, and circus, promising to take performers and audiences to new heights. But this year, Anthéa’s political undercurrent assumes the time-honored role of holding up a mirror to make us see ourselves clearly, even when (and especially when) we’d rather not look.
Under director Daniel Benoin’s visionary leadership, Anthéa has achieved the impossible: to secure its place as France’s second most important theatre after the Comédie Française in Paris. After 12 successful years, a symbolic circle closes and a new one begins. Benoin has chosen to make this milestone season his most ambitious yet: 80 spectacles across 229 performances launch artistic fireworks that span continents, languages, and art forms. It is a statement of intent from a theatre that has spent over a decade proving it can compete with and even surpass the bigger state-funded TNN in neighboring Nice and demonstrates that brilliant stage craft exists far beyond Paris
Apart from his creative genius, Benoin’s biggest strengths – fearlessness, courage, and conviction – are the red thread throughout this new season. At age 77, with one of the most impressive lists of credentials of any contemporary theatre maker of our times to his name, he has neither to lose nor to prove anything. This is why he no longer uses his measured voice this year but wants to shout from the proverbial rooftop to get people to wake up, pay attention, and raise up against the forces that are trying to take over the world as we know it.
Theatre has always been fearless about puncturing the pretensions of power, from Molière skewering courtly excess to Shakespeare’s thumbing his nose at tyrannical rulers. Like all great theatre makers, Benoin knows that his role is to proclaim that the king is naked. At the season’s provocative heart sits therefore his adaptation of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi, whose grotesque king feels unnervingly familiar in our current political moment. Inspired by our era’s “eccentric, volcanic” political figures, the play examines what happens when incompetence becomes a defining feature rather than a flaw, and when the absurd is normalized and celebrated. Benoin makes no attempt at subtlety – his promotional imagery alone reveals the contemporary target, with Jarry’s cowardly, greedy tyrant reimagined as a figure whose “mad material” becomes a surgical dissection of power without principle. Every generation meets its own Ubu, and ours comes with orange hair and an oval office.
Ubu Roi is the perfect coda to Collectif 8’s dystopian trilogy completed in 2024, which methodically worked through the unholy trinity of literary doom prophets: Orwell, Huxley, and Wells. Even though Anthéa’s house company is taking a creative break this year after producing one masterpiece after another since Anthéa’s opening in 2013, it will still remount two of its recent works: 1984, Orwell’s “dictatorship of terror”, and Le Meilleur des Mondes, Huxley’s “dictatorship of happiness”. As author, director, and actor Gaële Boghossian observed in her exploration of these texts, “each represents a different mechanism of control: brutal surveillance, seductive pacification, and the weaponization of information itself”. Later this year, Collectif 8 will travel to Mexico to participate in several international theatre festivals … and will no doubt return with countless new inspirations.
For all its social critique, Anthéa’s genius has always been its ability to balance the profound with the purely celebratory. Artists from all corners of the world converge here, each with their own vision and culture. This bridge-building has been Benoin’s signature since he first conceived Anthéa with Mayor Jean Leonetti all those years ago. Their shared vision was simple: create a space “where cultural diversity can express itself freely and be accessible to all.”
This approach refuses to talk down to audiences and does not assume spectators cannot handle both political provocation and pure artistic beauty, often in the same evening. Benoin also wanted to do away with the language barrier for the international community that calls the Côte d’Azur home. While Paris theatres still largely assume their audiences speak fluent French, he understands that his region attracts a global population hungry for culture but not always able to access traditional French theatre, strongly based on words, cultural innuendoes and subtle nuances. What was almost revolutionary in 2013, in a country so proud of its language and authors, has since inspired many other theatres.
The 2025/26 programming once again reflects this international sophistication. Naturally, we can only feature a limited selection of shows here but these are our personal highlights from an exceptionally rich and vibrant programme:
PLAYS
17 – 19 September, 2025 / 3 – 14 February, 2026
Collectif 8 turns Orwell’s 1984 into a razor-sharp exploration of surveillance, deception, and erased identities. Winston Smith and Julia’s forbidden love sparks a flicker of rebellion in a society engineered for obedience.
10 and 11 October, 2025
Swiss writer and poet Robert Walser’s texts are woven into an intimate, poetic performance that examines human vulnerability and the enduring struggle of existence.
3 – 5 November, 2025
Molière’s most complex and nuanced play exposes the hypocrisies of human relations through Alceste. In a pared-down staging led by Éric Elmosnino, acclaimed director Georges Lavaudant probes the characters’ minds, revealing the illusory nature of truth.
7 and 8 November, 2025
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ timeless 18th-century novel comes alive, retaining linguistic elegance while exposing its characters’ destructive passions. Merteuil and Valmont’s unspoken love wreaks havoc through pride and manipulation.
24 and 28 November, 2025
Daniel Benoin’s adaptation of Kressmann Taylor’s play is set around a series of letters between two friends, Martin in Germany and Max in the United States. The story traces the breakdown of their friendship as Martin embraces Nazism. Previously presented as a staged reading, Benoin now directs it as a full performance, starring Michel Boujenah.
6 – 17 January, 2026
Anthéa regular Clément Althaus transforms Victor Hugo’s little known drama into his trademark hybrid theatre experience where a flamboyant cabaret singer stirs passion and jealousy in a working-class Parisian garret. Music, electronics, and live performance heighten the stakes, blending 19th-century social critique with a strikingly contemporary energy.
6 – 8 February, 2026
This glimpse into the impressionist painter’s life shows him at a time when, shattered by the death of his wife, he finds inspiration again in Rouen with the help of his friend Durand-Ruel and a young muse. The moving, lively play traces the artist’s return to painting and the light that rekindles his creativity.
3 – 21 March, 2026
The ruthless, greedy, and cowardly Ubu seizes power with brutal force, escalating his ambition toward Russia. Considered scandalous at its premiere in 1896, the play resonates stronger than ever today, with Daniel Benoin’s reinvention echoing the satirical power and absurd tyranny later immortalised in Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator.
1 – 4 April, 2026
La Disparition de Josef Mengele
The theatrical adaptation of Olivier Guez’s book follows Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz doctor who fled to Argentina in 1949. For forty years, he lived with the protection of family, friends, and states, dying quietly in Brazil in 1979. The play, hailed as the 2024 sensation at the Avignon Theatre Festival, explores this total impunity, culminating in his final confrontation with his son Rolf, the key witness who challenges him over his horrific crimes.
8 and 9 April, 2026
La Traiettoria Calante (in Italian with French subtitles)
Young Italian performer Pietro Giannini presents a haunting one-man show reflecting on the 2018 collapse of Genoa’s main highway. Through personal memories, interviews, and evocative fragments of the city, he embodies a modern Hamlet navigating loss and absence, capturing the tragedy and resilience of Genoa with intensity and dignity.
10 – 12 April, 2026
Multi-award winning playwright Florian Zeller weaves a tangled web of affairs which sparks a comedic battle of lies and secrets: when spouses and a best friend cross lines of fidelity, everyone scrambles to hide the truth while digging for it. Full of sharp interrogations, outrageous denials, and twisted logic, this is a “marriage police” farce in overdrive.
29 April – 13 May, 2026
Collectif 8’s adaptation of Huxley’s dystopian novel depicts a highly controlled society where people are engineered and conditioned to accept rigid social hierarchies and chemically induced “happiness,” eliminating individuality, critical thought, and authentic emotion.
21 and 22 May, 2026
Inspired by the author Aïla Navidi’s experience as the child of political refugees, the play traces the journey of Mina and Fereydoun, who fled to France after the revolution in Iran, as seen through the eyes of their daughter Yalda. It explores memory, exile, anger, and longing for their homeland, as well as the search for a place to belong.
28 – 30 May, 2026
No season is complete without this French classic. Here, the immense Edouard Baer inhabits Cyrano with intensity and nuance, revealing a hero who is fragile, brilliant, loyal, and fully alive. Between laughter and restrained tears, theatrical virtuosity and raw emotion, this performance brings the legendary panache of Cyrano vividly to life.
DANCE
14 – 16 November, 2025
One of the world’s most celebrated dance-theatre companies, known for its hyperrealistic, fantastical productions, stages a sensory journey where past and present collide in a haunting spectacle of dance, myth, and human experience.
2 December, 2025
Twelve dancers from two continents come together in a vibrant fusion of dance, theatre, and music. Against a backdrop of ecological crises and technological fascination, the performers explore humanity’s fragile relationship with nature in a dazzling, multicultural dialogue.
7 December, 2025
Nederlands Dans Theater (offsite at Palais des Festivals, Cannes)
This young Dutch company, currently on a European tour, presents a triple bill of striking works that illuminate our present. From Botis Seva’s hip-hop-infused energy to Alexander Ekman’s unique movements and Marcos Morau’s blend of folklore and virtuosity, the program showcases dance in all its innovation, vitality, and joy.
24 and 25 March, 2026
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, a cult figure of contemporary dance, presents three powerful solos by dancers from Australia, Japan, and Colombia. Each piece reflects the tragedies of their homelands, from deforestation and nuclear disaster to guerrilla warfare, while celebrating the strength and vitality of artistic expression.
CIRCUS
27 and 28 March, 2026
Finzi Pasca’s company of acrobats, actors, and musicians conjures Venice through carnival scenes, winding alleys, misty masks, and gondoliers’ silhouettes. Theatre, dance, acrobatics, circus, and opera converge to transform the stage into a shimmering Grand Canal of dreams and nocturnal enchantments.
7 – 9 April, 2026
Circus Baobab, a collective of Guinean and diaspora circus artists, blends traditional African circus with contemporary forms. Through acrobatics exploring water and environmental themes, performers integrate initiatory gestures, mask dances, sacred drums, and animal-inspired contortions, while reinventing movement with modern energy and codes.
MUSIC
29 and 30 November, 2025
After two acclaimed projects – the Frenchy jazz collaborations with international artists and a nationwide Zénith tour with his father Jacques – Thomas Dutronc returns with La recette du bonheur, a new stage show spanning acoustic purity and contemporary pop, from tender ballads to dazzling virtuoso flights, all powered by the camaraderie of his band.
16 and 17 December, 2025
A staple of French chanson for decades, Laurent Voulzy transforms the stage into a sanctuary for his enchanting harmonies and dreamy ballads. From Rockollection to Le Soleil Donne and Belle-Île-en-Mer, Marie-Galante, his melodies have quietly become the soundtrack of our lives.
18 December, 2025
Sheila is one of France’s most enduring pop stars, with a career spanning six decades from the yéyé era through disco, pop, and rock, and one of the few French singers to repeatedly chart on the US Billboard. Anthéa welcomes her to Antibes on her 80th birthday to celebrate a lifetime of success and influence on the French music scene.
1 January, 2026
L’Orchestre national de Cannes
Conductor Benjamin Lévy and his band ring in the New Year with a whirlwind of Latin American rhythms and colours. From Cuba to Argentina, Mexico to Brazil, the program pulses with sensual, exhilarating, and intoxicating movement, making dance music the vibrant thread of this effervescent journey.
23 and 24 January, 2026
The “most French of all English singers” returns with his introspective fifth album for a show that is at once generous, intimate, and electrifying. With his trademark hat firmly in place, he embodies the eternal hobo of folk and rock, bringing his unmistakable energy and charm to our region once again.
10 and 11 February, 2026
Yannick Noah, Un p’tit tour à deux
The former top tennis player (and the only athlete to successfully reinvent himself as a musician, though John McEnroe might disagree!) takes the stage for an intimate acoustic tour. Accompanied by guitarist Nicolas Paillet, he revisits his biggest hits with warmth, sharing stories and memories, creating a sincere, sunlit, and feel-good musical experience up close with the audience.
11 and 13 June, 2026
Usually, it is Daniel Benoin himself who mounts an opera that concludes a season like a firework finale. This time the honour goes to Theater Bonn from Germany who present Tosca, one of the world’s most beautiful and beloved operas: The year is 1800, the place is Rome. Mario Cavaradossi aids a fugitive while the ruthless Scarpia manipulates jealousy to capture him and his lover, Floria Tosca. Tosca becomes his pawn until she strikes back, fleeing with Mario in a desperate final act.
IMMERSION at Anthéa
On several occasions from spring to early summer, this digital arts programme transforms the theatre into a playground for bold, contemporary creation. The events blend sound, performance, concert, and digital experimentation, culminating on the rooftop with DJs, VJs, and discussion. With artists from Cyril Atef to Vincent Moon, each soirée invites the audience into an immersive journey where technology and live art converge.
The Lucky Thirteenth Season
What a programme, what a stroke of genius! As Anthéa has confidently settled into its second decade, it is worth remembering that when Benoin left his prestigious post at Nice’s Théâtre National to build something new in Antibes, critics called the project overly ambitious. Today, with Nice’s theatre unmoored, and Anthéa shaping the path that Paris follows, those early doubts have shown to be unfounded. The theatre has achieved something remarkable: it has become essential, not just to its immediate community but to French culture more broadly.
The numbers tell their own story: over a million spectators, 92% of seats sold, and a 2025/26 goal of 160,000 visitors. But beyond the statistics lies something more significant: Anthéa has become proof that cultural decentralization works. While Paris institutions worry about aging audiences and declining relevance, this Antibes theatre draws crowds in their thirties and forties. This proves that when you offer art that is accessible and present it in a way that everyone, not just the intellectual elite, can identify with, people respond.
But Anthéa is also a regional reference for its outstanding educational and pedagogic work with the young generation. If you have ever been present at an afternoon show for students, you have seen what happens: In the entrance area, waiting for admission to the hall, they do what young people do… they giggle, yell, push, shove, and jostle. As soon as they are ushered in, something happens: a few hundred noisy teenagers spontaneously lower their voices to a whisper and absorb the artistic sanctity of the space. A staff or cast member helps them mentally prepare for what they are about to experience. And when the curtain rises, even the last babbler falls silent, puts their cell phone away, and allows themselves to be carried away by the emotions of the live play. That is the magic that connects young people more to the real world than any screen or digital tool ever could.
In France, thirteen is a lucky number. It is also the beginning of a new cycle, after a completed dozen. In Antibes, it promises to be the year this remarkable theatre cements its position as not just the second House in France, but increasingly the one redefining the future of French cultural life.
For full programming details and ticket information, visit the Anthéa website or call +33 (0)4 83 76 13 13.
Season tickets and individual tickets sales are both open.
CONTACT DETAILS
anthéa
260, avenue Jules Grec
06600 Antibes
Email: contact@anthea-antibes.fr
All photos courtesy Anthéa Théätre Antibes
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