Festival d'Anjou

Festival d'Anjou: 75 years of theater in Anjou

Born in 1950 from a prestigious evening at the Château de Brissac, the Festival d'Anjou has become over the decades the second theater festival in France, just after the Avignon Festival. It was Prefect Jean Morin who, seduced by the majesty of the castle, entrusted the Angevin René Rabault with the organization of a performance of Romeo and Juliet on June 9, 1950. The success was immediate.

A history marked by great names

In 1952, actor and director Marcel Herrand took over the artistic direction and renamed the event "Festival d'art dramatique d'Angers". After his death in 1953, Jean Marchat and Albert Camus shared the direction for a time. In 1973, the event took the name Festival d'Anjou to reflect the growing involvement of the department. From 1984 to 2001, Jean-Claude Brialy transformed the festival by multiplying shows and attracting the greatest actors. Nicolas Briançon succeeded him from 2003 to 2020, introducing contemporary themes and creating Les Hivernales in 2018. Since 2020, Jean Robert-Charrier has been the artistic director.

Exceptional heritage sites

The Festival d'Anjou stands out for the beauty of its performance venues. The Château du Plessis-Macé, a medieval jewel surrounded by moats, hosts open-air performances in its inner courtyard. The Grand-Théâtre d'Angers, Place du Ralliement, offers an Italian-style setting for indoor plays. The Dôme de Saumur and the Théâtre Bouvet Ladubay in Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Florent complete this unique theatrical map in the Loire Valley.

An eclectic and demanding program

Each edition offers about twenty shows mixing comedies, dramas, contemporary creations, and revivals of great classics. The festival regularly hosts leading artists: Isabelle Carré, François Morel, Stéphane Freiss, Joël Pommerat, and many others have performed on its stages. In 2009, the festival became a Public Interest Group (EPCC) under the name Anjou Théâtre, uniting the Department of Maine-et-Loire and the host municipalities.