Théâtre – La Fontaine, l’intemporel

1683. Jean de La Fontaine sees, yet again, the Académie française slip through his fingers.

The writer’s last chance: to compose a tribute to Louis XIV, whose whims he has never been able to flatter.
But when a mysterious figure appears, claiming to have come from the future,
La Fontaine is swept up in an unexpected ordeal, in which words will be his only weapon.

Amidst wit, rivalry and unlikely encounters, follow the fabulist on a human and literary adventure where eras collide.
Jean de La Fontaine as you’ve never seen him before!

His story and his fables, in a delightful comedy blending history, classical theatre and modernity.

Staged in July 2025 at the Théâtre du Vieux Sage in Avignon, this brilliant one-man show was one of the festival’s revelations for many audience members.
“Valentin Giard impresses with his subtle, rich, funny and highly precise performance. An outstanding storyteller, he breathes a fluid and original modernity into La Fontaine’s fables, as if they had been written today.

The staging, centred on the character’s meaning and passion, is underpinned by minimalist set design, allowing the text and the performance to take centre stage.” Alexandre Delimoges – director