Born in Condé sur l’Escaut, Miss Clairon (1723-1803) was the 18th century’s most famed French theatre actress, and yet history totally erased her renown. Two tributes will be paid to Miss Clairon : an unheard reading by actress Françoise Gillard, member of the Comédie Française and an exhibition.

As a famous actress, she succeeded in rising through the partitioned hierarchical society of the Ancien Régime to become Voltaire’s favourite actress, and the most praised member of the Comédie-Française. A retrospective also intended to reinstate one of the first theatre theoretician, whose influence keeps shaking theatrical practices and the actor-tress performance. Her precious and yet unknown memoirs read by Françoise Gillard are a testament to her tremendous influence on great thinkers from the Enlightenment, such as Diderot.