Biography

Anne Kessler trained with Antoine Vitez at the École du Théâtre national de Chaillot. She was admitted as a resident of the Comédie-Française in 1989 and became its 488th member on 1 January 1994. Often called upon to perform the classical repertoire, playing comic, tragic or romantic roles with equal ease, she has taken part in major creations by contemporary authors at the Comédie-Française.


Among the renowned directors who have worked with her are Georges Lavaudant (Lorenzaccio by Musset), Jacques Lassalle (La Serva amorosa and Il Campiello by Goldoni, Platonov ou le Fléau de l'absence de pères by Chekhov), Alain Françon (Le Canard sauvage by Ibsen, La Trilogie de la villégiature by Goldoni and La Cerisaie by Chekhov), Jean-Luc Boutté (L'Impromptu de Versailles by Molière, Barber of Seville by Beaumarchais), Catherine Hiegel (The Miser and George Dandin by Molière), Jean-Pierre Vincent (La Mère coupable by Beaumarchais and Ubu roi by Jarry), Isabelle Nanty (L'Hôtel du Libre-Échange by Feydeau), Arnaud Desplechin (Père by Strindberg), Lars Norén (Poussière) and Christophe Honoré (Le Côté de Guermantes after Proust).

 

In 2006, as a director, she presented Grief[s] based on texts by Strindberg, Ibsen and Bergman, Trois hommes dans un salon based on an interview with Ferré, Brassens and Brel by François-René Cristiani, as well as La Double Inconstance by Marivaux, La Ronde after Schnitzler and Les Créanciers by Strindberg. Outside the Comédie-Française, she directed Des fleurs pour Algernon by Daniel Keyes, which received the prize for best private show at the Palmarès du Théâtre 2013 and the Molière for the best one-man show in 2014 for Grégory Gadebois. 
 

Also a painter, she designed the mural for Courteline's Un client sérieux directed by Nicolas Lormeau, the video production of Cyrano de Bergerac for Denis Podalydès and the painted canvases for Molière's Psyché for Véronique Vella. An exhibition of his paintings and drawings, Personnages, was presented in 2014 at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier.


Portrait © Stéphane Lavoué


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