Le Birgit Ensemble

Julie Bertin
After studying philosophy at the University Paris I-Sorbonne, Julie Bertin joined the Studio Théâtre in Asnières in 2009, before joining the Conservatoire national supérieur d’art dramatique two years later. She started her career as a director with an adaptation of Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, before creating Berliner Mauer: vestiges with Jade Herbulot. The company they founded, Le Birgit Ensemble, creates shows that question and recount the story of Europe since 1945. They created a second show, Pour un Prélude (For a Prelude) in 2015, and are finishing a tetralogy called Europe, My Love with Memories of Sarajevo and In the ruins of Athens, both created for the 71st edition of the Festival d’Avignon. As an actress, Julie Bertin has appeared in Le Dilemme du poisson-chat (The Catfish’s Dilemma), written and directed by Kevin Garnichat at the Studio Théâtre in Asnières, and in L’Héritier de village (The Heir of the Village), directed by Sandrine Anglade, created at the centre Georges Simenon in Rosny-sous-Bois, and which toured France in 2016 and 2017. 

Jade Herbulot
Like her colleague and teammate, Jade Herbulot joined the Studio Théâtre in Asnières after studying literature at the École normale supérieure in Lyon. Her meeting with Clara Hédouin led to their adapting and directing The Three Musketeers – The series, based on Alexandre Dumas’s novel, as a series of shows performed in public places. After training at the Conservatoire national supérieur d’art dramatique and founding the Birgit Ensemble with Julie Bertin in 2013, they decided to ignore the fourth wall and the contemplative aspect of theatre to create a more direct relationship with the audience and make their active participation an entire aspect of their direction. Their company is made up of artists born between 1986 and 1990, who share an understanding of the world and of the place current topics can have in their work. As an actress, Jade Herbulot has appeared notably in Marivaux’s Infidelities at the Théâtre des Quartiers d’Ivry, directed by Adel Hakim (2015), and in an adaptation of The Iliad by director Pauline Bayle (2016), which was created at the Théâtre de Belleville and later toured France.

Portrait of Le Birgit Ensemble © portrait Pierre Grosbois