Le Prophète

Each summer, France Culture takes over the courtyard of the Calvet Museum for a week of readings, poetry, thought, and artistic creations. In resonance with the Festival d’Avignon’s programme, this edition celebrates Arab culture and language—its literature and musicality. Renowned actresses and actors will lend their voices to emblematic texts, joined by writers, poets, musicians, and guest artists specially invited for the occasion.

The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

A masterpiece whose success has never waned since its publication in 1923, this text oscillates between metaphysical questioning and a hymn to beauty, preserving all its mystery and evocative power. As Syrian poet Adonis wrote, Gibran sought “to make bloom within humanity everything that transcends it and is greater than itself: love, joy, revolt, freedom.” A message of wisdom that only poetry, in its sudden brilliance, can bring forth.

Khalil Gibran was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, and artist who wrote in both Arabic and English. Born in 1883 in Bsharri, Lebanon, he died in 1931 in New York. He is best known as the author of The Prophet, a masterpiece whose success has never waned since its publication in 1923. It has since become one of the best-selling books of all time, translated into over 100 languages.

With actors from the 84th class of ENSATT (École nationale supérieure des arts et techniques du théâtre):
Maylis Calvet, Fannie Fararik, Maëlle Garcia-Kenoui, Nils Garrivier, Véronique Gawedzki, Tristan Legras, Quentin Varnat, and Julie Wauthier
Selection of excerpts and direction Baptiste Guiton
Translation Anne Wade Minkowski, published by Gallimard
Original music and performance Olivier Longer
Assistant director Claire Chaineaux