At the Avignon "off" Festival, the sensitive confession of Annette, 75 years old, popular heroine

We can't help but love Annette Baussart, and we love her very much. She's 75 years old, the show bears her first name, and she's a bit of an unexpected "star" of the Avignon "off" Festival. Spontaneous, sensitive, endearing, mischievous, and witty, she tells her life story, accompanied by two actresses and two dancers, on the stage of the Théâtre des Doms, and her story has the feel of a thrilling novel whose pages we could devour.

Annette is a popular heroine, whose story of emancipation sketches a memory of the evolution of women's lives since the 1950s. She confided to the director Clémentine Colpin, during numerous interviews, her intimate experiences, her choices, her fragilities and her struggles. From this rich testimony, close to confession, was born an original and very fresh show that avoids long monologues. Wandering through Annette's memories reconciles us with the passing of time and pushes us to look at older people differently.

There is joy in this show, thanks to Annette's frankness and nonconformity, and also thanks to a staging that looks like a musical comedy to illustrate this not-so-ordinary life. Since childhood, Annette has always struggled with the role that has been assigned for too long to little girls, women, mothers. At a very young age, she loved nothing more than dancing to Que sera, sera (1956), played by Doris Day , and dreamed of being Debbie Reynolds singing Good Morning (1952). Later, she worked in a typing pool, then in a textile company.

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