The 79th Festival d’Avignon opened on Saturday, bringing the French city’s annual celebration of theatre back in full force after synchronising its ‘In’ and ‘Off’ programmes for the first time. Both strands run from 5 to 26 July, offering a combined 1,800 performances across 180 venues with about three million tickets available. Cape Verdean choreographer Marlene Monteiro Freitas launched the official ‘In’ festival in the Palais des Papes with “Nôt,” a dance work inspired by Scheherazade. The ‘In’ section lists 42 productions, including 32 world premieres, while the wider ‘Off’ fringe contributes the bulk of the schedule. Festival director Tiago Rodrigues said this year’s line-up engages with current events, highlighting conflicts in the Middle East and the high-profile Mazan rape trial. Arabic is the guest language, following English in 2023 and Spanish in 2024, with performers from Tunisia, Syria, Morocco and Lebanon among the participants. Headliners include the Comédie-Française’s overnight, eight-hour staging of Paul Claudel’s ‘Le Soulier de satin,’ which won five Molière awards in April, and a dance tribute to Jacques Brel led by choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker at the Carrière de Boulbon. Long-time Avignon visitor Thomas Ostermeier returns with Ibsen’s ‘The Wild Duck.’