Play: “Le cercle des philosophes disparus”

📅 Thursday, 20 November 2025 – 6:30 p.m.
📍 Aula Maxima, Université Catholique de Lille, 60 boulevard Vauban
Free admission

The performance will be in French

REGISTRATION

The Faculty of Law of the Université Catholique de Lille, in collaboration with the Sorbonne Law School – Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, is pleased to host the play “Le cercle des philosophes disparus“, written and directed by Dominique Rousseau, Emeritus Professor of Public Law at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

The action takes place in October 1799, on the eve of Bonaparte’s coup d’État (7 November 1799 – 18 Brumaire). In her salon in Coppet, where she is working on her book Considerations on the Revolution, Madame de Staël gathers Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot and Condorcet to reflect on the decade that has passed since the Revolution.

This piece of civic theatre invites audiences to engage with questions that remain highly relevant today. Through this imagined dialogue, it explores the responsibility of intellectuals and jurists in democratic life: should they commit themselves, speak out and take action?

Cast:

• Madame de Staël: Mathilde Heitzmann-Patin, Professor of Public Law, Université du Mans
• Voltaire: Xavier Philippe, Professor of Public Law, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
• Rousseau: Pascal Beauvais, Professor of Private Law and Criminal Sciences, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
• Condorcet: Théo Ducharme, Professor of Public Law, Université Aix-Marseille
• Diderot: Thibaud Mulier, Senior Lecturer in Public Law, Université de Nanterre