On March 16, 2016, something extraordinary unfolded. For one full day, nearly a hundred scientists transformed the Théâtre “Maison de la Poésie” into a living stage. And the actors? The scientists themselves! Even William Shakespeare might have envied such a spectacle.

The curtain rose with a presentation by Yasmine Belkaid, director of the Institut Pasteur, setting the tone for what would become a striking fusion of science and drama.

In the first act, three very experienced scientists (acting: Agnes Lehuen, Jérôme Bertherat, Sophie Vaulont), stepped forward - not to boast of triumphs, but to confess the hidden truths of their craft: Failure. Serendipity. Endurance. Self-belief. These, they revealed, are the real forces that shape a scientific life. Their revelations ignited a heated confrontation by two of them over how knowledge should be published.

Then came the second act - a trial unlike any other. “Cancer” stood accused before the audience, defended and prosecuted with fierce conviction by three advocates (Sandra Guilmeau, Bruno Martin, Djihad Hadjadj). Arguments clashed, emotions surged, and in the end, the verdict was delivered by judge Yonatan Ganor: guilty. 

In the third act, the stage belonged to the young (Louis Thomeret, Jeanne Navarre, Lucie Simoni, Jeanne Pitiot, Kateryna Stepaniuk). One by one, five emerging scientists stepped into the spotlight, each armed with nothing but three minutes and a vision. Their voices carried the promise of the future.

The fourth act shifted tone. Representatives of more experienced scientists returned (Marion Regnier, Matthieu Rousseau, Luca Simula), no longer speaking of the past and present, but daring to imagine what lies ahead - their projects stretching beyond the horizon of the known.

And then, as all great performances must, it ended. Not with silence, but with release. The final act, animated by Masaya Oshima, Carole Nicco and Giorgio Thomas, dissolved into magic and laughter, conversation, and the clinking of glasses, before science returning to life, as the theatre emptied and the night carried the story onward.