ADRIEN MEUNIER

Adrien Meunier was born in 1977 in Fontainebleau. Raised in a Catholic family, he initially studied history at the Sorbonne, earning his bachelor's degree in 1999.

Theater and Stage Career

He began studying theater under Yves Furet in 1998, while simultaneously entering the Cours Florent directly into the second-year program. At Florent, he attended classes taught by Stéphane Mercoyrol and Lesley Chatterley (acting in English). Disappointed by the academicism or perhaps eager for immediate success, Meunier quickly began working with Ismaël Djema (+) and André Cazalas (+). Consequently, he left the Cours Florent without even asking for his professors' evaluations.

Adrien Meunier caught the public's attention in 2003 with "Hamlet ou les suites de la piété filiale" (Hamlet or the Consequences of Filial Piety), a one-man show adapted from one of Jules Laforgue's legendary moralities, directed by André Cazalas.

Backed by a partnership with UNESCO, Meunier traveled to Tokyo during the summer of 2003 to study Kabuki under the direction of Sensei Onoe Matsusuke and Sensei Matagoro (a Living National Treasure). Following a performance in the studio theater of the National Theatre of Tokyo, the teaching staff affectionately gave Meunier the nickname: "Papillon de Lune" (Moon Butterfly).

In 2004, Cazalas and Adrien Meunier collaborated once again, presenting Benjamin Fondane's "Le Festin de Balthazar" (Belshazzar's Feast) at the Maison de la Poésie in Paris. However, Meunier was unable to perform the full run of the show due to declining health.

In 2009, Meunier began collaborating with Les Cours du Sept in Paris, a theater school for passionate amateurs founded and directed by Anthony Rivoire. Together, Rivoire and Meunier created numerous shows through the Troupe du Sept, established by Rivoire in 2010.

In 2015, Rivoire directed Meunier in an extremely ambitious one-man show: "Touit-Touit Club", based on Louis-Ferdinand Céline's "Guignol's Band II". Céline was obsessed with this text throughout his life, constantly reworking it without ever publishing it. A video recording of the performance from May 8, 2015, can be found on YouTube by searching for the play's title and the actor's name.

Literary Works

As a poet, author, and playwright, Adrien Meunier has published several works across different genres:

2014: Published "Écueils d'Ailleurs" through Éditions du Panthéon.

2022: A passionate ufology enthusiast, Meunier released his major novel, "Gérard & les Ummates", via Amazon KDP—a massive project that took 17 years of work.

2022: Released several other titles the same year, including "L'Enquête", "Amnésies", "S'oublier d'être sans manquer de Vivre", and "La Femme : un palimpseste Ontologique".

2023: Published his major poetic work, "Cancer de la Virginité", via Amazon KDP. In tandem, the English translation of his earlier poetry collection, Écueils d'Ailleurs, was made available on Amazon KDP under the Anglo-Saxon title "Sparkling Echoes".

2024: Published three short stories split into two books: "Recueil deux Nouvelles" and "À l'Ombre". The latter was his very first written text, for which author Christophe Ferré acted as a mentor, offering valuable advice to the budding writer at the time.

As a playwright, Meunier has written numerous plays, though only one has been produced on stage: "Le Sceau de Nuit" (The Seal of Night), which premiered in 2012 at the theater Le Passage vers les Étoiles, directed by Anthony Rivoire.

Visual Arts and Film

1996 (Film): Adrien Meunier directed a short film in the United States titled "Dry Hands". The film won first prize in the experimental category at the New York State Student Film Festival and is currently viewable on YouTube.

2014 (Exhibition): He exhibited his artwork at the Galerie Malin-Robin (rue Volta, Paris) in the "Exposition Citadelles", alongside Timothée Bordenave and Agnieszka Wogiel.

2024 (Exhibition): He showcased his work on the Avenue des Gobelins in Paris for the exhibition "Exquises Esquisses" (Exquisite Sketches), once again organized with the help of his close collaborator, the poet and graphic artist Timothée Bordenave.