French Artist Antony De Azevedo Brings ‘Richard’ to San Francisco’s Alliance Française this September

The Alliance Française de San Francisco is proud and delighted to welcome Antony De Azevedo, independent producer, director, adaptor, and actor, for an extraordinary performance of his critically acclaimed play Richard on September 18, 2025. 

This event promises to be a cultural highlight of the season at AFSF: a bold reimagining of Shakespeare’s Richard III, blending classical tragedy with urban modernity in a strikingly original theatrical experience. Conceived and directed by Antony De Azevedo, Richard is based on Richard III by William Shakespeare, using the French translation by François-Victor Hugo. But this is no conventional period piece. Instead, the audience is transported to the grim underbelly of the Paris metro, to a fictional station named Pouvoir (“Power”). 

There, Richard is a destitute man, his leg ravaged by gangrene, living invisibly among commuters. One drunken evening, he finds a discarded crown from a king cake in a trash bin, triggering an imagined ascent to power as the tyrannical Richard III. In this urban fable, metro announcements become divine commands, and a mysterious female passenger transforms into all the pivotal figures from the original tragedy — Lady Anne, Queen Elizabeth, Margaret, Clarence, even Death herself. 

In this intense 75-minute two-hander, Antony De Azevedo performs the role of Richard, while Poppée Bashung, daughter of legendary French singer Alain Bashung, embodies a mesmerizing array of characters. From businesswoman to mythical specter, her performance blurs the lines between reality and hallucination. Bashung, a rising star of French stage and screen, trained at the Cours Florent and L’École du Jeu, and has appeared in television series such as Mytho and Les Bracelets Rouges. Her theatrical partnership with De Azevedo began in 2022 with Orgie, a provocative adaptation of Pasolini’s play, also produced by De Azevedo.

The show’s scenography, designed by Citronelle Dufay, transforms the stage into a stylized metro platform, complete with a bench and symbolic trash can. With lighting effects, ambient sound, and a dreamlike aesthetic, the production shifts seamlessly between reality and fantasy — evoking influences ranging from David Lynch to Luc Besson. The result is a haunting meditation on power, madness, social invisibility, and the human desire to matter. 

Who is Antony De Azevedo? 

Antony De Azevedo is an independent artist whose career spans over two decades. He began his training at the Conservatoire National de Bordeaux with Isabelle Renaud, followed by advanced studies with Jean Périmony at the École Périmony in Paris. His professional journey has been shaped by a diverse array of influences across genres, styles, and disciplines. 

In theatre, De Azevedo has performed under the direction of Roger Louret in works by Molière, Chekhov, and Roberto Athayde, as well as in Louret’s original cabaret creations at Les Baladins en Agenais in Monclar. His collaboration with Louret extended to assistant directing and producing. In Bordeaux, he has worked with noted directors such as Gilbert Tiberghien, Gérard David, Stéphane Alvarez, and Xavier Viton, performing everything from Molière and Chekhov to contemporary playwrights like Edward Bond and modern café-théâtre under Amandine Pommier. 

After graduating from the Cours Périmony in 2006, he appeared in Nom de Zeus, directed by Nicolas Lumbreras at Théâtre Pixel in Paris, followed by Les 4 Vérités by Marcel Aymé in an international tour with iconic actress Marthe Mercadier. The tour included venues such as the Théâtre de la Tête d’Or in Lyon, the Théâtre de la Princesse Grace in Monaco, the Opéra de Berne in Switzerland, and L’Odéon in Marseille. 

Since 2018, he has been a recurring performer in the comedies of Alil Vardar in Paris and Nice. In 2019, he led two runs of Le Journal d’un fou by Gogol, directed by Thierry Harcourt at Théâtre des Déchargeurs in Paris. 

On screen, De Azevedo has been directed by Coline Serreau, Philippe Venault, Bénédicte Delmas, Lionel Smila, and Emmanuelle Caquille in numerous productions for TF1 and France 3. Most recently, he has appeared in the acclaimed France 2/Kwaï series Filles du Feu, directed by Magaly Richard Serrano. 

In 2015, he founded Impact Productions https://tourneesip.wixsite.com/impact-productions, an independent company focused on theatrical creation and innovation. Through this platform, he has produced and directed several ambitious works, including Les Fourberies de Scapin on the Beach, Signor di Pourceaugnac, Feu la mère de Madame, Le Songe d’une Nuit d’Été, Hamlet, Juliette et Roméo, and most recently Orgie by Pasolini. In Orgie, he again collaborated with Poppée Bashung, featuring scenography by Citronelle Dufay — a creative trio reunited for Richard. 

The Alliance Française is deeply honored to present this powerful, visually daring, and emotionally resonant work. With Richard, Antony De Azevedo offers a compelling reinterpretation of Shakespeare that feels both timeless and urgently relevant. On September 18, join us underground — at the crossroads of ambition, madness, and poetic decay — where one man’s fantasy of greatness meets his tragic fate. 

For more information or to reserve tickets, please visit the Alliance Française website afsf.com or contact them at [email protected].