
2 min
De la sexualité des orchidées (On The Sexuality of Orchids) by Sofia Teillet
In De la sexualité des orchidées (2018), actress Sofia Teillet probes the fascinating reproduction of a mischievous flower with both playfulness and seriousness. In a cross between a scientific lecture and a quirky monologue, she recounts, in a nutshell, our different ways of loving.
An actress on stage
After a year at the Cours Florent school of performing arts, Sofia Teillet joined the National Conservatory in Paris in 2006. During her three years of training, she worked with various directors: Yann-Joël Collin, with whom she notably revisited The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard by Anton Tchekhov, Bernard Bloch and Benjamin Abitan.
The actress made her film debut in front of Philippe Garrel's camera in La Jalousie (Jealousy) in 2013, and L'Amant d'un jour (Lover for a Day) in 2017.
Sofia Teillet also produces public readings and radio plays. Since 2013, she has been writing and performing solo shows on stage.
From theatre to conference
Halfway between a play and a conference, De la sexualité des orchidées takes the opportunity to introduce us to the mysterious techniques used by the orchid to ensure its fertilisation. Bursting with biological data and scientific studies, the show reveals a plant-based sexuality that is astonishing to say the least.
Alone in front of the audience, Sofia Teillet uses humour and differences, delivering a theatrical performance in the form of a natural science class.
Talking about love
Sofia Teillet decided to examine the sexuality of plants following an internship in June 2014 led by Frédéric Ferrer, a director and geographer. With a keen interest in L'Intelligence des fleurs (The Intelligence of Flowers) by Maurice Maeterlinck (1902), she then studied The Various Contrivances By Which Orchids Are Fertilised By Insects by Charles Darwin (1870) to create the raw material for her show.
The show is based on how plants are rooted, which makes their reproduction complex. In deciphering the orchid’s sensual spectacle, the show mainly questions, with a lot of humour and poetry, our own existence and way of loving.
Shown in Europe
Created in July 2018 at Lausanne’s Petit Théâtre, De la sexualité des orchidées was performed just after at the OFF Festival in Avignon, before it embarked on a French and European tour. Sofia Teillet notably performed in Switzerland at the Printemps Carougeois and at the Berne Festival in 2019, and at Atelier 201 in Brussels in February 2020.
The play will then be presented at the Dona Maria II National Theatre in Lisbon for the first time in March 2020.

De la sexualité des orchidées, by Sofia Teillet, will be presented as part of the Theater Focus of the Institut français during the Avignon Festival, from 7 to 11 July 2021.
De la sexualité des orchidées, by Sofia Teillet is part of highlights about Women Strength in Lisboa at the Dona Maria II National Theatre.
The highlights, supported by the Institut français, also includes - En considérant « Le Théâtre et la Peste », after Jean Racine and Antonin Artaud, staged by Frank Castorf and Please please please, by La Ribot, Tiago Rodrigues and Mathilde Monnier.