L'Instant poésie (Instant poetry)
of Séphora Pondi, actress, novelist and theater director
Text adapted from French and image from France Culture. Included is the French-language podcast of the 20 episodes
Between poetry, theater and autofiction, the actress, novelist and theater director Séphora Pondi, of the Comédie-Française, presents a selection of poetic texts that reflects her, inspires her and drives her passion.
Born in Gennevilliers in 1992 to parents of Cameroonian origin, Séphora Pondi often says that she grew up between several cities, moving as many as ten times before she was eighteen years old. She was six years old when she stepped on the stage for the first time, at the MJC du Val-de-Marne: at that moment her passion for theater was born. The defining experience that set in motion the evolution of her career took place in high school when attending a theater workshop. After completing her baccalaureate, she devoted herself to the stage, which include several professional theater training programs. Marked by many pivotal artistic encounters, notably with Julie Berès, Valérie Dréville and Éric Ruf, Séphora Pondi envisions theater as a place of exacting transformation where the body, language and the imaginary are intimately linked.
It was in 2021 that she joined the prestigious Comédie-Française as a resident member, where she quickly established herself in essential roles in the repertoire, such as Kent in William Shakespeare's King Lear directed by Thomas Ostermeier, and in the title role of Medea—a dream role since adolescence. Séphora Pondi is also making her mark in cinema: in Mémoire de fille by Judith Godrèche—adapted from the work of Annie Ernaux, in theaters on September 30, and Soudain by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, in theaters since August 12.
Parallel to her career as actress, she has long cultivated a passion for reading and for literature: her first novel, Avale, published by Grasset, was released in September 2025, and which received the Prix Roman des étudiants France Culture. And it is this devouring passion [to note, avale translates to devour, to swallow from French] that she shares in L'Instant Poésie, through its "carte blanche". For Séphora Pondi, poetry is above all an experience at the intersection of sound, movement, and rhythm.
In this selection are: her foundational poems by Henri Michaux, André Breton, Sylvia Plath, Léon Gontran Damas, René Despestre, Vladimir Maïakovski, the theatrical texts that continue to inspire her, ranging from Peter Handke, to Seneca, to Anton Chekhov. But there are also novels that skirt the edges of autofiction with authors such as Maryse Condé, Nelly Arcan, Constance Debré, Annie Ernaux. Also included are the prose of James Joyce, of Aimé Césaire as well as the romantic poetry of Victor Hugo and Baudelaire.