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Theatre · Champs-Élysées · 8e arrondissement

Théâtre Marigny

The buildingStill standing
Getting inHours or admission
What's there nowStill the same

Still operating in the gardens at the lower end of the Champs-Élysées.

The theatre in the Champs-Élysées gardens where Colette played Paniska in Pan in 1906.

Address
Carré Marigny, avenue de Marigny, 75008 Paris
Years
1894–present
IllustrationThe Théâtre Marigny pavilion in colour amid the gardens off the Champs-Élysées

The theatre today, in the Marigny gardens.

Editorial illustration

The place, briefly

In late November 1906 Colette appeared at the Théâtre Marigny as Paniska in Pan, a verse play by the Belgian poet Charles Van Lerberghe, in performances on the 28th, 29th and 30th. It fell between her run at the Olympia and the Moulin Rouge engagement that would end in scandal a few weeks later — part of the same short, intense period as a working performer.

The theatre stands in the gardens near the foot of the Champs-Élysées. Its present building dates from 1894, when Édouard Niermans converted an earlier panorama rotunda designed by Charles Garnier into a playhouse. It is still in use.

Key facts

Address
Carré Marigny, in the Champs-Élysées gardens, 8th arrondissement
Built
1894, converted from a Garnier panorama rotunda
Colette's connection
Played Paniska in Pan, 28–30 November 1906
Today
Still operating

In images

The Théâtre Marigny, where Colette played Paniska in Pan in 1906.Editorial illustration
The theatre today, in the Marigny gardens.Editorial illustration

Timeline

  1. 1894

    The panorama rotunda near the Champs-Élysées is converted into the Théâtre Marigny.

  2. 1906

    Colette plays Paniska in Pan, 28–30 November.

On the map

Writers who knew this place

Illustrated portrait of Leonor Fini

Leonor Fini

Argentine-French · Argentine-born, Italian-raised painter, illustrator and designer whose dreamlike images of sphinxes, powerful women, androgynous men and ceremonial worlds placed her close to Surrealism without ever making her a formal member of the movement.

Worked here

Fini designed for Roland Petit's Les Demoiselles de la nuit at the Théâtre Marigny during her postwar stage-design career.

— Leonor Fini — Biographie et chronologie

Illustrated portrait of Colette

Colette

French · The French novelist who wrote the Claudine books under Willy’s name, earned her independence on the music-hall stage, and made women’s private lives a serious literary subject.

Performed here · 1906

Colette played Paniska in Charles Van Lerberghe's Pan at the Théâtre Marigny, 28–30 November 1906.

— Société des amis de Colette — Chronology; Une balade sur les pas de Sidonie devenue Colette

Within walking distance

Color present-day editorial view of the pale stone mansion at 10 rue de l'Élysée with its long iron balcony

Library · Madeleine–Élysée

American Library in Paris — 10 rue de l'Élysée

The surviving mansion that housed the American Library in Paris from 1920 to 1936—a center of transatlantic reading and literary life where Langston Hughes unsuccessfully asked for work.

Visit the place
Present-day color view of the Grand Palais façade beneath a bright blue sky with visitors in front

Landmark · Champs-Élysées

Grand Palais

The glass-vaulted exhibition hall on the Champs-Élysées, built for the World's Fair of 1900 and used ever since for the shows Paris wants to hold under one roof — art retrospectives, fashion collections, commissioned sculpture, and the fencing at the 2024 Olympic Games.

Visit the place
Families and walkers using a leafy path in the Jardins des Champs-Élysées under a blue sky

Park · Champs-Élysées (8th)

Jardins des Champs-Élysées

The gardens along the lower Champs-Élysées, between the Rond-Point and the Concorde — where the young Marcel Proust played, and where in July 1886 he met Marie de Bénardaky, his first love and a source for Gilberte in In Search of Lost Time. One of the paths is now officially the Allée Marcel-Proust.

Visit the place
Colour photorealistic view of the Grand Palais beneath a bright blue sky

Landmark · Champs-Élysées (8th)

Palais de l'Industrie

The vast iron-and-glass exhibition hall on the Champs-Élysées that housed the annual Salon — and, in 1863, the Salon des Refusés, where Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe was hung and mocked. It was demolished to make way for the Grand Palais.

Visit the place
References

References

The sources below include histories, archival materials, scholarly research, and official records that informed this page. They document Théâtre Marigny, the people connected to it, and its place in Paris.

  1. 1Société des amis de Colette — Chronology

    Website
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Théâtre Marigny page.

    View source

  2. 2Une balade sur les pas de Sidonie devenue Colette

    Website
    Ville de Paris
    Used for

    Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Théâtre Marigny page.

    View source

  1. 3L'histoire du théâtre

    Website
    Théâtre Marigny, Paris
    Used for

    The theatre's own history of the house: Charles Garnier's panorama of 1883 turned into a rotunda theatre by Édouard Niermans in 1894.

    View source

  2. 4OpenStreetMap

    Map data
    Used for

    Map data used to verify addresses, geographic coordinates, and the placement associated with Théâtre Marigny.

    View source
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Why these sources are here

These references provide the documented foundation for this page's history and context. Claim-level citations remain attached to the specific claims they support.

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