Elsa Lepoivre studied at the Académie théâtrale Françoise Danell-Pierre Debauche prior to participating in founding the Théâtre du Jour in Agen. In 1995, she was admitted to the Paris Conservatory and studied under Daniel Mesguich, Stuart Seide, Catherine Hiegel and Stéphane Braunschweig. Some directors discerned her natural propensity for portraying strong women. Emmanuel Demarcy-Motta cast her as the Princess of France in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, Jacques Lassalle as Célimène in Molière's The Misanthrope, Marcel Bozonnet as Sophocles’ Antigone, Alain Milianti first as Araminte in Marivaux’s Les Fausses Confidences and then as Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.

Elsa Lepoivre made her debut at the Comédie-Française on the 1st of July 2003, in the role of Dona Elvire in Molière's Dom Juan, staged by Jacques Lassalle. Under the direction of Christian Schiaretti, she played Beauty and Life in Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s Great Theatre of the World. She played Clarice in Corneille’s Le Menteur under Jean-Louis Benoit’s direction. Jean-Marie Villégier directed her in L’Amour médecin and Le Sicilien ou l’Amour peintre, two of Molière’s comedies set to Lully’s music, performed together with William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants. In 2006, she tried out performing under a mask in Felix Lope de Vega’s Pedro and the Commander, under the direction of Omar Porras.

On the 1st of January 2007, Elsa Lepoivre became the 516th sociétaire of the Company. She has been praised for her fragile and impetuous portrait of Masha in Chekhov’s Three sisters directed by Alain Françon, who later cast her as Brigida in Goldoni’s Trilogie de la villégiature and as Jessica in Edward Bond’s The Sea. Denis Marleau entrusted her with the role of Clytemnestra in Seneca’s Agamemnon and Galin Stoev with Elmire in Molière’s Tartuffe. In 2013, Michael Marmarinos offered her the title role in Racine’s Phèdre and Véronique Vella the role of Marinette in Le Loup and Le Cerf et le chien, two plays adapted from Marcel Aymé’s Contes du chat perché. In 2017, she won the Molière Award for Best Actress for her performance as Baronness Von Essenbeck in Ivo van Hove’s adaptation of Visconti’s The Damned. For Denis Podalydès, she was Victor Hugo’s Lucrezia Borgia. In 2017, she played Geneviève in Christiane Jatahy’s adaptation of Renoir’s screenplay The Rules of the Game and the role of the three goddesses in Shakespeare’s The Tempest directed by Robert Carsen.

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Elsa Lepoivre par Béline Dolat