The RFI Theatre Prize continues to generate the same enthusiasm and testifies to the emergence of a new generation of Francophone playwrights. For this 13th edition, the reading committee, formed by the À mots Découverts Collective, received 142 submissions from 11 countries in Africa, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean (excluding overseas France), the Near and Middle East, and the Maghreb.

Thirteen texts have been shortlisted by the Collective for the 2026 RFI Theatre Prize. This shortlist will be submitted to a jury of artists and performing arts professionals, chaired this year by Guinean playwright and director Hakim Bah. The winner will be announced next September at the Zébrures d’automne festival in Limoges.

2026 Selections:

"Le Live de Papa" by Abdou Abou Gueye (Senegal)

"Gòor-jigéen" by Éric Digbé (Ivory Coast)

"Le Colis du pays" by Fidéa Abimbola Suarez Djenontin (Benin)

"La saison des tombes" by Laurence Essoham Gnaro

"Épouvantail ou le trou d’Abel" by Gaël Tchêgoun Houkpatin (Benin)

"Pour une gorgée d’Atoumo" by Nathalie Bidodessi Hounvo Yèkpè (Benin)

"Nouvelle expérience" in logistics by Rodrigue Isamaliki (DRC)

"Les Yeux que la Nuit a pris" by Joubert Joseph (Haiti)

"Le caleçon du Père Georges" by Edouard Dublin Mboko (DRC)

"Urn Vase" by Gloire Ngoyi (Republic of Congo)

"Boukan" by Alexandro Christi Nicolas (Haiti):

"Anachronik" by Issan Giska Ntsila (Republic of Congo)

"Ima Maryam : le jugement de Marie" by Hermine Eliane Yollo Mingele (Cameroon)

Summaries

Les Yeux que la Nuit a pris by Joubert Joseph (Haiti) :Édouard Belizaire, a building contractor, is left for dead, his eyes gouged out, just steps from his home in Port-au-Prince, a city besieged by gangs. Blinded, he can no longer work. What kind of world produces children capable of such violence ? Accompanied by the love and wisdom of his partner, Marlène, he gradually manages to find the strength to live, despite his suffering.

A profound and sensitive writing style for a gentle philosophical and existential journey. An ode to love and resistance, far from any naiveté. Joubert Joseph is a poet, author of three poetry collections. "Les Yeux que la nuit a pris" (The Eyes That the Night Took) is his first foray into playwriting. A journalist for the daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste, he is a graduate student in Modern Literature at the École Normale Supérieure in Port-au-Prince.

Boukan by Alexandro Christi Nicolas (Haiti) :

The mother has fled with the child, going from neighborhood to neighborhood, from house to house, trying to escape the gangs that control the city. Her two older siblings (the brother and sister) have chosen to stay and try to survive together. The brother is burned alive just steps from his home by his childhood friends.

Four voices intertwine and respond to one another to describe the violence engulfing Haiti, the fear and death lurking at the end of the street. A beautiful language, both poetic and concrete. "I am a Haitian actor, playwright, and photographer, born in Port-au-Prince. My artistic journey has been built at the crossroads of theater, film, and writing, with a particular focus on questions of identity, memory, and migration. I try to approach these subjects with humor, restraint, and poetry."

IH/ iciHaiti