A memoir of stolen adolescence

Based on «Consent»
by Vanessa Springora

Starting January 13, 2026
Sunday - Monday - Tuesday at 21:00
Art Theater , Pesmatzoglou Stage

“Does art justify everything?”

Paris, 1986. Fourteen-year-old Vanessa Springora meets and enters into an intimate relationship with award-winning fifty-two-year-old author Gabriel Matzneff, a prominent figure of French letters with strong political connections. In a period when “prohibitions are forbidden,” he does not hesitate in his books to reveal his “weakness” for young girls and boys—the “third sex,” as he calls them. Through Matzneff, Vanessa is introduced to the world of literature as both reader and muse. She surrenders to the gaze of the Artist—to choose her, to fall in love with her, to shape her, to turn her into words on paper. Yet little by little she becomes trapped in a situation to which she has consented. Or has she?

“Consent – A Memoir of Stolen Adolescence” is the personal testimony of editor Vanessa Springora about the relationship she entered into as a minor with Gabriel Matzneff. Matzneff’s 2013 Prix Renaudot award prompted Springora to break her long silence and share her experience. The book was published in 2020, became an international best seller, and was adapted for cinema and theatre in 2021 and 2023 respectively. Above all, it brought Matzneff before the French justice system and sparked significant legislative reforms concerning the age of sexual consent. Translated and presented for the first time in Greece as a theatrical adaptation for an ensemble of three actors, directed by Eirini Lambrinopoulou, and with music as its central dramaturgical pillar, it asks the question: Is everything permissible in art?