The Cross Year France-Russia 2010 project running under the presidential patronage is an integral part of the all-time close relationship between the two countries. The project covers several theater co-productions featuring Russian and French stage directors and choreographers, as well as programs for translation and publication of French dramaturgists' works and theaters touring in both countries. ...

There will be the Drama & Poetry Evening featuring French and Russian artists. Its program is composed in collaboration with Theatre de la Ville. Moscow and St. Petersburg audiences will see a play dedicated to Anton Chekhov, a production of the National Choreographic Centre in Orleans directed by Joseph Nadj. A work by Emmanuel de Marcy-Motta (Theatre de la Ville, Paris), Kazimir and Karolina by Eden von Horvat, will also be presented to the spectators of Moscow and St. Petersburg for the first time. Another important participant is the Comedie Francaise offering its version of The Marriage of Figaro by Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais, directed by Christophe Rauck. The play will be shown in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad.

The Cross Year program was opened by Fedra (by Marina Tzvetaeva), a co-production of the Pushkin Drama Theater (Moscow) and Theatre Le Phenix (France), directed by Lukas Hemleb. Moscow audiences were the first to appreciate the play in October 2009; then, in February 2010, it was brought to the Theatre Le Phenix at Valanciennes.

Alexandinsky Theater from St. Petersburg will show its Marriage by Nikolai Gogol, directed by Valery Fokin, in Paris at Theatre de la Ville and in Bordeaux. Theatre de la Ville will also host The Wedding by Anton Chekhov, staged by Vladimir Pankov, a co-production of Yanka Kupala National Academic Drama Theater (Minsk, Belarus), International Confederation of Theater Associations, and Chekhov International Theater Festival. In autumn there will be Shukshin's Stories (director Alvis Hermanis, produced by the Theater of Nations) played in Lyon, and Boris Godunov by Declan Donnellan (a Chekhov International Theater Festival production) will be shown in Sceaux (Paris) at the Theatre Les Gemeaux.

The participants of the theater program of the Cross Year represent well enough the French theater life. These are theaters and drama centers from Paris and its suburbs (Sceaux, Bobigny), Lyon, Cherbourg, Bordeaux, Normandy and other regions of France.