ARCHIVES 2015 / El Syndrome

The École supérieure de théâtre Bordeaux Aquitaine has built strong ties with Argentinian theatre. Working with Sergio Boris, a director of the new Buenos Aires scene, the students of the third graduating class of the school have dived into the capital, attracted by its vitality and unique identity.Starting with this very real situation—fourteen young Frenchmen and -women and one Argentinian come together to put on a play—Sergio Boris has imagined a dramatic situation and explored the ideological symbols tied to both France and Argentina. Come to study theatre in Buenos Aires, a group of French students are struck by an unknown illness that forces them, inexplicably, to stay there. Two years later, they're living in an abandoned house, on the banks of the delta of the Rio de la Plata, in the neighbourhood of Tigre. The picture of health when they first set foot in Argentina, they now seem to be suffering from a strange disease. They hunt, fish, speak broken Spanish, cannot or will not go home. Their only human contact is with the Other, the owner of the ship bringing them supplies, who comes every two weeks.Then, on a stormy night, three new Frenchmen arrive, seeking refuge. From there, Sergio Boris asks the student-actors to question their own experience abroad and among strangers, and to reflect on the concepts of identity, of belonging, and of diaspora.

The award-winning Argentinian actor, director, and playwright Sergio Boris has long worked for the cinema, most notably with directors Daniel Burman, Ariel Rotter, and Matías Lucchesi. On the stage, he's taken part in shows by Sergio Renán and Luciano Suardi, but also by Ricardo Bartís, with whom he has appeared in El Pecado que no se puede nombrar from 1998 to 2000 and in La Pesca, which played at the Festival d'Avignon in 2008. He created La Bohemia in 2001, El Sabor de la derrota in 2004, El Perpetuo Socorro in 2008, and El Cadáver de un recuerdo enterrado vivo in 2010. Viejo, Solo y Puto, created in 2011, has been constantly touring since, and has received numerous awards in Argentina for its direction, lighting, scenography, and acting. Sergio Boris's plays put the actor at the heart of an often-realistic scenography, which lets the atmosphere evolve naturally. Time is continuous, much like in cinematic long takes, allowing for the condensation of a wide range of human experiences. Preferring an accumulation of possible readings and interpretations—social, political, poetical—to the spelling out of an open conflict, Sergio Boris unveils the weight of the expectations, the dreams, the anxieties, and the desires that tie people together.

Created in 2007 within the TnBA (National Theatre de Bordeaux Aquitaine), the École supérieure de théâtre Bordeaux Aquitaine is a signatory member of the charter for the higher education of actors which, at the initiative of the Ministry of Culture, brings together eleven professional dramatic schools. Catherine Marnas has been its director since 2014. Among the school's founding principles is the desire to allow students to experience international dramatic practices. In 2015, within the framework of a partnership with directors Claudio Tolcachir and Sergio Boris, the current graduating class had the opportunity to spend a month working in Buenos Aires.