“In January 2022, I fell ill during the fifth wave of Covid. The symptoms persist: exhaustion, memory problems, brain fog. For me, long Covid has become less of an individual illness and more of a trace of collective trauma: lockdown, isolation, withdrawal of bodies and freedoms, stifling of movement.”

Based on this experience, the team of Rodéo started working on inflammation and conflagration: what causes them, the conditions that make them possible, and what remains of them as a new environment of experience that we are too quick to try to appease. Written from fragments, Rodéo composes a scenic landscape made up of texts, sounds and images, traversed by three performers, without resolution, like a memorial concert in the mist.

Following an in-depth writing process led jointly by the director and the dramaturg, the residency at BUDA marks the first week of creation bringing the entire team together on stage: three performers (including the director), a sound designer, a lighting designer, and a set designer. This week is structured around various experimentation phases aimed at initiating the development of each scenic element and exploring how they interact. Alongside the technical work, the dramaturg’s presence allows for in-depth textual work with the performers.

Léa Drouet / Vaisseau (BE)

Léa Drouet is a stage director, artistic coordinator, and founder of the collective Vaisseau, a production structure dedicated to her artistic work. Her creations, which lie at the intersection of theatre, installations, and performance, explore the relationship between the body, memory, and social environment. She is particularly interested in processes of social transformation, using art to explore alternative forms of practical knowledge.