« Remember her name, because with this show — which carries the unmistakable scent of a barely disguised autobiography — Nil Bosca steps confidently and with flair into the big leagues. Known for its unrivaled word-of-mouth magic, the Avignon Off Festival became the perfect echo chamber for her name and for this first solo performance, which was a major success.

Euphrate is its title — and also the name she gives herself in this coming-of-age tale, where her character is faced with the inevitable question of orientation: “How do we know who we want to be in life?” This is the central challenge, explored through a series of short scenes that alternate between humor and emotion, following a teenager as she retraces her roots in Turkey, stumbles through various unsuccessful (yet comically resonant) academic attempts, before finally arriving at a personal revelation — a clear, ringing “Eureka!”

Alone on stage, with minimal means that give full scope to the imagination, Nil Bosca makes play itself the heart of her performance in this “poor theatre” tradition. She delivers a breathtaking energy as she embodies a gallery of characters encountered along her initiatory path. Her father is there too — a proverb-spouting dreamer who sees his daughter as a one-woman social elevator. We also meet the career counselor with a penchant for psychoanalytic interpretations, the paternal family met for the first time, and even Afife Jale — the first Muslim actress in Turkey — who appears to her posthumously in an Istanbul museum.

Nil Bosca is a whirlwind — she acts as she dances, with phenomenal precision and intensity. Her physical commitment is the lifeblood of this solo show, which deliberately avoids realism to reach for a theatrical language that blends burlesque, hip-hop, and heightened physicality — creating a bold and original form of expression. »

THÉÂTRE(S), the magazine of theatrical life