Eléonore Bonah

Artist in residence at the Comédie de Genève since 2024, Eléonore Bonah is a Franco-German director based in French-speaking Switzerland. After studying literature and philosophy in Paris, combined with tap dance training with Victor Cuno, she studied acting at the Ecole Internationale Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Then, in April 2018, she had a decisive encounter with Dutch director Johan Simons at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg and is recruited by him for a first professional engagement in September 2018 at the Schauspielhaus Bochum as assistant director. Between September 2018 and June 2020, she collaborates mainly with him, as well as with Tobias Staab, Karin Henkel, Koen Tachelet, and Herbert Fritsch. During the 2019-2020 season , she signs her first personal stage direction at Bochum Schauspielhaus with the actor Lukas von der Lühe in a project entitled The Earth is a Ball (Die Erde ist eine Kugel), for which she also elaborates the set design. At the same time, she meets in Bochum Julian Rosefeldt and participates in the preparation of his opera Szenen aus Goethes Faust at the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and the shooting of his film Penumbra.

She continued her career by joining La Manufacture in Lausanne in September 2021 in the Stage Directing section. Her training led her to cross paths with Mathilde Monnier, Béatrice Houplain, Manon Krüttli, Michèle Pralong, Nicolas Maury, Marianne Denicourt and Rudy Decelière and she completed it in 2023. During this period, she also trained with Philippe Grandrieux as assistant director for his opera Tristan und Isolde at the Opera Ballet Vlaanderen in Antwerp, Belgium. In Switzerland, she collaborated with Alexandre Montin and Maxine Reys for Amazing Journey, with Redwan Reys for Carmen Carat, and benefited from a research residency related to Marie Ndiaye's writing at the Théâtre de Carouge as part of the “Transmission” program.

In November 2024, as part of her three-year residency at the Comédie de Genève, she co-created Lenz at the Comédie de Genève with set designer Maria Clara Castioni, based on a work presented as part of the OUT 10 festival at La Manufacture. A free stage adaptation of Georg Büchner's story, with Luna Desmeules and Anne Tismer on stage. The project then went on tour to the CDN Orléans – Val de Loire and the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne. As part of the residency, she also collaborated with Alain Platel, Fabrizio Cassol, and Rodriguez Vangama on the re-creation of Coup Fatal, as well as with Séverine Chavrier on Absalon, Absalon and Occupations.

In 2025, she will continue her long-term collaboration with Maria Clara Castioni, as artistic director of the TÜDI PRODUCTIONS company and working together on an upcoming project entitled Chrüsimüsi (working title) based on the stories of Basel-based author Adelheid Duvanel.
In addition to this collaboration, she also continues to work with Jean-Daniel Piguet. After a period of work at the Kaserne in Basel, she is accompanying him to La Grange in Lausanne for his next creation, tabou.

She is the winner of the Prix Tremplin Leenaards/Manufacture 2023.