A student writes essays about infiltrating the home of a wealthy family, where he first challenges the role of the son, then the husband. A teacher so fascinated by what he reads, he becomes his student’s mentor, then his accomplice and, finally, his victim. In his story about the boy at the back of the class, Spanish playwright Juan Mayorga creates a dense psychological study of the limits of pedagogy and class affiliation. The student’s essays give rise to situations in the family home, and the teacher’s corrections lead to dialogues between the characters. In a rapid succession of scenes, Mayorga mixes life and literature.
Director Christiane Jatahy is known for these kinds of balancing acts between reality and fiction. Now in her second Zurich work with the ensemble, after adapting Shakespeare’s Macbeth at the Pfauen, she focuses entirely on the acting: In an ellipse around the round stage in the Schiffbau-Box, audience members can imagine themselves sitting in the back of the classroom, allowing them to easily observe the actors – awhile finding themselves right in the home of an unfamiliar family.
