Serge Bagdassarian ・ Comédie-Française

Joined the Comédie-Française on the 18th of January 2007. Became the 521st sociétaire on the 1st of January 2011

Actor and director Serge Bagdassarian began his career in his native North. He worked together with Claire Dancoisne on numerous plays, including Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Un monsieur très vieux avec des ailes immenses after García Marquez. He trained in mask theater with Mario Gonzalez and, in 1993, participated in a commedia dell'arte show Tréteaux impromptu. Vincent Goethals directed him in Le Chemin des passes dangereuses by Michel Marc Bouchard in 1999, Volpone by Ben Johnson in 2001, and Salina by Laurent Gaudé in 2005. In 2003, Pierre Foviau directed him in Dans la solitude des champs de coton by Bernard-Marie Koltès.

Serge Bagdassarian joined the Comédie-Française on the 18th of January 2007. He made his debut as Son in Spiro Scimone’s La Festa directed by Galin Stoev. He first reunited with Stoev in 2008, in Hanoch Levin’s Douce vengeance et autres sketches, and again in 2014 in Molière’s Tartuffe. He interpreted Jodelet and Du Croisy in Molière’s Les Précieuses ridicules directed by Dan Jemmett, played in Cabaret des mers directed by Sylvia Bergé and in Jacques Copeau’s show Jacques Copeau, Pensées directed by Jean-Louis Hourdin. He played the role of Neighbour (Voisin) in Nathalie Sarraute’s Pour un oui ou pour un non by Léonie Simaga. In 2009, he carried the role of Père Ubu, in Ubu Roi staged by Jean-Pierre Vincent. The following year he played Agathon and Aristophane in Plato’s Banquet directed by Jacques Vincey.

In 2011, he became the 521st sociétaire of the Company. Jérôme Deschamps entrusted him with the role of Fontanet in Feydeau’s Un fil à la patte, while he assisted director Catherine Hiegel on the staging of Molière’s The Miser (L'Avare), in which he also played Anselme. Éric Génovèse cast him in Jean-René Lemoine’s Erzuli Dahomey, déesse de l’amour, while Éric Ruf selected him for Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen.
In 2012, he donned Sganarelle’s costume in Molière’s Dom Juan or Feast with a Statue (Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre) by Jean-Pierre Vincent. He has also played Wolf in The Three Little Pigs (Les Trois petits cochons) written and directed by Thomas Quillardet. He portrayed Alessandrovici in Marcel Aymé’s La Tête des autres directed by Lilo Baur. In 2013, Anne Kessler directed him in Guy Zilberstein’s Coupes sombres and in the reading of Shakespeare’s Richard III on France Culture Radio. Clément Hervieu-Léger cast him as Oronte in Molière’s Misanthrope.
In 2015, he interpreted Friar Laurence in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by Éric Ruf, and Carter in Edward Bond’s The Sea by Alain Françon. In 2016, Christiane Jatahy offered him the role of Dick in The Rules of the Game (La Règle du jeu) after a screenplay by Jean Renoir. The same year, he was in Victor Hugo’s Lucrezia Borgia by Denis Podalydès and in Bertolt Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Katharina Thalbach.
In 2017, for his first collaboration with the Comédie-Française, Robert Carsen cast him as Antonio in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Serge Bagdassarian was part of musical shows at the Comédie-Française such as the Cabaret Boris Vian which he also directed, the Cabaret George Brassens directed by Thierry Hancisse, the Cabaret Léo Ferré directed by Claude Mathieu and L’Interlope (Cabaret) which he wrote and directed.

During the 2018/2019 season, Serge Bagdassarian plays in Les Oubliés (Alger-Paris) written and directed by Julie Berton and Jade Herbulot ‒ Le Birgit Ensemble, and in Le Voyage de G Mastorna after Federico Fellini directed by Marie Rémond. He can also be seen in the reruns of Victor Hugo’s Lucrezia Borgia by Denis Podalydès and Molière’s Misanthrope by Clément Hervieu-Léger.