Company

Company is a 40-minute instrumental theatre work for two percussionists/performers, voice, electronics, 7-channel spatialised sound, video and light. Inspired by Samuel Beckett’s Company, it explores shifting relationships between the two performers, sound, movement and image. Reality and fiction blur as memories, loneliness and the need for companionship emerge in the space between sound, movement and silence.

Company takes its starting point from Samuel Beckett’s novel Company, in which an unnamed figure lies in darkness, accompanied by voices whose origin and relationship to him remain uncertain. The voices appear, repeat, contradict one another and fade away, creating an unstable space between memory, imagination and reality. The performance develops a similar situation through two performers whose relationships with one another, with the voices, with sound and with video constantly shift.

The two performers occupy mirrored percussion setups, creating a physical relationship that is reflected in their actions. Their playing, gestures and movements sometimes mirror one another, sometimes diverge, and sometimes seem to be controlled by forces outside themselves. The instruments become part of the theatrical environment rather than simply objects for producing sound.

Sound and movement are closely intertwined throughout the seven scenes. At times, physical movement directly produces or transforms sound; at others, sound itself creates the perception of movement. Seven speakers placed around the audience allow voices and sounds to travel through the space while the performers remain still. Elsewhere, the performers’ movements redirect sound, while video guides their choreography or shows movements that become connected to the sounds produced live on stage.

The relationship between the performers and the voices is equally unstable. Voices surround them, accompany them, interrupt them and disappear, without ever becoming fully identifiable. Video introduces another layer of presence: sometimes it guides the performers, sometimes reflects or repeats their actions, and sometimes creates a separate space that interacts with what happens on stage.

The piece moves between instrumental playing, choreography and theatrical action, allowing the boundaries between these forms to remain fluid. A gesture can become a musical action; a sound can suggest movement; an image can take the place of a body; a performer can become both musician and character.

Rather than following a linear narrative, Company unfolds as a shifting constellation of relationships. Memories, fragmented consciousness, loneliness and the need for companionship remain suspended between presence and absence, reality and fiction, sound and silence.

Composition & performance: Kristýna Švihálková
Performance: Aya Masui

June 2026, New Opera Days Ostrava