2025

As a departure arises, one question persists: Why leave? 

To which we respond, but why stay?

 Regardless of choice the result is inevitably that of two realities: The “here” and the “there”, us caught in between. As present in whatever space we occupy, as the spaces we could have been but are not. At times absent to the physical bodies trying to hold us in the now, as part of us has stayed with those we’ve let go.

Departures are funny like that - they test the limits between these two sides, bending their very fabric, blurring lines and stories and time. They make us wonder how it might be over there, projecting us into these other realities. As fictional as it may seem, this “other side” is a tangible space. Imagining what’s right beyond the edges of our present moment, we manage to exist in these other places by proxy but without ever being there. It’s not -of course- all fantasy, as reality is precisely what motivated us to leave, or sometimes to stay.

Places and situations may drive us in or out, but their people make us linger…

It is of these places that this work intends to speak: the ones we have no choice but to return to.

Writing and Direction: Pascal Marty & Emilie Leriche 

Choreography: Pascal Marty & Emilie Leriche in collaboration with the dancers

Performers: Adam Sojka, Leo Terris, Lukas Lizama Garrido, Jana Hampl Maroušková, Paula Morejón García, José Guzmán

Sound Design / Original Score: Wolff Bergen

Sound Mastering/ Mixing: Nicolas Zappa

Light Design: Karel Karlos Šimek

Costume Design: Simona Rybáková (creative collaboration Barbora Kotěšovcová)

Lights: Jan Hugo Hejzlar

Sound: Eva Svobodová

Production: Soňa Hájek Bartková

Costumes / props / stage production: Monika Jonášová

Staged at: LV&C_STUDIO8, Komedie Theatre
Producer: Lenka Vagnerová & Company
Co-production: Prague City Theatres
Supported by: Ministry of Culture, City of Prague

Press:

“Every movement is as precise as a memory imprint, there is nothing extra.[…]Your ghosts, my shadows soaks under the skin and turns into a quiet, personal experience.” Katerine Vodakova, I-Divadlo

“Fortunately, nothing presented turned out to be easy to read, predictable, or unambiguous. The performance was a multi-layered event and its observation a process of immersion, or possibly voluntary active resistance to a wave of emotions. The chosen theme and method of narration significantly expanded the repertoire of the ensemble, and at the same time enriched the Czech dance scene with a promising piece.”

Hana Strejčková, Opera+

Photos (c): Vojtěch Brtnický