Heavy Theatre

Heavy Theatre is an exploration of the themes of weight and human endurance. It explores the technical limits of theatre and discomfort, impracticality and realness on stage. The Heavy Theatre project was born out of an interest in working with heavy objects and a fascination with their mysterious performativity. We measure time and space with weight. How many steps do I take before I put it down? I count to twenty and then I let go. But heavy objects are not always a burden. They offer us the possibility of unusual positions and movements, maybe even dancing. Gravity offers the possibility of extreme concentration. We avoid illusion and we wish for the truth. We concentrate on the work. The work of the engineers, the movers, the builders, the set designers and each person on any given day.

About the company

The artistic group KHWOSHCH was formed around the artist, scenographer and performer Daria Gosteva and regularly collaborates with Josef Havelka, Vavřinec Němec, Mathias Baresel, Frieda Gawenda, Alexandra Ratajová and Tomáš Kočí. The group focuses on puppetry and visual theatre and has already created several successful projects, such as Moscow-Dačnoye and Dinopera (second place at the 2021 One Flew Over the Puppeteer’s Nest Festival, nomination for the Divadelní noviny Award). 

Daria Gosteva earned her BA in Scenography at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre at the Theatre Faculty at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU) with a thesis on the conceptual use of music and sound in puppet and object theatre.  She is currently continuing her studies in the Department’s MA programme. She is the founder of the international art group KHWOSHCH, with which she has created the experimental puppet opera Dinopera and the documentary puppet show Moscow-Dachnoye, among others. Her latest work is The Nutcracker, a puppet vegetable ballet. In her work, she focuses primarily on puppet theatre, its relationship to music and its exceptional possibilities in comparison to other types of theatre.

Vavřinec Němec is also studying in the MA programme at the Department of Alternative and Puppet Theatre at DAMU, where he is primarily interested in working with wood and natural materials and light design. In 2022, he participated in the creation of the successful puppet fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood as set designer, dramaturg and performer. His other works include the light installation Coming to Life and the sound art installation Hearing the Mountains. In 2022, he created the lighting design for the staged concerts Beracha and Triomphez by the ensemble Veselé chvíle and for the performance Burgán by Handa Gote research & development.
 
Tomáš Kočí graduated from the BA programme in the Department of Production at DAMU and is currently studying for an MA in Production. He has produced projects by Špatné Divadlo (movement theatre, new circus, e.g. Suburbia, Lavabo, etc.), the nomadic theatre company Budenebude Kůň and the productions Dinopera (KHWOSHCH) and Arrival (Vzlet). For two years he worked as producer and dramaturg of the accompanying programme of the KUKOKLI festival and, in 2021, served as project manager for the student festival Zlomvaz. His research interests include environmental sustainability in cultural production.

Frieda Gawenda, originally from Berlin, is one of the founding members of KHWOSHCH. With her musical projects My Sister Grenadine and HUND, she has played over 450 concerts in Germany, the Czech Republic, France, Austria, Switzerland and Turkey. Since 2023, she has been performing as an actress in the Berliner Wohnungsnot project, which deals with the housing crisis in Berlin.