Opus Company
The Curse of Empathy
Kerttu Opus · Adam Opus
Finland
New magic, theatrical circus
THE PROJECT / A familiar smile touches my sons lips. Its my smile. Grey hair runs through my fingers as I stare at a reflection of my father in the mirror. “You have your mothers eyes” he says. I smile politely. ‘These are not her eyes’ I think, but they are not mine either. These eyes are older than all of us care to remember.What else of me has belonged to another? My laugh, my hope, my sadness?
Can we choose what we pass along? Like a house with a well tended garden, hard fought from the chaos of the wild earth. Weeds carefully plucked and seeds purposefully sown. But. No matter how beautiful my garden is, I can never claim the earth. It was passed down from a time before time. My earth is your earth, and will one day be his earth. All I can do is tend the garden.
BIO / Opus Company is multidisciplinary performance collective based in Tampere, Finland. The collective is founded by Kerttu and Adam Opus, who are both contemporary circus artists interested in the cross sections of theatre, illusion, circus and installation art. Their shared practice is heavily influenced by a passion for dramaturgy and endeavors to use unique objects and striking set designs to explore how contemporary circus expresses meaning.
Within the company’s ethos is also a high emphasis on community building and communication about the process of making circus. The collective aims to develop new processes to communicate the goals and values of each project to the collaborators and audiences. In 2026 along with the creation of The Curse of Empathy the company will be exploring new ways to communicate about circus and facilitate ways for circus makers to discuss their practice.