Breathhood by Topi Dalmata (Italy) & Theatre Ash (France)

Breathood
Target Audience: for 12+ ages
Duration: 40 minutes

Synopsis 
A heart lays on the ground—bodiless, waiting. In Breathood, an object becomes a body, and a body becomes sound. The creature is born from a Possible Father and a Sure Mother through a hypnotic dance, yet it struggles to fulfill its purpose: to make music. That music is the breath of life, embodied in a live bagpipe—an ancient instrument of celebration and mourning, used at weddings, births, funerals, and war.
Bagpipe cannot whisper. It is loud, emotional, unapologetically exposed. Like life itself.
With object theatre, masks, and the powerful presence of sound, Breathood is a poetic fable of failure, support, and rediscovery. Only when all characters hold hands—creature, father, mother—can they breathe together, and turn noise into resonance. This is a story of what it takes to be alive.

Production Credit
Created and Performed by: Alberto Massi, Margherita Fusi, Lok Kan Cheung 
Object Design: Topi Dalmata Company & Theatre Ash
Live Bagpipe Performance: Alberto Massi
Co-production: Theatre Ash & Topi Dalmata
Stage Manager/ Organization: Barbara Toti
Performer: Margherita Fusi, Alberto Massi, Lok Kan Cheung, Mattia Merola, Tullia Merola, Viola Minghi, Margherita Nardi, Sofia Pioli, Camilla Diurno

Artist’s Profile
Breathood is a collaborative creation between Topi Dalmata (Italy) and Theatre Ash (Hong Kong/France), combining object theatre, mask work, and live bagpipe to explore sound, presence, and poetic transformation. 

Theatre Ash, founded by Lok Kan Cheung and based in France, is an international theatre company rooted in physical performance, documeultura (IIC) di Jakarta.ntary theatre, and object-based storytelling. The company’s work focuses on memory, displacement, and cross-cultural identity, often collaborating across Asia and Europe. Lok Kan Cheung is a Hong Kong-born theatre artist trained at École Philippe Gaulier and Jacques Lecoq. Her practice weaves together puppetry, poetic research, and political narratives through the body. 

Topi Dalmata, founded in 2010 in Siena, blends theatre, community theatre, social theatre and convivial performance. The group is known for its playful, human-scale approach to storytelling and community engagement. Alberto Massi, co-founder of Topi Dalmata, is an award-winning bagpipe player, actor, and theatre-maker. He studied at the Piping Centre in Glasgow, trained under Roderick MacLeod, and leads both the Heart of Italy Pipe Band and the Veneto Piping School. He is also the founder of the Italian Piping and Drumming Association. Margherita Fusi, co-founder and artistic director of Topi Dalmata, is a pedagogue and performer working at the intersection of children’s theatre, tactile storytelling, and community art.

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