About The Symptoms

Photo: Gábor Dusa

The Symptoms – Company of Réka Szabó

The Symptoms is a performance collective organized around the Hungarian dancer and choreographer Réka Szabó. Originally a mathematician, Szabó has been building her company with dancers and actors since 2002. The members of The Symptoms are not simply performing artists but fully involved contributors, whose personalities, creativity, and team spirit fundamentally define every work of the company.



The Symptoms pieces are carefully thought out, intellectual, and humorous creations mixing dance with text-based acting and movement. They typically use commonplaces as a jumping board, transforming them into grotesque, ironic, and often touching collages. The troupe works in a variety of formats, producing pieces for the stage as well as performances and free improvisations for public spaces and galleries.

Over the years, The Symptoms have been invited to various festivals and venues in Europe, including The Place in London, the National Theater of Prague, the Schauspiel in Köln, the Tanzlabor in Bielefeld, the Savoy-teatteri Helsinki and the INFANT festival in Novi Sad.

„Réka Szabó dancer-mathematician and her company are creating the most unusual performances of the present theatre scene, by mixing in many ways dance, text, music, drama and humour.
Réka Szabó doesnt care of the borders between genres, she is rather interested in language in wider sense. She quotes on stage texts of Thomas Mann or equally mathematical rules.”
(Sisso: Réka Szabó – Treasure which exists)