Such co-productions are arguably the future of international theatre.
In an odd twist of fate, Silence found themselves coordinating the release of 4th album, Musical Accompaniment for the End of the World, from Japan – a country that was, at the time, still reeling from what can only be described as the closest equivalent to a biblical apocalypse: the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, tsunami and the ensuing Fukushima nuclear disaster. The reason for Silence's four-week stay in Osaka and Tokyo was Audition for Life, a joint effort between Betontanc, Matjaž Pograjc's renowned physical theatre ensemble, and Original Tempo, a virtuosic multimedia group led by Masahiro Kinoshita. Based on The Spider's Thread, a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Audition for Life examines the value of a single good deed.
The music, written by Silence, is performed live by Marko Brdnik (accordion), Katsunori Takayama (guitars, ukulele), and the duet. Aside from numerous variations on the score's pentatonic theme (evocative of Japanese traditional music), the score also features adaptations of Wish Me Well, Wish Me Hell and Pioneers of Nothing from Silence's aforementioned 4th album. During the play's finale, Benko tackles Japanese for the second time since the 2005 Nippon.