The history of Kompani Komedi began sometime 1994 at the Theatre Studio in Stockholm, where Micke Klingvall was (and still is) a teacher and taught, among other subjects, Commedia dell´Arte. In the fall of 1994 Micke was putting up a Commedia dell´Arte-piece with a class.
Inspired to continue the work, the students asked Micke to direct two small street shows for the summer.
…so, there we had two little (and very short lived) theatre groups: "Fungus dell´Arte" and "Vacacione dell´Arte", who both were out on the streets of Sweden performing in the summer of 1995. In the fall, four of the actors (Mikke Schirén, Johan S Stark, Madde Näs and Aiva Båve) came and asked Micke if they could continue the work on Commedia dell´Arte a couple of days a week.
…so, it was to become. After a couple of weeks Micke realized that he was just continuing to work as usual, but for free. So he presented an ultimatum: -"Either I get paid, or we form a Commedia dell´Arte-troupe instead."
…so, that's how Kompani Komedi was formed. The same evening Micke received a call from a little town outside Stockholm. They wanted to buy a performance to be played outside their library - in three weeks' time.
…so, this piece became Kompani Komedi's first performance, played in the snow in Vallentuna.
After this, Aiva Båve (now studying to be a doctor,) and Madde Näs (now a successful photographer,) left Kompani Komedi. The three actors left began to despair about the future of the group. At that time Micke presented another ultimatum: -"Either we drop the idea or we go for it in a big way."
…so, now we were sitting, writing the charter of the association and we decided that Kompani Komedi would produce a new piece, which would become "Oratio på Pottan".
A couple of days after that, Micke Klingvall met up with Pino Costalunga and Teatro Imagine, an Italian Commedia dell´Arte-group, who were touring Sweden. Kompani Komedi saw their performance, and Micke and Pino became friends through Commedia dell´Arte.
…so began Kompani Komedi's international workshop-activities with a workshop with Pino Costalunga and Teatro Imagine. The night after the workshop became long and wet. (Mikke and Johan got arrested for talking back to a cop). Micke continued to talk with Pino instead; wish led to our first international tour a couple of year later.

Well, now we had decided to go for it and make a big noise with our first performance. Kompani Komedi was at this point three persons (Micke Klingvall, Mikke Schirén and Johan S Stark). We had no money, no play and nowhere to work. It was, consequently, time to get working.
We called up Micaela Gustavsson, Anna Svensson and Ulrika Carlsson, who wanted to be in the game. Micke Klingvall was member of Studioensemblen, a theatre group that ran Salong Katakomb, a theatre in Stockholm, and they let us work there.
So now we were ready to start rehearsing at once. The fact was that we were in a bit of a hurry; Johan S Stark was just about to become a father in the middle of it all. We had to front money of our own. For Christmas Micke Klingvall wrote the play, after having worked out a few ideas with the group.
The opening of "Oratio på Pottan" was 15/2-1996, at Salong Katakomb. The first version of the play was a 3 act-version with a different guest artist every night. The audience were seated at café-tables and we tryed to create a party feeling. We had very good media coverage from TV, which led to the extension of the show's run by three more months!
The next version of "Oratio på Pottan" was an outdoor-version. It played 18 shows at the Old Town in Stockholm, thereafter touring Sweden in the summer of 1996, and finally playing the Stockholm Water Festival for 8 shows.
In the fall we continued to play the performance, this time at Boule 1 - a boules hall in Stockholm. This time we had Elias Wåhlund with us. He had just returned from Paris where he had attended Circus school. At the reopening at Boule 1, we had a two act-version with 6 actors. That is the version of "Oratio på Pottan" that is in the repertoire today.
It was also when we played at Boule 1 that Michael Fields from the Dell´Arte Players Company (USA) gave his first workshop for us.
After this "Oratio på Pottan" has only played a couple of times in the north of Sweden.

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By the end of the last period of "Oratio på Pottan," Micke Klingvall started to plan for the next performance. Now it was time to pick up Pino Costalunga's proposition to tour Italy in the summer of 1997. At this time it happened that Micke met an old friend, Nalle Laanela. He is a clown who started the Swedish branch of "Clowns without borders". Nalle was just back from a tour in Bosnia, and he showed us his pictures from the tour. So when Micke returned to Kompani Komedi we decided to go to Bosnia as well. Micke had an old dream to realize: to travel around Europe as the old Commedia dell´Arte-companies. OK, we didn't get a horse and carriage, but we acquired Mozart, a VW pickup-truck, upon the platform of which we were able to build a stage . The performance would be built more on jest than acting, using grammelot instead of language.
After a hectic rehearsal period, the show finally opened for friends and people who had helped us, in the backyard of Henriksdalsringen, 4/6-1997. And then we left Sweden for Bosnia, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Denmark. Kompani Komedi played its way to Italy, through Austria, at which point Micke Klingvall met the troupe in Vicenza, taught a workshop and rehearsed for a festival-gig. Then we went further to Bosnia and the SFOR-base and the collective house in Lipniza among other places.
Then back to Italy, where everybody participated in a Commedia dell´Arte-workshop with Antonio Fava in Reggio Emilia. After fixing up the car (which needed a new motor sent down from Sweden) it was time to get up to Århus, Denmark, through festivals in Germany. In Århus, Micke Klingvall rejoined the rest of the group to rehearse and to follow the group back to Italy to do a workshop in Caorle in connection with the "Festivale de la Luna". We are now in September, and it is time to leave the adventure and go home.
Well, at home we played for a period in Stockholm at Salong Katakomb. It was there that we got our biggest audience reaction yet. The performance received a very good review in Dagens Nyheter, the main paper in Sweden. Suddenly the answering machine at the office broke down, people began calling home to members of the ensemble to get tickets and the house was crowded at Salong Katakomb. The problem was that all the actors were both ill and too tired after the summer to follow up the success. A little later in the fall we tried to set the piece up for a week again, but by this time we were already forgotten. 

After the first round of AAARRGH ! ! - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle it was time for the next project. The same fall, 1997 Kompani Komedi began to rehearse "Lezione dell´Arte ".
Now Johan S Starck returned to Kompani Komedi for this production, and we got a musician Carola Alfredsson, who had attended the Theatrestudio together with the other actors.
"Lezione dell´Arte" was based on "the Forced Marriage" by Moliére, but rewritten by Micke Klingvall, to a more traditional Commedia dell´Arte-form. He also added another character, Tralala, a musician and the cicerone that guides the audience in the play and teaches Commedia dell´Arte.
"Lezione dell´Arte" is created first of all for schools, universities, theatre associations, libraries, and other institutions that have an interest in theatre or more specifically in Commedia dell´Arte. The performance is also made to function both as a lesson in Commedia dell´Arte, and a fun show in itself.
The opening was at Scen Gavelius, 19/3-1998, where it played for three weeks for prospective buyers and public audiences.

By the end of April 1998 it was time to gather the troupe for new rehearsals of "AAARRGH!! - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle" before the summer tour. Mikke Schirén and Micaela Gustavsson were no problem to find - they had been with us in "Lezione dell´Arte". Anna Svensson was outside of town working as a drama teacher and Elias Wåhlund was in Italy where he was studying juggling and acrobatics at Accademia del Circo. Anyway, we succeeded against all odds to gather in May. It was not as much rehearsals as it was a total rewrite of the show. So we changed the name on the show to: "AAARRGH! ! 2 - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle". It may not be the biggest change in the show. Instead we used even more disciplines in the performance than we had from the start, we elucidated, took away and added scenes. And we also got new costumes and props and a totally new set design for Mozart (our car).
After the hectic tour of last year the thought was now to take it a little easier. We opened "AAARRGH! ! 2 - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle" outside the Sofia church in Stockholm 6/6-1998, and then only a little tour in Europe, this time for not more than three weeks. Aside from that, the summer wasn't as soft and quiet as we thought it would be, lots of shows where sold even though we stayed in Sweden the rest of the summer.
Isn't it strange, by the way, that when we are having the most beautiful summer in Sweden for over 100 years (that was 1997) Kompani Komedi is on tour in a rainy Europe, and then the next year the southern Europeans have their heat record for over 100 years (that was 1998), while Kompani Komedi is on tour in a rainy Sweden?
The tour ended anyway with a big party at Bobajan at the Ethnographical museum where we played the show.

All the time we have been playing our performances, we have given and taken part in a lot of workshops and seminars, and we have been playing and directing in other performances as well.
Already before we made "Oratio på Pottan" (-95) we arranged our first international workshop, with Pino Costalunga from Teatro Immagino in Venice, when they were here playing at the Italian Institute. Since then we have had open workshops with Michael Fields from Dell´Arte Players Company in U.S.A., and Joseph Clark from Roy Hart Theatre in France.
We have also made intern workshops for Kompani Komedi with people like Ellen Pontara in music and Nola Rae from London Mime Theatre among others.

Kompani Komedi has also given workshops internationally themselves during the tour with "AAARRGH!! - Capitano Catastrofo Collosalle". In Lipnica in Bosnia the whole of Kompani Komedi gave workshops for kids and Micke Klingvall gave workshops in Commedia dell´Arte in Vicenza and Caorle in Italy for Italian actors. Except in Bosnia, it has always been Micke Klingvall who was responsible for the pedagogical activity in Kompani Komedi. Having a pedagogical idea with the work has always been important for Kompani Komedi, and it is in fact written into the charter of the association to "spread, play and popularizes Commedia dell´Arte". This comes quite naturally, as Micke also is leading the Theatrestudio in Stockholm.