Lungs is a feature-length theatre production combining text, movement and live sound, centred on an anonymous young couple facing the question of whether—or not—to have a child in the shadow of climate collapse; but their private decision is inseparable from a world defined by ecological anxiety, political instability and accelerating crisis.

The audio was conceived as a structural and emotional counterpoint to the text: a breathing, fragile layer that mirrors both the intimacy of the couple’s relationship and the overwhelming scale of the questions they confront. Sound and music articulate tension, hesitation and urgency — at times grounding the performance in realism, at others expanding it toward abstraction, where personal choice collides with planetary consequence.

Working as lead for audio composition and sound design within the wider theatre production, we developed the full musical and sonic language of the piece, including original compositions, sound design, foley and field recordings. Particular attention was given to rhythm, pacing and spatial presence, allowing sound to function not as accompaniment but as a narrative force in its own right.

The work was developed in close collaboration with the director and performers, and implemented as a live system using QLab, enabling precise timing, spatial coherence and adaptability throughout performance—supporting a text that asks, with disarming clarity, what responsibility means when love, fear and the future of the planet are inseparably bound.