This month, the students of University of Oxford return to Oxford Playhouse with Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s kaleidoscopic comedy musical, Company. Themselves on the brink of change, Fennec Fox Productions give this Tony Award-winning musical a playful new twist for a new generation. We sat down with Aaron Gelkoff as he prepares to take on the iconic lead, Bobby.
This show runs at Oxford Playhouse from Wednesday 28 to Saturday 31 January. Tickets here.
Bobby is famously surrounded by people yet fundamentally alone. As a performer, how did you approach inhabiting that tension between connection and detachment throughout the show?
For me, the key was understanding that loneliness doesn’t require physical isolation. You can be surrounded by the people closest to you and still feel that you don’t quite belong – that you aren’t part of the “inner circle”. As Bobby interacts with his friends, in their respective couples, I like to think of him as an observer: on the outside of their marital idiosyncrasies, looking in rather than participating. But I think it takes Bobby a while to realise that he’s an outsider. That’s when he starts to question whether he wants, or feels capable of, a meaningful relationship himself.
This production places Bobby in a soft-play-inspired world of childhood. How did performing in that environment shape your understanding of Bobby’s resistance to growing up and committing?
The soft-play-inspired creative vision became a really useful lens for understanding Bobby’s emotional stasis. I guess there is a playfulness to his take on life, that relieves him of any sort of commitment. Life, for Bobby, doesn’t need to be ruined by the anxieties that exist outside of his carefree, solo perspective. In that childlike bubble, there is the sense that Bobby expects things to happen for him. As a kid, you don’t really seek change in your life but expect life to evolve around you and guide you. Bobby comes to learn that he’s at point where he needs to take responsibility, and actively pursue what it really means to live.
“Being Alive” often feels like a musical and emotional reckoning. What does that moment represent for you as Bobby, and how do you prepare yourself to reach it each night?
For me, “Being Alive” is the moment Bobby admits the desire within him to be loved. While he’s said he’s ready previously, it’s at this point that his words really feel like his. It isn’t what society is telling him he needs anymore; he wants it purely for himself. I think the script and score are hugely important in bringing me there. Sondheim structures the moment so carefully that, if you trust it, the emotional and musical journey will carry you. All I will say is I am in awe of the previous Bobbys doing eight shows a week!
Did working on Company make the show’s questions about choice, stability, and happiness feel more personal or urgent?
As a group of students putting on a musical about a 35-year-old and his friends, we had to figure out how the questions asked by the show are relatable to us now. Company doesn’t punish Bobby for his indecision – it celebrates the moment he decides to change his life for the better. I think that idea resonates strongly with us as we enter our twenties, when there’s often pressure to have everything figured out. The show reminds us that it’s okay not to know immediately what you want your life to look like. Even though Bobby arrives at that clarity later than his friends, the production celebrates the journey as well as the destination.
Sondheim’s music demands precision, honesty, and emotional clarity. What has been the biggest challenge and the biggest reward of performing his work at this stage of your career?
With music as complex as Sondheim’s, the biggest challenge has been releasing myself from the pressure of the individual notes and just letting myself get lost in the character. We’ve now reached the point in rehearsals where we know the music, and we’ve got a story to tell! The biggest reward of doing Company with my fellow students at Oxford has been the opportunity to work with such a lovely and committed group of people. No matter how intense our degrees are there is a collective desire across the cast and crew to give the absolute best performance possible. Hopefully all the hard work pays off!