Dead Cat Bounce performance

Dwelling in the strange light of speculative times, Dead Cat Bounce is a story of unpayable debts, entangled histories and repeated jokes.

Staged within a sculptural installation at Soft Ground, the performance takes the form of an oratorio, a mode of baroque performance in which instruments and voice are used to tell a sacred narrative.

This performance will happen as part of No Bounds Festival.

The work unfolds over five interwoven vignettes that span centuries and continents from the story of five hitmen in China in 2016, to 1788 and the palace of Louis XVI, to an insurance broker in Miami in 2027, through to Jerusalem 589 BC, where the prophet Jeremiah weeps incessantly, and back to earthquake-struck Japan in 1855 with a brothel-owner paying tribute to a catfish deity.

Musically, the work draws loosely on Jomelli’s Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah, interpreted through Waste Paper Opera’s approach bringing together the absurd with the sacred, improvisatory elements and scored material.

Following the performance, over the course of six weeks Dead Cat Bounce will continue in the form of an exhibition at Soft Ground featuring a multi-channel audio installation.

Tickets for the performance on 12 October are included in the weekend festival pass for No Bounds. A limited number of tickets for this performance only are available via Eventbrite.