VENT

An original piece of voice theatre created by a new ensemble formed from Royal Exchange Open Network members.

Working from scratch in the last month and in response to the turbulent domestic and global climate, this new company of twelve voices invites the audience to open its ears to the lies, truths, hearsay and rhetoric.

It is a deep, primal, human instinct to give voice - to sing, to share stories, to grieve, to celebrate, to orate, to make space for voices to be heard. Vent explores the natural harmonics and dissonance in the human voice, the dynamics, the cracks and fissures, the fulcrum between collaboration and collision.

Weaving song, verse, verbatim text from ordinary people involved in some of the recent tragic events, and the ALT-Right political lexicon, Vent examines the colliding voices of hate, fear and hope. It warns us of the consequences of our complicity with gossip and hearsay and the danger of filtering what we hear to suit our biases.

In an era where words, language and voice are used to divide cultures and communities and the mediated voice gets the most attention, this polyphonic new work honours the quiet individual voices.

The Open Exchange has been generously supported by The Leche Trust and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation