Arch

Kate is a member of the 4-6 singer ensemble performing in Arch, by Kaleider, music by Verity Standen, on its debut and international tour in 2023.

Arch is an attempt to build a freestanding arch, made two thirds of concrete and one third of ice.

Deceptive in its simplicity, Arch unfolds as a surprising emotional journey. An exquisite combination of breath, heart, and muscle entangle with the perpetual inevitability of collapse.

Touching audiences with themes of death, renewal, and hope, this work also points towards the extraordinary, yet flawed, systems humans create: language, economies, architectures, democracies – and, inevitably, to the impact of these systems on our ecological system, and on ourselves.

Known for building temporary communities in his work, Director Seth Honnor creates a world of human endeavour, hope, and loss. Arch gathers our minds and hearts, inviting us to bear witness to something we cannot command. Like in Seth’s other work, Arch gently asks questions of all of us, of our roles and our responsibilities.\In what could be described as a kind of “installation opera,” a languageless score by Verity Standen holds and moves us through a relentlessly physical performance; at times meditative, and at others arresting and highly charged.

We can tell you what happens in this work: you will witness two people attempt to build a freestanding arch in ice and concrete whilst a beguiling vigil of voices holds your attention. What is less straightforward is to tell you how it will make you feel – only that it will.