by Orlando Gough and Emma Bernard
World premiere

A co-production with the Almeida Opera Festival
Performed by Streetwise Opera and The Shout
World Premiere 21 July (7pm) and 22 July (4 and 8pm) 2007

Participating homeless centres:

• The Passage
• Connection at St Martins
• Crisis Skylight
• Queen Mary Hostel

Streetwise performers shared songs of their countries of origin – lullabies from the Caribbean, Italian love songs, Polish folksongs, Irish national protest songs… and these songs were turned into a new opera by Orlando Gough and Emma Bernard.

London is renowned for being a diverse city; a melting pot of different cultures which is particularly the case in the homeless world. Streetwise performers were joined by the exciting vocal ensemble The Shout. Critical Mass is a co-production with the Almeida Opera Festival

Synopsis

Critical Mass takes place in an international summit. 50 politicians gather to discuss – well, to discuss everything – climate change, terrorism, ID cards, transport, energy sources, food, health, cities, nuclear deterrents, teenagers, cloning… the future of the world. It is an extremely formal occasion. Speeches are made, the kind of speeches that pretend to a moral standpoint, but are actually based on nothing but the desire to stay in power. Important decisions are made. Allegiances are sworn. Votes are taken.

Which is all very well except that… there is a subversive element to the meeting; a human, informal, anarchic, nostalgic, ungovernable element. The delegates keep breaking out into songs, specifically folk songs – songs of protest, love songs, nursery rhymes, lullabies, songs about going to war, songs about coming back from war, songs about hardship, celebratory songs…