Jennifer Walshe & Philip Venables

In The Alonetimes, six voices intertwine, evoking missed appointments, sudden break-ups and embarrassing memories. The performers engage in dialogue, almost touching one another, yet they never truly meet. In this way, the two leading composers Jennifer Walshe and Philip Venables explore contemporary forms of relationships and unfold a cartography of modern-day loneliness. What is at stake is not so much isolation as the difficulty of entering into a relationship, maintaining a bond and making sense of the outcome. With a blend of insight and irony, Walshe and Venables – working together for the first time – create a musical and scenic form in which vulnerability, longing and discomfort come to the fore, closely mirroring the everyday experience of human relationships.