What Lola Heard: Theatrical Sounds from Climate Change, is a fascinating insight into the creative process in contemporary theatre. Part public talk, part installation, part concert, the evening brings together internationally acclaimed improvising musicians in conversation with David Roesner, Professor of Theatre Studies at LMU Munich and Michelle St Anne, Artistic Director of The Living Room Theatre.

St Anne has created a body of work to interpret research conducted at the Sydney Environment Institute for a new audience. Intrigued by the public lecture, she takes this idea and re-imagines it as a conversation with David Roesner which takes place at an ‘amplified’ kitchen table. Together they will discuss the exciting new ‘genre’ Composed Theatre.

The conversation is framed by two sets by the musicians performing compositions from The Living Room Theatre’s environmental works and a collective improvisation around Lawrence English‘s soundscape from ‘Black Crows Invaded our Country’.

Alister Spence – prepared piano and samples
Mary Rapp – cello, double bass and voice
Alexandra Spence – field recordings, tapes and amplified objects

Roesner and St Anne will take questions from the audience through live phone calls, messages and tape recordings. These questions will be recorded live and used as source material for a final improvised and electro-acoustic performance.

This event will bring audiences into an environment of the ear; an auditory journey into the realities of radical climate instability to reveal an insightful musical embodiment of climate knowledge.