Prem Sahib / Shenece Oretha
Archived Event
| Dates | Thu 21 Mar 2024 |
| Times | Performance 1: 19.00 - 20.30 Doors 18.30 Performance 2: 21.00 - 22.30 Doors 20.30 |
| Space | Lancaster Rooms New Wing |
Prem Sahib
Alleus
Alleus is a new sound performance work by Prem Sahib, presented and co-commissioned by the Roberts Institute of Art and Somerset House Studios.
A polyphony of live and pre-recorded voices, Alleus – Suella spelled backwards – re-orders, re-directs and disrupts a House of Commons speech by the former UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman. Performed live by a group of vocalists, and with additional production developed in collaboration with artist Woodsy Bransfield, Sahib's piece works to resist the damaging language often legitimised by politicians and echoed through society in hate speech.
As alluded to in the work's title, and in the sonic manipulation of Braverman's voice within the piece, Sahib plays on the trope of conspiracy theorists searching for meaning in reversed words, and also the act of ‘sending back’ – a repeated phrase used by Braverman in her anti-immigration speeches on the topic of the so-called ‘migrant crisis’. Alleus rejects the original speech's individualistic message and the egotistical, empty nature of political rhetoric, embracing a pluralism that works against the idea that one hostile voice can speak for the many.
Premiering at Assembly, Alleus will also travel to Edinburgh Art Festival in August 2024, to be featured as part of their 20th birthday performances.
Shenece Oretha
Shenece Oretha’s work is invested in the mobilising potential of sound and the oral traditions of the Caribbean diaspora. This call and response between audience, sculpture and performer celebrates the resistant technologies of Caribbean music and instruments. 
As steel drums rattle out a beat in the space, the stage is set for Oretha to respond, leading the room in ceremony and song. The work invites questions of communal agency and challenges audience culture in Britain, drawing instead on Caribbean performance traditions that require response and participation.
Approximate Stage Timings
19.00 Shenece Oretha
19.45 Prem Sahib
21.00 Prem Sahib
21.45 Shenece Oretha
ACCESSIBILITY
If you have any accessibility requirements and have any questions, please contact our Visitor Experience team at Somerset House ahead of the event.
Prem Sahib's Alleus is co-commissioned by the Roberts Institute of Art and Somerset House Studios
