An almost utopian conceptualization of listening as the foundation for a harmonious community, the title, ‘A Perfect Place’, should be taken quite literally.

In this work, seven performers from Scenatet settle in a space wherein they do not only perform music, but also cook, eat, clean, read the news, brush their teeth, live, and sleep. The audience is invited to enter from dawn to dusk, to participate in cooking and other household chores, and – most importantly – to listen.

Organized around a flexible, yet dramaturgically progressive score, the music becomes an important means of communication within an otherwise nonverbal environment. Performed solo, in duos, and in trios as well as adapted to the changing activities and moods of the day – slow and immersive in the morning, festive at night – it becomes the axis around which the community revolves.

‘A Perfect Place’ builds on Scenatet’s performance of composer Hanne Seidl’s ‘Land’ at Copenhagen Contemporary in 2020, a work which also explored the relation between the musical and the social realm.

But ‘A Perfect Place’ goes even further, suggesting that nonverbal listening is a prerequisite for an ethical community. It is when – and, perhaps, only when – we gather quietly to listen that we accept the other as other and resist the temptation to impose ourselves upon then, thus creating the perfect conditions for community building. And for social change.

Premiere at Metropolis Festival August 1 – 7, 2027