CALLS TO THIS NUMBER ARE BEING DIVERTED

CALLS TO THIS NUMBER ARE BEING DIVERTED AUT, in partnership with Second Sound, presents prize-nominated evening length music theatre set in an absurd callcentre, written by composer Matthew Grouse. There will be 2 showings at Xenon(HUSET), Copenhagen on the 24th and 25th of October 2025. Each performance is preceded by a participatory installation in the theatre's foyer.

The performance is predominantly in English and lasts 90 minutes.

About the performance: At the data collection agency ‘Re-sounding Success’, call centre workers equipped with instruments sit behind their computer screens, waiting (played by Andreas Borregaard and Anna Jalving). While they wait to be transferred, the hold-music of each company on their call-list is played by a live house band that can only be glimpsed as silhouettes behind an illuminated screen. (hold-music trio: Kirstine Elise Pedersen, Hsiao Tung Yuan and Joss Smith). Operating at the boundaries of new music, experimental theatre involving audience participation, and interactive installation art, the project’s central themes land on the unsettling musicality buried in repetitive labour, cold-calling and workplace technology; the psychological effects of hold-music; and existential questions surrounding time, purpose and agency.

TEAM:
Composition/concept: Matthew Grouse Produced by: Aarhus Unge Tonekunstnere
Soloists: Andreas Borregaard (accordion and voice) and Anna Jalving (violin and voice)
Ensemble musicians: Hsiao Tung Yuan (percussion, keyboards, voice), Kirstine Elise Pedersen (cello, guitar, voice), Joss Smith (clarinet, whistles, melodica, voice)
Staging/directingconsultation: Anna Sofie Keller Brandsborg
Sound technician: Morten Elkjær
Contributions to installation and visuals: Jan Giedroyc
Voice acting: Jan Giedroyc, Lily Grouse, Sam Wilson, Harry Gorski-Brown, Mathilde Schelin, Matthew Grouse

AUT is extremely grateful to the following foundations for financially supporting the project:
William Demant Fonden, Det Obelske Familiefond, Dansk Musiker Forbund, Indre By Lokaludvalg, Københavns Kommune, Statens Kunstfond, Aarhus Kommunes Musikpulje

The event is suitable for people 12 years and up