12 Last Songs at HOME

HOME associate artists Quarantine launch the venue’s new season with a durational 12-hour performance piece. Taking place in HOME’s ground floor gallery, 12 Last Songs is a live performance that examines how we relate to work.

A durational live performance that examines how we relate to work.

Using a company of Manchester-based workers, Quarantine have created a fleeting theatrical portrait of society. Showcasing a huge selection of jobs carried out by a diverse range of people, the workers will perform paid shifts throughout the duration of the performance: a chef will prepare a meal, a hairstylist will cut someone’s hair and a bricklayer will start to build a wall. Running from midnight until noon, 12 Last Songs is a live exhibition of real Mancunian people, doing their jobs, carried out on an epic scale.

Throughout the performance, and as they work, the ensemble are asked questions about their jobs and their lives.

Throughout the performance, and as they work, the ensemble are asked questions about their jobs and their lives. Compelling and revealing, the performance seeks to probe deeper existential questions through the aperture of working life.

Directed by Richard Gregory, 12 Last Songs is the latest work by Manchester-based ensemble Quarantine. Celebrated for their forensic examination of the everyday and their ability to find beauty in the mundane aspects of day-to-day life. An epic documentary theatre piece, the performance received its premiere in Leeds in October 2021 and the ensemble of workers included a caterer, a midwife, an astrophysicist, a dog groomer and a former drug dealer.

There’s something quite fascinating about the ordinariness of people’s everyday lives and work; when you dig a little deeper, there’s a lot of extraordinariness to uncover and celebrate too.

Audiences can come and go as they please over the course of the 12 hours, and this is a Pay What You Can performance (the recommended price is £15).