The Line Is A Curve

In the middle of the stage surrounded by the high medieval walls of the Palais des papes, Kae Tempest explores the never-ending cycle of social struggles and emotional pressures that force us to find ourselves. It will find a particular echo here, and the artist knows it. Introducing their recital with a reading that slowly turns into a concert featuring songs from their latest album The line is a Curve, Kae Tempest, accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Hinako Omori, explores what they know best: anxieties and emotional holds, and how they never disappear. Today, they can say “Beauty is found in doing. The more pressure there is, the more room one has to find one’s freedom” as they come to us on a pared-down stage, with the text as main character and their voice and music as vehicles for it. A performance defiantly looking towards a different tomorrow.

« L’épiphanie d’une âme
La folie d’une autre âme
J’ai vu la vérité dans les boucles de la fille qui disparaît
Les mains comme des toiles d’araignées qui pendent
Les yeux comme des plongées en mer profonde
Elle a dit
Arrête de t’inquiéter, arrête de paniquer »

With Kae Tempest (voices)
Ant the musician Hinako Omori (keyboards)

Text, music Kae Tempest
Lights Franki McDade, Louisa Smurthwaite
Sound Maxine Gilmore, Frank Wright
Technical management Fanny Deroff

The surtitled literary excerpts are taken from Kae Tempest's Les Nouveaux anciens and Etreins-toi published in French by L'Arche in translations by D' de Kabal and Louise Bartlett (2017, 2021).

Production Asterios Spectacles