The Factotum Choir
January 19 - February 24
The Black Box



An exhibition about the history of an experimental local choir with galactic ambition and varied talent, The Choir is a journey through fifty years of musical adventure.

In 2003 Factotum revived a choir that had been founded in the 1950s to sing socialist and experimental music. To understand what they had reincarnated they started a two year process of collecting artefacts of the choir’s turbulent history.

Nothing if not eclectic and embracing socialism, satanism, pagan ritualism, folk and psychedelic performance art, highlights of the exhibition include a behind-the-scenes film of rehearsals of their 1985 multimedia performance about Cuchulainn, The Hound of Ulster, original drawings for the stage designs of their 1975 folk opera, No Joy for Henry, and explosive footage of their infamous pagan actionist ritual, Die Orgiegeheimnisse, performed in London in 1971.

These documents and many others, including posters, letters, records and bizarre musical instruments, have been recovered from attics and libraries. The whole story is engagingly told by those who experienced the choir first-hand.

The revived choir will perform a selection of their repertoire at the opening.

www.factotum.org