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House (Headingly, Leeds) January 2018

A site-specific performance by A Quiet Word 

30 January – 3 February 2018 Headingley, Leeds

Image by Lizzie Coombes

Following a period of experimentation with the company, Maria Kapsali and technologist Dr Christine Farion employed Sonolope to create an immersive interactive soundscape in one of the rooms in the House.

House begins with the story of Robert Arthington, a rich man locally known as the Headingley Miser. He built a large house for his bride; but the bride never came. So he lived alone in one room, on half a crown a week, and received his visitors in the dark.

Around him 19th Century Headingley was growing from a country village separated from Leeds by fields and farms to a vibrant suburb, where industrialists and imperialists alike built themselves splendid houses. The miser’s millions meanwhile were supporting missionary projects around the world. Arthington, Liberia, bears his name to this day.

Created by A Quiet Word in collaboration with members of the local community, House is a site-specific performance that explores how property and power connect Headingley and the wider world. You are invited behind closed doors for a conversation in the dark, and to where the present overlays the past.