Performance / Hurry, 591 BC–2007: The Musical, with Sally O’Reilly, Kit Downes, Nina Katchadourian, and company

Date: Friday, 24 July 2026, 8–9:30 pm
Location: Lettrétage @ ACUD, Veteranenstr. 21, 10119 Berlin (map)
Tickets: 8€ / 5€ for students and those experiencing financial hardship. Advance purchase here

On 24 July 2026, a team of writers, musicians, and artists will gather at 10 am in Berlin to attempt to make a musical in ten hours flat. Their aim will be to investigate the plausibility of taking Hurry, 591 BC–2007, a title from the Webster’s Timeline Histories series, as the subject matter and sole research tool for a creative endeavor. The one-time-only performance that very evening will present a history of “hurry” made in a hurry.

There are some ninety thousand titles in the Webster’s Timeline Histories series. Published by the mysterious Icon Group International, Inc., each book’s topic is explored through a bewildering mélange of chronological quotations chosen algorithmically and without human oversight—all before 2011. Pick any adjective, noun, or verb, and Icon CEO Philip M. Parker and his team are likely to have generated a book-length timeline of that term.

Cabinet no. 70 was dedicated to understanding what it would be like to spend time with these books. We invited writers, artists, and a pub quiz master to find out, and the issue presented their experiences delving into Webster’s-approved subjects such as wallpaper, trade secrets, grumbling, and John Smith. This musical is the final installment in a pan-disciplinary assessment of the usefulness of early AI.

Hurry, 591 BC–2007: The Musical will be devised and written through collaborative methods involving seats of pants and quick-drying gloss. The breathless, white-knuckled team will include, among others, Sally O’Reilly, Kit Downes, and Nina Katchadourian.

About the Participants
Kit Downes is an ECM recording artist, composer, and performer based in Berlin. Winner of the BBC Jazz Award and the Deutscher Jazzpreis, he has toured the world playing piano and church organ with leading artists from the classical and jazz idioms. For more information, see kitdownes.com.

Nina Katchadourian is an interdisciplinary artist based in Berlin and New York. Her work includes video, performance, sound, music, sculpture, photography, and public projects. For more information, see ninakatchadourian.com.

Sally O’Reilly is a writer based in London. Recent projects include the performance collective Big Throw (2024–present), the novella Help in Cucumbers (JOAN Publishing, 2023), and Where They Gather (October House Records, 2022), a spoken-word and music album with Kit Downes. For more information, see sallyoreilly.org.uk.