Kate Wallich & Perfume Genius: The Lesson

Thu, Apr 1, 2027, 7 pm
Copresented by Liquid Music and Northrop
Northrop

Perfume Genius (Mike Hadreas) and choreographer Kate Wallich return to Minneapolis with an uncompromising new collaboration that reshapes the possibilities of role-playing in music and dance, blurring and expanding the boundaries between the two. Combining Perfume Genius’ experimental pop with Wallich’s sharp choreographic lens, The Lesson is a raw, visceral performance work inspired by the notorious novel by Austrian Elfriede Jelinek, The Piano Teacher. The piece was developed in part during a creative residency at Northrop in May 2024 and weaves together new and existing music by Perfume Genius, with forthcoming releases arriving via Matador Records ahead of the presentation.  

The Lesson examines what happens when desire has nowhere to go — researching what, exactly, we are rehearsing when we practice “good behavior.” The work moves through repression, longing, authority and submission in unstable scenes where roles shift, and the unsaid becomes manically physical.

Longtime admirers know that Perfume Genius has spoken about his love of The Piano Teacher. Its intense, clinical bleakness and its capacity to be both unsettlingly comic and tragic echo through the landscape of The Lesson.

Building on their acclaimed 2019 performance collaboration The Sun Still Burns Here, Hadreas and Wallich are joined by Hadreas’ husband and musical partner Alan Wyffels and longtime collaborator Tate Justus.

The Lesson was commissioned by Seattle Theatre Group, Liquid Music | Northrop and REDCAT.

Subscription tickets for Northrop's 2026-27 season are now on sale. Single tickets go on sale July 14.