Fag Break
Fag Break is a site-specific musical game for two musicians and two "players" and the result of a commission to contribute a piece to be performed to an audience of two in a gallery space in Plovdiv, Bulgaria as part of a Capital of Culture event (2019).
Inspired by the experimental game compositions of John Zorn, the piece is improvised following a set of instructions and a diagram. However, the piece also requires active participation from two audience members. They roll their dice and move along the squares, spiraling in towards the musicians and encountering objects on the way, which they can choose to interact with or not.
The first performance was in a former tobacco factory and featured lighters, cigarette packets, ominous percussion, classical cello and echoes of Otis Redding’s 'Cigarettes and Coffee'.
It has since received a second performance at the Profound Sound Festival (2020) in Folkestone Quarterhouse, which was built on the site of a building firm, a cake shop and a beer shop.
Percussion - Haydn Ackerley (Plovdiv)
Cello - Laura Ritchie (Plovdiv)
Voice, Bottle, Hammer - Anna Braithwaite (Folkestone)
On tour from autumn 2020