For Act XII, Playbill will veer slightly away from our usual format. Rather than a time-based event, Torpedo Theater will instead act as the backdrop for a collection of audiopieces by artist and performer Sue Tompkins which will play intermittently throughout the evening. 

Perhaps most known for fronting the acclaimed Glasgow based art-rock band Life Without Buildings (1999–2002), Sue Tompkins has worked with text—its translation to speech and the representation of language in a visual manner—for the past three decades through life performances, typewritten works, sound, installation and painting. In all of these instances, snippets from conversation or everyday phrases are deconstructed and reassembled, a process that opens them up to a broader and non-linear reading, not unlike concrete poety or verbal jazz.

Tompkins is currently taking a break from live performance, a biographical note that informs her presentation here at Playbill. With her text works acting as scores—often literally being organised in clumps of speech for her live performances—a series of audio works will stand in for her embodied voice, ambushing the audience at unexpected moments. In this way, ACT XII plays with the suspension of the performer, the one acting from the sidelines, deliberately refraining from taking the stage.

This first act of the new year also brings with it the launch of our second Annual Report publication, this time featuring an essay by Katy Deepwell, an artist commission by Rechonski and audience reports by Szymon Adamczak, Clara Amaral, Megan Hoetger and Robert Milne. Come and celebrate the beginning of the new Playbill year with a publication reporting on the previous season.

This act is unticketed (free of charge) and visitors are welcome to come by the theatre at any time between 5–8pm on April 13. The bar will be open throughout the event and a toast will take place at 6pm.