Irish performer Rachel Helena Walsh performs a set of original Fluxus scores written for The Window, part of Volcano's 'The Shape of Things to Come' commission series.
Rachel Helena Walsh brings The Swansea Scores to The Window on Wednesday 25 November, as part of The Shape of Things to Come 2026. It's a set of original Fluxus scores written especially for the room, performed live over the course of the evening.
If you're not familiar with Fluxus, it's a loose international anti-art movement that's all about democratising creation through DIY processes. One of its main tools is the 'score'—a simple set of instructions that an artist interprets live on stage. That's exactly what Walsh is doing here: she's written her own scores specifically for this space and will be working through them in front of you.
Walsh is an Irish performer, artist, poet and producer based in Wales, and her work tends to cross a lot of boundaries. She describes herself as multidisciplinary, and the range shows: poetry and radio, festival walkabouts, live art, theatre and clown. The Swansea Scores sits right in the middle of that, combining the written instruction of the Fluxus tradition with her own background in performance and poetry.
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There's a bit of a challenge behind the scenes, too. The piece is part of The Shape of Things to Come, the fifth year of Volcano's freelance commission series, which started back in 2022 as Solo Duets for the Future. The series asks independent actors and theatre-makers to develop new modes of performance and make work that looks toward the future. Each artist gets just a fortnight to create a brand-new original piece from scratch, and then performs it over three days, with shows kept under 45 minutes. So what you'll see is something built in a very short window of time.
The Window itself is a prominent former shop-floor space on Swansea High Street, usually used as an art gallery, so it's a fitting spot for a piece that's as much about the room it's in as it is about the performance. The Swansea Scores runs on 25 November, with the show clocking in under 45 minutes.
