Steve Beresford, Tania Chen & Stewart Lee

John Cage’s Indeterminacy

Saturday 3rd May, 2014

12:00 pm

£ 7

Y Tabernacl

All ages

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John Cage’s Indeterminacy

Archived show

This show is from a previous year's festival

Hello campers! Why not wake up to playful experimental music in a beautiful 18th c Methodist chapel? In 1959 the composer John Cage read, in random order, a selection from 90 stories, each timed to last a minute, while David Tudor improvised at the piano in another room. In two inevitably completely different performances, the comedian Stewart Lee will read Cage’s stories, while Steve Beresford and Tania Chen take Tudor’s role, working spontaneously in the moment with piano, electronics, toys and found objects. The trio are utterly delighted to be able to bring Indeterminacy to the Machynlleth Comedy Festival as the final dates of their 2014 tour.

“Lee’s ability to deconstruct and denature comedy …. is carried over into Indeterminacy thanks to Chen and the arch-surrealist Beresford, creating the effect of a soundtrack undertaken with due seriousness, but gone horribly wrong.” Brian Morton, The Wire.

Steve Beresford is a composer and improvisor who has played with, amongst many others, Alterations, The Slits, The Flying Lizards, The Frank Chickens, Vic Reeves, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker and The Portsmouth Sinfonia.

Tania Chen is a concert pianist specialising in experimental and improvised contemporary music, and has collaborated with and performed alongside AMM’s John Tilbury, Andrew Poppy, Michael Nyman and Gavin Bryars.

Stewart Lee is a stand-up comedian and writer, who regularly tours the UK with one-man shows and has recently completed a 3rd series of his Comedy Vehicle for BBC2.

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Friday 2 May - Sunday 4 May 2025

Machynlleth Comedy Festival

Steve Beresford, Tania Chen & Stewart Lee

John Cage’s Indeterminacy

Archived show

Recently added

Before & after

Steve Beresford, Tania Chen & Stewart Lee

John Cage’s Indeterminacy

Archived show

Recently added

Before & after

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