I briefly squatted a derelict lock keeper’s cottage near the gasworks in Reading in1971. I decided to do a loose production of ‘Gas Heart’ by Tristan Tzara, with the gasworks as a background. The play takes the form of an absurd dialogue with nuanced inferences between the characters, each named after human body parts Mouth, Ear, Eye, Nose, Neck, and Eyebrow. Duchamp alluded to gas as an animator of libido in both the Large Glass and Etant Donnes (‘Given: 1. the waterfall 2. the lighting gas.’) Similarly to Duchamp’s bride and her bachelors, the title of the play resonates with the machinery of power, love and desire as an underlying life-force. The performers were Suzy Adderley, Becky Bailey, Chris Bishop, Alastair Brothchie, Graham Challifour, Rod Melvin and myself.

During this time I travelled to Paris to see various plays, particularly ‘Ubu Roi,’ with Alastair Brotchie, who went on to found the London publishing house Atlas Press, and edit books and anthologies on Surrealism, Dada, and the Oulipo, as well as write the highly regarded biography, ‘ Alfred Jarry, A Pataphysical Life.’ We made several forays into Jarry territory with myself as Mère Ubu, often using my space, ‘Bill’s Bargain shop,’ for actions.