PIGSPIGSPIGS to Receive UK Premiere at Wigmore Hall

Experimental composer-performer collective Bastard Assignments will bring their new work PIGSPIGSPIGS to Wigmore Hall as part of the venue’s 125th Anniversary Season. Commissioned by Wigmore Hall, the piece will receive its UK premiere on April 11, 2026.

Described by The Wire as “an absolute hoot” and by VAN Magazine as “The Archers on speed,” PIGSPIGSPIGS blends original songs — including a hymn — with unconventional instrumentation such as pen lids, cooking pans, copper pipe, tiles, hoses, and amplified twigs. The work follows an English farming family facing debt and addiction, as supernatural forces begin to surface through a pregnant daughter.

The piece is created and performed by Bastard Assignments members Timothy Cape, Edward Henderson, Caitlin Rowley, and Josh Spear. Direction is by Kim Pearce, with costumes by Harry Evans.

The collective developed the work specifically for Wigmore Hall’s compact stage. “We taped out the exact dimensions of the Hall’s platform in Ghent,” the group said, “determined to develop a full piece of theatre on a small concert stage.” The resulting production has been described by the creators as “a kind of Mummers’ folk play – a nightmarish fable made from materials you can pack into a suitcase,” featuring a single large costume piece that transforms throughout the performance.

John Gilhooly CBE, Director of Wigmore Hall, said: “Our 125th Anniversary Season is a great opportunity to celebrate the full spectrum of musical imagination today. Bastard Assignments brings a fearless, witty and highly original voice to contemporary performance, and we are thrilled to unleash PIGSPIGSPIGS on our audiences as part of this landmark year.”

The work joins additional anniversary commissions from composers including Tom Coult, Freya Waley Cohen, Héloïse Werner, Nick Bentz, Lawrence Dunn, and Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade as part of the Hall’s Voices of Today series.

PIGSPIGSPIGS is co-commissioned by Wigmore Hall with Borealis – a festival for experimental music – and Spor Festival.