Broken Ivy/Fence Off at The Cockpit

Broken Ivy Music: Florence Lloyd Libretto: Vivian Bayliss

Fence Off Music: Ruben Doda Libretto: Rebekah King

Broken Ivy & Fence Off are a pair of chamber operas created by emerging composers from the Royal Academy of Music. The evening brings two worlds onto one stage: a vivid, fast-moving programme where different musical languages, cultural perspectives and theatrical styles collide.

In "Broken Ivy", English folklore becomes ecological myth: nature is not the backdrop, but the protagonist, telling a story of human overreach and its natural nemesis.

In "Fence Off!", a fencing duel becomes an operatic battle of consciousness: two women trapped on opposite sides of perfection, where every movement exposes vulnerabilities, privilege, and ambition.

Come to the second show this evening for two more operas for an evening moving between folklore, psychological drama, political urgency, and domestic comedy, The Breaking Point offers opera with pace, contrast, and sharp theatrical images. It asks what happens when the forces around us — nature, language, competition, media, love — stop staying in the background and start to break the sense of what we are.