Master Rock (BBC radio broadcast)

BBC Radio 4 broadcast.

Master Rock is a repertoire for a mountain. Conceived as a work for radio, this experimental drama was performed and recorded live inside Ben Cruachan, a mile beneath one of West Scotland’s highest mountains. I built on extensive research into the construction of the power station, and responded to its physical structure with a polyphonic narrative structure, forefronting dialect and demotic forms of language. I collaborated with art historians, composers, engineering and technology historians, geologists, sound engineers and the workers in the site itself. The play was performed live inside the mountain to an audience granted special access by ScottishPower, then broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (14-18 October 2016) in both arts and mainstream drama slots: thereby being the first of such contemporary art commissions to reach a large mainstream audience. Listened to live by 600,000 people worldwide; it has had almost 2 million listeners and 16,000 downloads.

“Fusco’s research has had a significant impact upon Cove Park… through the involvement of a major non-arts organisation (ScottishPower) the project has highlighted to us the significant potential and value of cross-sector collaboration within our region.” Alexia Holt, Visual Arts Programme Producer, Cove Park.