There is a cycle of seven scores. 

And if you do them often enough, the world changes shape.

Say it like a prayer or a bird call when you're a child.

but you have to do it a thousand times, a hundred thousand, and we only have an hour today.

So I am asking you to imagine that we have already done it a thousand times. that you are coming today as you have come before, and you know this, and you know us, and you know each other. I am asking you to imagine this.

Imagine this.

we are on the brink of something

A site-responsive and intimate sharing of mint tea and stories, as we build into a community capable of taking action to achieve a shared goal.

In a world where we rarely have the time and space to grieve or heal, this work provides a held artistic space to move through and process feelings while constructively giving you a guide to organising in your communities. Each participant will leave the experience with a booklet of prompts, enabling you to use these scores to facilitate your own actions. Each performance also builds on the last, with the constructions of previous audiences present in the space.

Join us as we attempt to elongate time, to stretch out an hour into enough space to breathe, through text, silence, and live, participatory, sculpting.

Find A booklet of 7 scores in our ARCHIVE

"Rarely do we see work about political action which is both hopeful and meditative. shelf/break manage this and navigate the challenging and fearful times we are living in, in a way which feels safe, galvanising and deeply creative."

Izzy Rabey / Facilitator & Director 

"The show was a highly captivating, powerful and immersive experience suitable for audiences of all ages. It felt like being part of a beautifully curated journey. Thoroughly enjoyed the tea and being part of the ritual with the earth."

Georgia-Leah Simpson / Artist  


A community demands much: belief, agility, compassion, power, fear, caring, cooking, survival, strategy, comradeship, banners, placards, policies, plans, headquarters, printing presses, video editors, propagandists, agricultural experts, engineering students, volunteer teachers, legions of doctors, speed, strength, courage, discipline, daring, but most of all I think it requires the patience to plant a forest you know you may never see.

iterations

  • dreaming under hidden tree canopies

    19.03.24 / rose bruford college

    Our first iteration of the piece was 1 hour and took place outdoors, on the grass opposite Lamorbey House at the Rose Bruford institution. It was influenced by our previous two years of work opposing Rose Bruford as part of the Built On Blood anti-imperialist collective which we were involved in the founding of. 

    It was performed three times in a row, each loop ending with one audience exiting and a new audience entering. We performed at 3PM, 4PM, & 5PM. The show was designed for a maximum of 10 audience members at a time.

    We repeat the performance because we believe actions build towards community through iteration and rehearsal; that you cannot make community without growing through constant repetition of these actions. We want the experience to feel cyclical, and for the environment to change and grow over the iterations.

  • organsing in tower blocks

    22.03.25 / camden people’s theatre

    Our second iteration was an attempt to reframe the show to think through the legacies of anti-imperialist organising in cities, urban environments, and Camden specifically. We set up our Base in the CPT Cafe, curating a space for people to breathe while the sounds of the city drifted in and mingled with our words.

    The act of setting up a tent indoors resonated for us with the student encampments that had occurred just down the road at the universities nearby, and the homeless encampment near to the CPT. We see how oppressed people are so often forced into fragile and temporary spaces of living between bouts of state repression. 

    While this performance was not durational, consisting of just one loop, we hope that the audience were able to take away many of the same experiences and energies of previous iterations. 

  • building in community gardens

    summer 2025 / plot 9 maze hill

    Upcoming iterations are planned to include a performance at Plot 9 in Woolwich, and hopefully a return to the location of some of our previous iterations!

    We also are looking to build towards a tour of Britain in 2026, so if you are a venue with an outdoors space which would be interested in hosting us, please get in touch! It’s useful to have these conversations in advance of our funding applications.

    A full video of the performance is available upon request by venues or artists. 

    Additionally, as each audience member leaves the performance with a copy of A booklet of 7 scores, we hope that these booklets will have a long afterlife as a toolbox for the revolutionaries who became part of our community for a short time.