Teatime! (Did you think I was here to make the tea?)

How are teacups and cheese graters related to pianos and saxophones? How many people get stuck in a kitchen routine while their creative lives develop only in their dreams?

My collaboration with film-maker Lin Li started during Covid-19 lockdowns, when the challenge was to think creatively even while constrained to living very domestically. I recorded a group of sounds from my kitchen and sampled them, turning a midi keyboard into my own kitchen synthesizer, then combining it with two instruments I play, piano and saxophone. Intrigued by the sounds, and the kitchen theme, Lin developed an animation to accompany the music.

Domestic confinement isn't limited to Covid-19, but is still a reality for many people, particularly women. The day after my father died my mother suddenly started talking openly about kitchen desperation. She spoke for a whole generation of women who lived as newlyweds in 1950s Britain, who were expected to devote themselves to cooking, cleaning and ironing. This piece is for all of them, and everyone else whose imagination is restricted by narrow domestic confines.

Teatime! was part of the programme of MicroActs 8 on Thursday 24 June 2021 at Hotel Elephant, London, and has since been screened at Darkroom Festival (London), Façade Video Festival (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) and World Cinema Carnaval (Calcultta) in 2022 and Grand Rapids Feminist Film Festival in 2024.

Music composed by Rachel Beckles Willson Performed by Rachel Beckles Willson, on piano, tenor saxophone and sampled kitchen equipment. Collaborative audio production: Rachel Beckles Willson and Federico Milanesi Audio mastering: Federico Milanesi

Filming and editing by Lin Li.

Actor: Pene Herman-Smith.