Stan's Cafe - Para-Theatrical Work

Para-Theatrical Work

The success of It's Your Film described by one critic as "the Godfather of one-on-one theatre" led Stan's Cafe to be invited to make a range of other para-theatrical projects.

In 2000, Birmingham City Council commissioned The Black Maze for its Revolution Festival on the 2nd and 3 January. This sensory art installation was originally constructed to be installed in galleries, but its popular successes led to its re-installation in the back of a 7.5 ton truck allowing it to visit street festivals across the UK and into Europe. It's an intimate theatre experience that's different for each participant, creating a one of a kind shared experience for those that enter in twos or threes.

In 2002, Jubilee Arts commissioned Space Station for the Birmingham - Wolverhampton Metro, which saw three astronauts appear on new platform labelled Earth North Central attempting to catch a train to the planets, a feat made apparently possible through an alteration to the maps onboard all metro trains. To make the piece possible, negotiations with the Department of Transport were needed in order to install the platform and stop the train at an authorized point to allow the astronauts to board at the end of the day. Train conductors had to become semi-official gallery guides as passengers encountered the performance (and the others that were spread out along the metro line between West Bromwich and Wednesbury).

In 2003, Radiator commissioned Broadway Hertz, a sound installation that, through placing microphones around the building allowed audience members to re-mix the building's sounds.

Almost simultaneous with the opening of Broadway Hertz was the opening of Of All The People In All The World at Warwick Arts Centre. In 2002, the company received its first ever revenue funding from Arts Council England, freeing the company from the restriction of always agreeing projects and budgets for subsidy in advance. This freedom allowed the company to spend approximately £700 on a tonne of rice, enough for each person in the UK to be given a grain. The project's simple premise that “one grain = one person” allowed for human population statistics to be represented as carefully counted/weighed piles of rice sitting on labelled sheets of white paper. The ability of the show to directly and flexibly address human concerns in an engaging and emotionally powerful manner led to the show's rapid success. It remains in the company's repertoire regularly performing around the world, mostly in theatre festivals and in a range of scales from 1 tonne of rice up to vast versions of 104 and 112 tonnes representing the entire world's population at the time of performance. The 104 tonne version for Theatre De Welt, commissioned by Marie Zimmerman, is documented in a book with photographs by Ed Dimsdale and poetry by Alan Hay. It is perhaps the success of Of All the People in All the World that has turned Stan's Cafe into an international festival favourite.

The freedom of their own venue allowed Stan's Cafe to pursue apparently whimsical projects. In 2009, 24 Hour Scalextric saw audience and actors racing slot cars around a vast track for 24 hours to coincide with the Le Mans race of that year. The piece was transformed into art by two commentators giving a live webcast description of the entire reach. The company's policy of pressing interesting projects without a close scrutiny of long term viability was again vindicated as schools started to request their own miniature versions of the race in order to promote literacy and mathematics. Also spinning off from the race were the two commentator figures who were later commissioned by East Side Gallery, Fierce Festival and projects who variously requested the commentators webcast commentaries on a football match - whilst only being able to watch an audience watch a match on a big screen, view from a hotel window just overlooking Birmingham's busiest street of nightclubs, the Crab Fair in Egremont, including the World Gurning Championships in 2011.

In 2008, mac approached Stan's Cafe for a show to celebrate the arts centre's closure for redevelopment. The subsequent project, Dance Steps, inspired by teach yourself to dance floor mats gave audiences the opportunity to take roles in a mini drama by following vinyl foot, hand and 'object prints' spread around a venue. Between 2008 and 2012, The Steps Series has appeared in 18 venues being re-made for each new setting adapting its narrative according to the architecture and context of its setting.