To translate a 1500 page 17th Century tome on the philosophy and physical manifestations of depression and other mental maladies into engaging theatrical form is a quixotic endeavour, even exhibiting signs of madness itself. Theatrical innovators Stan’s Cafe make no concession to the density or erudition of the original. However, their edit cleverly converts Robert […]

So, another London International Mime Festival done and dusted! 2013 saw the usual eclectic mix of work, crossing a whole plethora of artforms that snuggle under the ‘physical and visual performance’ umbrella, including contemporary circus, puppetry and animatronics, theatre clown and mime, live art, and some things that are hard to categorise, other than under […]

British stalwarts Stan’s Cafe’s latest work mines a range of familiar comic theatrical tropes: the backstage action revealed, the deconstruction of well-known tales, and amateurs staging a performance. In The Cardinals the company set three red-robed cardinals the task of staging the (hi)story of the Holy Land, from Genesis to modern day Jerusalem. Inside a […]

Stan’s Cafe’s work subtly renews theatre’s didactic power. In the lineage of the clever but also visceral montage of cinema-like sequences in The Cleansing of Constance Brown, The Just Price of Flowers presents another meaningful juxtaposition of lives and historical sequences inviting the spectator to join ineluctable dots. The play is set in the seventeenth century in the […]