Stan's Cafe: One looks, marvels and understands
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THE CARDINALS

9th May - 11th May - Warwick Arts Centre
TICKETS AVAILABLE VIA Warwick Arts Centre

22nd - 26th May - The Drum, Plymouth Theatre Royal
TICKETS AVAILABLE VIA THE DRUM BOX OFFICE

Three Cardinals in crimson robes are on a mission of evangelism. They are on tour with a puppet show they have made that sets out their abbreviated and extrapolated reading of the bible.

The reading is abbreviated as it stages only a relatively small number of scenes key to their message of redemption; it is extrapolated as its reading of the book of Acts and Revelation include elements of contemporary history. Our theatre show is slightly bigger than the Cardinal's own puppet show our real audience (as opposed to their fictional audience), can see what is happening in the wings, how they collaborate and argue, how they are both aided by and in conflict with their young female Muslim stage manager.

The Cardinals is essentially a visual show performed without words. The Cardinals have no puppets to speak of so enter the puppet stage themselves. The sincerity of the Cardinals, the seriousness of their intent and their theatrical naivete makes the show simultaniously very funny and strangely touching.

The show has many themes with Belief chief amongst them. The Cardinals ask us to 'believe' whilst classically the theatre asks us to 'suspend our disbelief'. The show is in essence very simple, it tells well-known Bible stories in a simple, beautiful and compelling way. We have been asked if the show is 'controversial' which is an impossible question to answer definitively because we cannot answer for other people's personal instincts. We hope the show is provocative but not controversial. We are not seeking to argue for or against religion but hoping to prompt people to consider their relationship to religious faith.



Rehearsals as seen by French TV in January 2011.




The Cardinals

Devised by:
Alia Alzougbi, Gerard Bell, Graeme Rose, Craig Stephens

Performed by:
Gerard Bell, Rochi Rampal, Graeme Rose, Craig Stephens

Direction:James Yarker
Scenic Design: Miguel Angel Bravo
Prop Making and Sourcing: Harry Trow
Costumes: Kay Wilton
Lighting Design: Paul Arvidson

Photography: Graeme Braidwood
Set Construction: A E Harris & Co. (Birmingham) Ltd.
General Manager: Charlotte Martin
Advisory Producer: Nick Sweeting


Commissioned by

and

with International Partnership Funding from Birmingham City Council

Montpellier
Cast: Gerard Bell, Rochi Rampal, Graeme Rose and Craig Stephens

"Cardinals at d'O.
The English collective Stan's Cafe, associate company of the Domain D'O, presents [...] its last creation The Cardinals. This piece stages the Crusades and the Deluge and more generally the Catholic religion; themes treated by these fellow travellers, with offbeat humour, depth and a great visual flair.

A creation directed by James Yarker, in which the characters, dressed in monastic crimson of cardinals, pace the length and width of the stage of a big puppet theatre… All is ready for the show to start… but the puppets. The Cardinals decide to take to the stage themselves to interpret those puppets. Satirists through and through, sarcastic and even at times stern, these cardinals are the quintessence of an English humour so difficult to pen down.

Here, those unique princes of the Church recount the story of Catholicism. A red carpet of events references as much the crusades as the multiples miracles of men of faith, all in a language incredibly comprehensible. But the great strength of those cardinals is visual. Instead of puppets, the actors metamorphose an arm, a leg, parts of their body with great theatrical effects, thus revealing an astounding and hilarious vision of the ecclesiastical world."
Gazette Economique et Culturelle, Montpellier

The Cardinals, The zany 'construction' of History
A scream starts The Cardinals; another will bring this piece to a close. 'Ite missa est' (the mass is said): the prophecy of the Apocalypse has been realised. Meanwhile, 3 cardinals impeccably dressed of red (at least at the beginning) have told us their vision of the world (since its creation). Their frame of reference? The Bible (ancient and new testament) 'expanded' with historical events (the Crusades, the situation in the Middle East). And to support them, those Eminences have a precious helper: a veiled Muslim woman.

This show is faithful to what we know of Stan's Cafe, an associate company of the Domaine d'O since 2 years ago. The British collective employs but a few words (in French or Latin imitation) and deploys an ever-great visual flair.

The 'story within the story' is the key to this creation viewed on Tuesday.

It is thus on a puppet theatre that the Cardinals present their story. They, the puppets in this little theatre, become Adam and Eve, Abraham or a Palestinian kamikaze. But they are also puppeteers, making use of the props that lay on the stage, cardboard sheep, tanks and multiple fabrics, that they use on the set to great effect.

Admittedly, to appreciate this ensemble, some prior knowledge of the Judeo-Christian culture would be a plus but the events and tableaux, presented in many details, are crammed with possible interpretations. The mime-actors win our support and even if we don't understand everything, we laugh, at times are moved (ah Judas!). The end of the piece, a bit brutal, has all of a 'pirouette'/u-turn. As if our cardinals cannot extricate themselves from the mined field that is the Middle East and that it is more about reminding us of the role of the Bible in the construction of History. Can we believe it?
Midi Libre

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Diary Promoter information Shop
  • 8th - 12th February, 2011:
    Domaine d'O, Montpellier