Stan's Cafe: Tulip speculation...
THE JUST PRICE OF FLOWERS presented by
BIRMINGHAM REPERTORY THEATRE COMPANY and STAN'S CAFE
With John Blakemore photographic exhibition courtesy of Birmingham Central Library
@ A E Harris, 15th - 30th June (not sundays) 19.30 (except Mon. 18th 19.00)
Matinees 14:00 on Saturday 23rd & Thursday 28th June
TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE VIA THE BIRMINGHAM REP. BOX OFFICE
A play about the 2008 financial collapse, set in 17th Century Netherlands, looking like a Rembrandt, featuring origami and paying homage to the great theatre maker Bertolt Brecht.
Tulips were imported into Europe in the early 17th Century at a time when merchants were generating wealth through trade. Collecting exotic items was a fashion. A passion developed for tulips, their price rose rapidly and created the possibility of making profit through speculative buying. For a brief time certain tulip bulbs were sold for prices equivalent to those of a house, or three years of a craftsman's wage. In 1637 this financial bubble burst.
Using Tulipmania as its inspiration, The Just Price of Flowers finds the Van Leasings buying a tulip from Van Eek, using money borrowed from Van Hire. It follows them as they chase their dream of wealth through the growing complexities of futures trading, credit ratings, sub-primes, credit default swaps, and the horror of short selling.
This is a simple, playful production, which explains the complexities of high finance with great humour, in a remarkably straightforward way, whilst steadily setting you up for the inevitable heartbreaking finale. There are also two songs and an origami peacock.
Exhibited in the venue and complementing the production will be a collection of photographs from Birmingham
Central Library's John Blakemore Archive. Blakemore, one of this country's most distinguised photographers,
has spent more than a decade photographing tulips. This exhibition shows a selection of his work from across this period and
resonates with many themes picked out in The Just Price of Flowers.
Documentary about John Blakemore whose photographs of tulips will be exhibited in the foyer.
March 2010 Cast:
Floristien: Amanda Hadingue
Husband: Jack Trow
Wife: Charlotte Gregory
Banker: Bernadette Russell
Worker: Gerard Bell
Financier Craig Stephens
Original Cast:
Floristien: Christine Dugrenier
Husband: Kerrie Reading
Wife: Charlotte Gregory
Banker: Bharti Patel
Worker: Lucy Nicholls
Financier: Craig Stephens
Narrator: Amanda Hadingue
Script: James Yarker
Lyrics: Craig Stephens
Music: Brian Duffy
Origami: Brian Duffy
Direction: Amanda Hadingue, Craig Stephens and James Yarker
General Manager: Charlotte Martin
The Just Price of Flowers is based on real events both old and new.
This 'austerity production' recycles a portion of the set from The Cleansing of Constance Brown and costumes from The Cleansing of Constance Brown and Of All The People In All The World. It was written in five days and has been rehearsed in six, using locally sourced performers working on reduced wages and sharing box-office and bar takings.
Stan's Cafe is a regularly funded client of Arts Council England and is supported by Birmingham City Council.
"Who needs money, funding bodies might well ask themselves, when you can produce such fresh and stimulating theatre on a shoestring? *****
Terry Grimley, Birmingham Post
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- 3rd - 5th December 2010
@ A E Harris, Birmingham - 6th March 2010
Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry