Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Wednesday 11th March 2015
The Finders Street Baptist Church seemed a comically incongruous choice of venue for a performance by three Roman Catholic cardinals.
The Cardinals, of course, are members of Stan's Cafe (pronounced caff, in the British manner) Theatre Company from Birmingham, England.
Three deadly serious cardinals are presenting a wordless religious puppet show covering major scenes from the Bible. The puppet theatre is there, the props are there, the scenery is there, but the puppets have gone missing in transit from the previous venue. Their only option is for the three of them to take the place of the puppets. What we see is not only the performance, but also the mayhem in the wings, either side of the puppet theatre.
The three men in red, with the silly hats, are a little surprised to find that their stage manager is a lady of the Islamic faith. One of them, in particular, finds this a problem on a personal level, or is it a religious difficulty? The stupidity of religious prejudice is dealt with, in this mostly comic piece, by making fun of the foolish. He is reluctant to shake hands until pressured by the other two and, holding a prop in his right hand, only offers his left hand, which she shakes. I was expecting something comical at this point, with him offering the hand that is considered unclean, but nothing. The first of a number of missed opportunities.
Now that they are also acting as human puppets, necessitating continual costume changes, this complicates the scene changes which they would normally have accomplished with ease. This gives rise to many humorous moments as they race around, trying to keep things moving along and, as they portray the various characters there is more laughter at how ludicrous they are. The cardinals are very serious about presenting the biblical myths and stories but their theatrical ineptitude often highlights how unbelievable, even ludicrous, these stories really are.
As they struggle through the Garden of Eden, Noah's ark, the presentation of the Ten Commandments, the flight from Egypt and the parting of the waters, and the virgin birth, death, and resurrection, they are suddenly without a stage manager. It is that time of day for her to unroll the prayer mate and face Mecca, leaving them to sort out music and lighting as well as everything else they have been doing.
After she has finished her devotions they proceed to the Apocalypse, visiting a series of religious wars starting with the Third Crusade. Richard I, Coeur de Lion, The Lionheart, leads his Christian crusader knights against the Muslim Turks, led by Saladin. Once again I expected some sort of interaction between the cardinals and their stage manager and, again, nothing. They presented Hitler's persecution of the Jews, and other events, right up to the current wars in the Middle East. For this they seemed to drop the humour and take on a more direct approach which suggested that this was the moral of the story.
In reality, this was a one joke show, the attempts to keep everything running smoothly in the face of adversity. Funny at first, the laughter levels became less and greater spaced as the evening continued. A hundred minutes was rather too long to maintain that one joke and the production could profitably have been almost halved. So much could have been done with the the fact that the stage manager was a Muslim, juxtaposing the two religions and highlighting the similarities and differences with hilarity, but making a lot of points about peaceful coexistence between religions that both preach peace and love, yet spend so much time in physical conflict.
The cast of this production are Gerard Bell, Graeme Rose, and Craig Stephens as the cardinals, with Rochi Rampal as the stage manager who tries to help them hold it all together. All four work very hard in this energetic, and often very fast paced show, each still finding time to create believable and fully formed characters.
Devised by the three men, with Alia Alzougbi, it is directed by James Yarker, who co-founded the company with Rose in 1991. Stephens is the company's associate director. As all of them have a personal investment in the work, perhaps the use of an external dramaturge could be of help in bringing the running time down a little to ensure that interest does not wane toward the end.
Miguel Angel Bravo certainly deserves an accolade for his set design, helped a lot by Paul Arvidson's lighting,
Kay Wilton's costumes, and the many props found or made by Harry Trow. A lot of work has gone into this production and the result is, on the whole, very good and well worth seeing, but a trim here and there would work wonders.
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