Stan's Cafe and Birmingham Repertory Theatre Present THE CAPITAL

The internationally acclaimed Stan's Cafe bring their latest show, The Capital, a bold and visual play about world inequality, to Birmingham Repertory Theatre from 24 - 27 October.

Set in a big city, where rich and poor share the same streets and where five very different people's lives converge and diverge as they crisscross the city in pursuit of five very different ambitions. If you ever feel you have to run in order to stand still, or see others gliding through life while you struggle to survive, or experience a relationship drifting apart, or a goal retreating as fast as you advance on it - then you will recognise life in The Capital.

The Capital is performed on twin travellators, measuring 7 metres each in length, and is accompanied by a rich soundtrack to turn its themes of financial inequality and strained human relationships into a vivid story told without words.

James Yarker said:

"The Capital explores the impact of inequality in the world. It's a series of interconnecting stories that consider economic migration, employment and unemployment, and the burden of debt.

The idea came from us working with the economics department at the University of Warwick who were interested in ideas of inequality around the world and that really chimed with an idea I'd had about staging a show on twin travellators. It occurred to me that by varying the speeds of travellators it allows us to be very cinematic and to follow individual characters as they make their way through a city - almost like being on the treadmill of life."

The Capital is directed by James Yarker, Artistic Director of Stan's Cafe and devised by the company. The cast of five includes: Gerard Bell, Amy Ann Haigh, Luanda Holness, Hema Mangoo and Craig Stephens. Lighting design is by Simon Bond and sound design by Nina West.

Stan's Cafe is an internationally acclaimed theatre company renowned for their artistic innovation, and prolific, eclectic performance projects. Embracing site-specific, immersive, durational, non-text-based as well as scripted work, Stan's Cafe's portfolio defies simple categorisation. Running through all their work is a collaborative devising process that champions a playful experimentation with form. Highlights of their work from the last 26 years include Home of the Wriggler - made in response to the closure of the Rover car plant at Longbridge, the international hit Of All The People In All The World - a performance installation that represents human population statistics via mounds of rice, and The Cleansing of Constance Brown - a show without words, performed on a stage 2m wide and 14m deep representing different corridors of power around the world and through time.

To post a comment, you must register and login.