Time Critical was created for our 25th Anniversary Party and premiered at mac on 30th November 2016.
Two performers confront each other across a table, a chess clock between them. Her job is to compress the history of the world over the last 26 years into 26 minutes; his is to do the same for Stan’s Cafe.
Action snaps back and forth between global and domestic events, accelerating as time ticks down. Fast moving and densely packed with humour and pathos, the show contains fragments from nine old Stan’s Cafe shows recreated in their historical context.
We are invited to think about ourselves in relation to the wider world, how personal histories interweave with world events. We are reminded how much has happened, how much has changed and how little has moved on.
First performed for the company’s 25th Anniversary in November 2016 this reworked version of the show is two minutes longer (as a year has passed). Audiences of the original show enjoyed its fast pace and engaging virtuoso performances. They enjoyed being reminded of historical events and thinking what they were doing when the action depicted in the show took place. People said the show was clever and fun, playful and dense with material building to a breakneck finale as the performers race to beat the clock.
There are comic situations, evocative moments and plenty to reflect on. It’s a good night out, hopefully you’ll never want it to end, but you’ll know exactly when it will as you can see the show’s twin clocks ticking down to zero throughout.We sat down with Stan's Cafe confounder and Director James Yarker to learn moer
What can you tell me about Time Critical?
It’s a theatre show about how global events intersect with ordinary people’s lives. There are two actors, one is responsible for sharing with us all world since 1991, other has the same job for the history of Stan’s Cafe. They each have a minute per year, they collaborate acting moments out, including fragments from old Stan’s Cafe shows, but there’s a chess clock and they’re in competition with each other.
What first inspired to this piece?
We wanted to make a show for the company’s 25th Anniversary party. Making a show about ourselves was too self-indulgent, especially given how insignificant all our lives are when compared with global events. That relationship between the personal and the global started to interest us. I’d bought a chess clock many years before thinking it would be a fun thing to base a show around. The rest is history - or the recollection of it!
You revisit this piece 9 years after it first premiered. How have you approached re-visiting the show?
The original show builds to a great climax as both the performers try and get to the end of their script before time runs out. We’ve kept the original material and added 18 minutes on, so we get two climaxes now. The procedure of choosing a range of events to put in remains the same. World events have been so dramatic over the last 9 years there’s no shortage of material!
Why does now feel the time to revisit the show?
As I suggest, the news has been so vivid and noisy in recent years, it feels useful to reflect on that and try to put recent events into a greater perspective, which is exactly what Time Critical does.
How does the piece fit into the ethos of the work created by Stan’s Cafe?
We’re playful, we enjoy changing the form of theatrical to match the content we want to share. The show is a lot of fun, but also very serious, so audiences can enjoy it as they’re watching then keep on mulling over what they’ve seen for a long time afterwards. Plus - true to the ethos of Stan’s Cafe, it demands a lot of work from the actors.
What was the first piece of theatre you saw that had a big impact on you?
It was an obscure show called Cuckoo by a company called Station House Opera, I felt as if the company had watched my forgotten dreams and were acting them out for me on stage. There were no words, it was funny and intense, I was amazed, no one had told me theatre could be like that - until then I’d always thought theatre was more fun to do than watch.
How do you reflect on your career to date and how does what you’ve learnt shaped the work you do?
I’m incredibly proud of the scope of the work Stan’s Cafe has made and range of people we’ve collaborated with and the places we’ve been invited to. Part of the motivation behind Time Critical was to share some of these stories. I’ve learnt to see opportunities in unlikely places and that audiences enjoy being treated like intelligent inquisitive people.
What keeps you inspired?
Everything! There is very little that doesn’t interest me and I’m obsessed with how to share the most fascinating things with audiences most powerfully on the stage.
What do you hope someone takes away from seeing Time Critical?
I hope they have fun and are thoroughly absorbed before leaving reflecting on the cyclical nature of history and how amidst the grand global events our humdrum lives can often be news enough.
Where can people see the show?
The DOOR at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, then Bath Spa University and the Gulbenkian Arts Centre in Canterbury.
You can find all dates and booking information by visiting the website https://stans.cafe/project/project-timecritical/
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