James Yarker

Stories of the origins, evolution and rules of two long form improvisation projects from Stan's Cafe. One for the stage and one for real world locations. Complete with production photographs and notes of performance histories.

Essays on the making and touring of this international hit performance installation along with blog posts, letters, emails and photographs. All taken from the first 17 years of touring.Also details of associated politically engaged productions and installations.

Trapped in the top floor of their castle alone together King Canute and Queen Aelthruda face the last few days before the Spring tide must be turned. This touching drama with music is pubished three other musical by Stan's Cafe.Still a short opera with Richard Chew about the discovery of bodies of three sailors from Franklin's mission to discover the North West Passage.The Voyage a short opera with Michael Wolters about an athlete travelling to compete in the Olympic Games.I See With My Eyes Closed in which we hear the thoughts of two audience members and then the players at a concert performance of music by Michael Wolters.

The story of Stan's Cafe's popular installation The Black Maze which was inspired by a fun fair and graduated from art galleries to the back of an old Post Office lorry. Plus, descriptions and photoraphs of all the first twenty two editios of The Steps Series installation.

A Benshi (narrator) stands describing a Japanese silent film. His infatuation with the female lead results in him twisting the narrative to match his own desires until eventually the film fights back. This sophisticated, poetic and playful script is about translation, film stars and 'the gaze'.Here the original text is set alongside fifty production photographs and stills from the film which is subject to the narration. This volume also includes a 'making of' essay, the original film treatment, plus the script for a prototype of the show narrating Yasujirō Ozu's 1933 silent film Woman Of Tokyo.

In the ashes of the burnt out 'Tea or Coffee' room in the Einstein brain library three librarians attempt to afirm their humanity amid rumours that one of their number may be an artificial intelligence. The script for Stan's Cafe's fourth play.In addition to the script this volume contains original production photographs, original programme notes an archive interview with the company and a contemporary essay reflecting both on the making of this show and its significance in the development of Stan's Cafe.

This script of Stan's Cafe's interpretation of G tterd mmerung, comprises a series of interlocking timetables specifying movements for each performer over the 255 minute running time. It is a curious puzzle of timing and logistics complete with instructions for the performers, programme notes, produciton photographs and a 'make of' essay.

Supported by his band, a newly elected President stages a concert for the party faithful. During this gig his ego grows and mask slips. This playful musical is supplimented by Comfort Hour, its radio accompaniment; faux political monologue Marginal Notes and Come Together putting the politics back in Primal Scream's samples of Rev. Jesse Jackson.This volume incudes production photos, credits and contexturalising essays.

There is inexplicable magic at work in the city and on a rooftop four figures are frantically attempting to get control of their lives and change the world around them. This bold early playtext from Stan's Cafe is supplimented with the text work Street Spy 2 and documents from a durational outdoor performance, The Camp.

An amateur assassin tracks a top research chemist across Europe; when he finds her he must choose between love and duty. Told from the assasin's warped perspective, the script mixes text from improvisations with a thin disorientating language buit from tourist phrasebooks. Strange and disturbing with shafts of humour this is a bold poetic thriller.This volume includes 30 photographs showing how slide projections meshed with the text of the original production.Also included are original programme credits and notes.

A play for 60 actors aged 10 & 11 telling the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Commissioned and performed by Billesley Primary School and as set within the frame of a child worried about playground bullying this play is witty and educational, a great read and published with original production photographs and 'making of' essay.

Eric Smith is an Erik Satie obsessed loner who sets up a museum to his musical hero in his Birmingham bedsit. He guides his audience through the 'treasures' he has gathered. The audience watch as his grasp on reality weakens and this one act play concludes with Smith pretending to be Satie pretending to be Socretes drinking hemlock.This volume contains original production photographs and programme notes plus a conversation about the making of the play by founder members of Stan's Cafe theatre company, Graeme Rose and James Yarker

An absurd comic play in which four interrogators investigate 'the events of last night'. It's never clear what the crime was, the suspect's identity keeps shifting between the four people present and the questioning is far from text book. Despite being one of Stan's Cafe's funniest plays it retains a strange poetry and philosophical undertow.This volume also contains photographs from the original production, original programme notes and script from the radio play Some Questions Tell Their Own Lies.

Two theatrical impressarios attempt to tell the nativity story in a pantomime form with the help of Mary from the audience. This play documents the terrible travesty that follows and how it is redeemed by Mary's mangled memory of the 'true' Christmas story. This is the first play by the groundbreaking theatre company Stan's Cafe.This edition includes photographs from the original production and bonus material: the original programme text, a 'making of' essay and an anecdote about the company's inept and nearly lethal attempt to tour the show.

Two performers with a chess clock are each challened to relate events from the last 26 years in 26 minutes. One must relate the personal lives and adventures of the theatre company Stan's Cafe, the other is responsible for the rest of the world. The result speaks about time, individuals, society how we are all entwined and yet separate.

Twenty one short scenes tell the story of Mr. & Mrs. Van Leasing who, coveting a tulip owned by their aristocratic neighbour Van Eek and egged on by smooth talking banker Van Hire, get sucked into the idea they can grow rich speculating on the rising value of tulips. So successful is Van Hire in lending money to tulip fanatics that he approaches both Van Eek and the financier Adrian Van Tage for investment. Everyone attempts to persuade a ageing domestic servant Van Driver to invest in tulips for his retirement but he always declines. Inevitably the tulip market stalls and collapses, the Van Leasings are bankrupted and Van Hire, facing terrible losses, confronts Van Eek and Van Tage with a doomsday scenario and, in a crushing finale, Van Driver learns from Van Tage that his pension fund was invested in Tulips.This tight and playful allegory for the 2008 financial crisis is clearly and cleverly written. It is an ideal choice for any amateur theatre looking something a little different."Credit-default swaps and short selling have never been so wryly entertaining or easy to understand. this] production never sells its audience's intelligence short. It also has plenty of fun while never neglecting the tragedy of ordinary people whose savings and pensions are the casualties in the greedy rush for gain." Lyn Gardner - The Guardian

Kate is a young film star coming to terms with her new found fame. Kate is her make up artist, divorced with an estranged daughter and elderly father in need of care. Together in the privacy of the Make Up caravan the two women share confidences and try to find a path through the future. This warm, intimate play is about the faceswe show the world.Structured around a series of bold make up looks being applied throughout the show to one actor by the other, Made Up makes playful use of time and identity slipage. It is a play both easy to engage with and inteligently thought provoking.

A beautiful, kaleidoscopic play about Birmingham's Longbridge car plant and the community round it.FIrst created by Stan's Cafe in 2006 from interviews, local testimony and historical sources, it interleaves fragments of many stories to create a playful and compassionate picture how everyday lives are lived around big business. Though written with a strong sense of time and place this play resonates across any city where old industry is in decline.Home Of The Wriggler's highly unsual style finds a cast of four playing four narrators who swap and share roles, embelish, correct and parethasize each other. The text is poetic, playful and evocative.The play toured from 2006 through until 2009 and this production script is from the 2020 revival. It includes extras of: original programme notes, credits, 'making of' essay, a related obituary and extended version of a story told within the play.Stan's Cafe are a leading 'alternative' theatre company based in Birmingham, UK who tour the world.

Script for the beautiful and poetic Barclays New Stages award winning play about being away from home and gravity and space travel. This volume also contains scripts for So Bring Me Down a 'real time' radio drama series and documents relating to the site specific durational performance Space Station.

Scripts for three key plays without words by Stan's Cafe, including original production photographs.