Emergency Performance is an open ended series of Acts through which Stan’s Cafe delivers its environmental responsibilities. Acts are performed in whatever artistic form is most appropriate to the environmental concern they are addressing. As a company devoted to artistic innovation, excellence and excitement, choosing to address environmental policy as an artistic enterprise ensures it is always at the heart of what we do, receiving the best efforts that we have to offer.
Act 1: The Many Lives Of PET #1
A complicated comedy about a plastic bottle. This show dramatises humanity’s struggle to overcome its plastics aditiction. It explains the history and possible future of plastic by following the reincarnated life of PET #1 and its cousins who are all desperate to avoid incineration or burial in landfil.
Commissioned by and made in collaboration with Birmingham Plastics Network. This show is suitable for audience of all ages. It will appear in schools and community venues in and around Birmingham through the spring of 2025. In preparation for the show Stan’s Cafe and scientists from the University Of Birmingham conducted workshops in schools working with GCSE science students.
The Many Lives Of PET #1 is a wonderfully concise and witty summary of the plastics crisis. It encapsulates the key approaches that could make a real difference, and explains the complexity of the plastic waste crisis in a really accessible manner with great jokes and argumentative puppets. Science communication of the highest order.
Dr. Andrew Dove, Head of Birmingham Plastics Network, University of Birmingham
The plastic waste crisis is one of the great, global challenges facing society today. But it’s a massively complex subject, surrounded by all kinds of confusion and misinformation. This project communicates important messages and knowledge about plastics in a way that is engaging and understandable, and might just help to drive the kind of action needed to address the crisis in a meaningful way.
Dr. Christopher Windows-Yule, Birmingham Plastics Network, University of Birmingham
Act 2: Hall Of Fame
Stan’s Cafe started in 1991 when founders Graeme and James were sharing a house in Balsall Heath Birmingham. Early productions featured scenary and props, begged, borrowed and plucked from the skips, gutters and street corners of their local neighbourhood.
The company has been recycling its materials ever since. Hall Of Fame playfully celebrates this aesthetic / financial / ethical choice and commits the company to its continuation by inducting into its hallowed pantheon its most reused props, costumes and equipment.
Act 3: The Book
The Book is a list of approved suppliers and products – Stan’s equivalent of ‘By Royal Appointment’. We are attempting to research ethical products and suppliers for the company and when we find something we are happy with, we enter it into The Book, for future reference.
The Book is open for others to read, comment and advise us on or copy if they wish.