Time Critical
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Two competing actors, tyrannised by a chess clock, struggle to compress 34 years of global vs personal history (1991 – 2025) into an allocation of just one minute each per year.
This “hilarious and thought provoking” show bounces between international politics and stories from individuals’ lives. It accelerates through re-enactments of landmark moments in recent history and fragments of past Stan’s Cafe productions towards an exhilarating finale against the clock.
Time Critical is about how we live our lives in relation to the world around us. It gives us a new perspective on the spiralling nature of history.
Stan’s Cafe is one of this country’s most inventive and playful theatre companies. Founded in 1991, they have toured the world and are now Associate Artists at the Gulbenkian Arts Centre.
Loved my first Stan’s Cafe show tonight. Learned more in an hour than I did the whole of GCSE history I reckon!”
Audience Comment
Venue
Presented by
Stan’s Cafe Theatre Company
Devised by
Rochi Rampal, Craig Stephens and James Yarker
Directed by
James Yarker
Price
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Access Performances
Captioned: Tue 7 Oct 7.45pm
Age Guidance
15+
Please note, no under 5s will be admitted to the auditorium.
Running Time
1 hour and 8 minutes, with no interval.
Cast
Kianyah Caesar-Downer
Kianyah Caesar-Downer is a graduate of The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Stage Credits include: Toni in Rapsody (2022 recipient of The Pleasance’s Charlie Harthill Theatre Reserve) and Community Service (Stan’s Safe).
Film and TV Credits include: Nurse Fiona on Doctors (BBC); Imani in upcoming short film The Birthmark (Violet Haze Productions) and Amina in I Saw You (Baobob Pictures)
Craig Stephens
Craig graduated from Warwick University and gained an M.A. at Lancaster University. He has performed with a number of companies including Insomniac Productions, Plane Performance, Talking Birds, The Playhouse. He has also written for amongst others; BBC Radio 4, Talking Birds, Hamfisted!, Ludlow Assembly Rooms and Lichfield Garrick Theatre.
He first worked with Stan’s Cafe devising Simple Maths in 1997 since when he has been at the heart of most of the company’s activities. Craig became Associate Director in 2006, a move that acknowledges his creative contribution to the company, his direction of numerous small-scale projects and his lead of the company on tour in James’s absence.
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