Stan's Cafe

112 tons of rice. This is how much it takes to represent the whole population of the world, with one grain of rice for every human being. The full scale version of the project “Of All The People In All The World”, staged by theatre company Stan’s Cafe, opened on Friday 12th September in Birmingham as part of ArtsFest.
The performers aim to bring statistics to life, making numbers and proportions visible and quantifiable by giving them size and shape.

A variety of reduced adaptations tailored to specific audiences and representing different national contexts have been put on in a number of venues in the UK and abroad. However, due to the scale and financial cost of putting on the show, this is only the second time that the full version has been staged, since its creation in 2003.

In 2004 Stan’s Cafe took an adapted version of the show into four British schools. Project “Plague Nation” was funded by the Wellcome Trust through the Pulse initiative, which aimed at engaging young people with science through creative projects.
The students were involved in discussions about the history of epidemics, vaccinations and the science involved. Following this, the students became part of the performance by weighing rice to represent a variety of statistical data. “Plague Nation” gave the pupils a visual representation of the impact of several diseases, as well as vaccination programmes.

For those of you interested, the show is on now:

Venue:

A.E. Harris Factory
110 Northwood Street
Birmingham B3 1SZ

13th September – 5th October
12.00 – 21.00 (closed Mondays)