Radio Z by Stan's Cafe

Radio Z by Stan's Cafe

12 October, 2010
by: Naima Khan

Naima Khan is left sorely disappointed by our favourite experimental theatre company, Stan's Cafe.

Stan's Cafe are by far one of my favourite experimental theatre companies. They're the people behind the very individual Black Maze, most recently at National Theatre, and they're also responsible for It's Your Film, which left me pleasantly bewildered at the One on One Festival.

Their latest show, Radio Z, kicked of its UK tour at Artsdepot where the boundary pushing company left theatre-goers baffled once more. Only this time for the wrong reasons.

Radio Z has a simple concept that's far more complex in logistics that you might think. And to their credit, the logistical part of the show they pull off. It centres on two radio presenters broadcasting into the night in the middle of a city-wide apocalypse. They rely on their audience of listeners (online and in the theatre) to text and email them suggestions to work from.

For such a simple concept (I mean they're on the radio, there's not much going on) the set seems unnecessarily complicated. There are shelves, cupboards, a cubby hole of sorts and people sleeping on stage. None of which is put to much use. I'm sure it's very conceptual, though this is never illustrated, which is even more frustrating when you read the brief programme in which James Yarker (Stan's Cafe artistic director) states that he prefers shows that are self explanatory and therefore don't need a thesis of a programme to accompany them. A very good point, but one poorly realised on stage.

Almost all the pressure, as with most improvised shows, is on the performers. Even when audience suggestions are limited and/or unoriginal, which these weren't, it comes down to the people on stage to make it interesting. Disappointingly, Craig Stevens and Amanda Hadingue only do this momentarily and for the most part in a bizarrely abstract manner. For a few brief moments, the radio presenters skilfully refer to suggestions from the audience – this induces a few laughs as people recognise their own contributions. But their suggestions remain underdeveloped. The key to good improvisation is idea initiation followed quickly by execution, both of which Radio Z lacks.

The great thing about improvised theatre is that it embraces tangents and makes them work. But the Radio Z presenters seem to plod on with themes and a 'plot' direction that doesn't work – it just makes the production too slow. Something rarely tolerated in improvised theatre is slow improvised theatre. It needs to be snappy because no one wants to wait around in the hope that something might happen. And Radio Z commits a particularly cruel sin by carrying on for three hours (though of course you're free to leave at any point)

So the London run turned out to be dull. But with interactive shows, this is, in part, a reflection of the audience there that night. The sky is still the limit for Radio Z's UK tour, but it needs eager, excited, relentless audiences who want to be part of creating theatre.

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Naima Khan