The Cardinals

The Cardinals: Stan's Cafe

Visually rich and performed with Stan’s Cafe’s trademark humour and innovative approach to form, The Cardinals is a wordless show-within-a-show that examines religious belief alongside the theatrical suspension of disbelief, prompting people to consider their relationship to faith.

Three Cardinals in crimson robes are on tour with a puppet show they have made, telling the story of world from Creation to Apocalypse, including well-known Bible stories, the crusades and contemporary Middle Eastern politics.

We see both the puppet show and what happens in the wings, as the Cardinals collaborate and argue, aided by and in conflict with their own Muslim stage manager.

With no puppets to speak of The Cardinals take to their miniature stage themselves. Their sincerity, the seriousness of their intent and their theatrical naïveté makes the show simultaneously very funny and strangely touching.

Image © JohnWilliamsPhotography.co.uk