It’s a lunar month since the Stan’s Cafe team returned from simultaneously delivering 3 works in the fantastic setting of the Domaine d’O, Montpellier – but here is a belated posting from an intense week in which I was personally battling fatigue and chronic toothache. Veteran Stanworks The Black Maze and It’s Your Film, (both pioneering examples of immersive micro-theatre events which cater for a single audience member at a time) were joined by Apollo Steps, installed by designer Simon Ford and team.

Apollo Steps is/was a trio of bespoke adventures in vinyl, laid out in the remarkable amphitheatre in the grounds of Domaine d’O. The auditorium and stage became a playground for the freeform re-enactment of ‘journeys to the stars’, these being an Apollo moon landing, a Classical dance performance and the mixed fortunes of a band on their rocky road through gig-dom. Images show the journeys played out by grade 8 students from a local High School (link to pics). The students were enthusiastic and a delight to talk to – which was heart-warming, partly because the Steps Series cannot really be explained, they have to be done, and partly because this particular school will be working with Stan’s Cafe through the process of realising The Cardinals – the forthcoming Stan’s Cafe piece which will premiere at Domaine d’O in early February.