A landmark production!
Roll up for middle of the night theatre at the top of the Rotunda. DAVE FREAK reports
ONE of the most iconic buildings in the West Midlands is about to become the site of a surprise one-off production from Birmingham theatre company Stan’s Cafe.
The intriguingly titled Ultraopticon will see the Selly Oak-based company billeted in a swanky serviced apartment within the Grade II listed Rotunda for a unique 24 hour performance. Exploring themes of surveillance and data flow, a series of mysterious agents will report on all they see. It’s new territory for Stan’s Cafe, although there are some familiar ideas at play.
“Lots of our productions pay attention to things that are often ignored,” says Stan’s Cafe’s artistic director, James Yarker, whose previous shows have looked at statistics (Of All The People In All The World), council finances (All Our Money) and sadness (The Anatomy Of Melancholy).
“We like paying attention to the unspectacular; we like looking at details and comparing this to the huge big picture. We’ve streamed performances in the past; we like improvising. We like trying projects that scare us a bit!” Ultraopticon was borne after James was invited to create new work for one of Staying Cool’s 26 Rotunda apart- ments. “The amazing view was our first inspiration.”
From the upper floor’s breathtaking vista, James and company imagined seeing further than they could physically see, to look beyond the horizon. “We imagined being able to see the whole world. When your eyes aren’t enough you can use the internet to see everything else. So we quickly got to the idea of looking at the whole world for one rotation of the earth, and using different languages to do this.”
Over the 24 hour period, Ultraopticon will see various agents come and go, reporting their observations in various languages, including English, Lithuanian, Bengali and Spanish.
“The agents will be mixing what they can see through telescopes and the naked eye alongside what they can observe via the internet – it’s this bit that puts the ‘ultra’ in ‘Ultraopticon’!” explains James, who describes the piece, which also includes musical/ sound elements, as “a kind of improvised 24 hour poem”. “We are interested in looking at the world from lots of different perspectives,” he continues. “So the focus shifts around the globe: it looks at nature – the weather and the tides; it looks at data from finance, industry and travel; it looks at the activity of individuals and their interactions through social media threads.” Ultraopticon can be experienced both in-person – allowing visitors to take a trip up the Rotunda itself, to observe the observers – and as a live stream.
“The streamed performance is imagined as a background to your daily life, hours of material to tune in and out of. In-the-room is a more intense, immersive experience, a ‘behind the scenes’ privileged position: you watch the stream being made; you watch the world go by from on high – it mirrors the difference between theatre and TV/radio.”
For those visiting the iconic 82m cylindrical tower – which was opened in 1965 with shops, a bank, and offices, before being converted into 234 residential apartments some 15 years ago – it promises to be an exceptional experience. “We will be on the 20th (top) floor of the Rotunda in an apartment that has a panoramic view over south Birmingham from its floor to ceiling windows, [and] there are sofas for visitors to relax on whilst checking out the view and listening to the performance.
“Depending on visibility, the view goes right out to the Lickey Hills; the Blues ground, Edgbaston Cricket Ground, the University of Birmingham’s Clock Tower are all visible; there’s a view down onto the tracks of New Street Station... you can see the weather rolling in. It’s amazing!”
With tickets for back-to-back prebookable slots available from 6pm to 6pm, James is expecting plenty of interest – even at 3am!
“This is a one-off experience. 3am on the top floor of the Rotunda, seven hours into a 24-hour performance? That is a prime slot!”
Ultraopticon takes place from 6pm on Friday, January 19 to 6pm on Saturday, January 20. For tickets (which must be pre-booked in advance) and more information, see: stans.cafe/ultraopticon