The Red Cabbage Cafe
The Red Cabbage Cafe tells the story of engineer Humphrey Veil in 1920’s Soviet Moscow and his relationship with Sophia Bellechasse, set against a backdrop of the death of Lenin and Stalin’s rise to power. This adaptation of the book of the same name by Jonathan Treitel was written for the stage by Penelope Dimond of The New Factory.
In June 1996 I directed the first staging of The Red Cabbage Cafe at the Candid Arts Cafe in London, which coincided with the founding of The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor. Produced on a shoestring budget with a cast of 30 performers and performed over 2 nights, the performances were free to the general public, who were also given free soup and vodka – establishing a New Factory tradition of both feeding, and not charging the audience.
In November 1998 I directed the second and largest staging of The Red Cabbage Cafe at The Atlantis Gallery in Brick Lane, London. The New Factory were the first to use this space for theatre performance, and played to more than a thousand people over 3 nights.
In March 1999 I directed a final ‘one night only’ staging of The Red Cabbage Cafe at The Roundhouse in Camden London, at a time when the building was mainly unused and almost derelict.
The Red Cabbage Cafe – 1996 to 1999 – London