21st – 24th May, The Grounds at platf9rm Hove as part of Brighton Fringe and 26th-28th May, King’s Head Theatre London

A lighthearted yet tragic story of coming out, immigration, and bead-clenching Catholic mothers set to a toe-tapping pop-folk score

Step into the Mooncoin, a grubby Irish pub in an even grottier part of London, and meet our Séan. With the help of our fantastic pub band, he’ll tell you all about how he met Stan, a starry-eyed, hopelessly lost twenty-something from Poland.

Experience an Irish pub session like never before.

Fresh from its Brighton Fringe Musical Theatre Bursary Award win and a hit premiere at Oxford’s OFFBEAT Festival, Have You Met Stan? returns with upcoming performances in Brighton and London, and a cast album currently in production. This new musical shines a light on queer EU migrant voices in post-Brexit Britain.

Presented by Rainbow Stout Productions Ltd. and directed by Vivi Bayliss, Have You Met Stan? is a bold exploration of queer identity, migration, and belonging, featuring elements of both the Irish and Polish language. The story follows Stanisław (Stan) from Poland and Seán, a recent arrival in London from Ireland. Over the course of eleven months, we watch them navigate life, love, and nightlife in a city that doesn’t quite know where to place them. As members of the 1.5 generation, their voices teeter between cultures — not fully of their parents’ world, nor at home in their new one. Will they survive? Will they take the leap toward the joyful life they’ve been imagining?

The show also features a live onstage band, who double as the house musicians of the Mooncoin; the grubby Irish pub where the action unfolds.

Rooted in community engagement, Stan was developed through workshops with LGBTQ+ migrants across the UK. Rainbow Stout Productions is committed to creating politically charged, musically rich, and joyfully defiant theatre, and champions working-class, queer artists who’ve faced systemic barriers early in their careers and who are now catching up.
“Stan is for anyone who’s ever felt in-between,” says Bart Thiede, writer, composer, and founder of Rainbow Stout. “We wanted to make a show that doesn’t just talk about queerness or migration — it talks about the struggles of everyday life. I wanted to write about the little joys in ordinary places, with ordinary people like me.”

Cast includes:

Jamie Douglas-Turner as Stan

Matty Molyneux as Seán

Brighton – The Grounds at platf9rm Hove, 21-24th May

Tickets: https://www.brightonfringe.org/events/have-you-met-stan-a-new-musical/

London – King’s Head Theatre, 26th-28th May

Tickets: https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/31/by-bart-thiede/have-you-met-stan-a-new-musical

Reviews for Have You Met Stan?

“It has real importance to current conversations around sexuality, migration and suicide.” — OFFBEAT Festival

“A promising new piece of musical theatre.” — A Young(ish) Perspective