Born in 1925, Stanley Chapman is a British architect, designer, translator and writer. His interests include theatre and pataphysics. He was involved with founding the National Theatre of London, was a member of Oulipo of the year 1960, founder of the Outrapo, and a member of the French Collège de 'Pataphysique, the London Institute of 'Pataphysics, and the Lewis Carroll Society. His English translation of One Hundred Billion Poems was received with "admiring stupefaction" by Raymond Queneau. [Source: Wikepedia.com.]
Note: Outrapo stands for “Ouvroir de tragicomédie potentielle”, which translates roughly as “workshop of potential tragicomedy.” Outrapo was founded in London, in 1991, and searches for potentialities past, present or future, along with new or pre-existent constraints of stage performance.
Members, by order of entry in scene, include: Stanley Chapman, Milie von Bariter, Cosima Schmetterling, Jean-Pierre Poisson, Anne Feillet, Felix Pruvost and Tom Stoppard. [Source: Wikepedia.com.]
Note: “La danse du homard.”
Stanley Chapman dressed as a Corned Beef, performing with the kabuki dancer Eita Hasegawa (in a lobster dress). This risky dance illustrates Alfred Jarry's poem: “The Lobster and Tin of Corned Beef Worn by Doctor Faustroll on a Watch-chain.” The image is taken from an Outrapo performance staged in the very year 2000, at the Université de Paris-Jussieu, on the occasion of the dissoccultation of the Collège de ’Pataphysique. Written by Jean-Pierre Poisson, the music played for this performance was mechanically induced by Jarry's text. The choreography was written by Lewis Caroll (see the description of the “Lobster Quadrille,” in Alice in Wonderland).