Have You Met Stan? A new musical by Bart Thiede

Step into the Mooncoin, a grubby Irish pub in an even grottier part of London, and meet our Séan. With the help of our pub band, he’ll tell you all about how he met Stan, a hopelessly lost twenty-something from Poland, and how the two lads fell in love. Follow them through a toe-tapping fusion of Irish trad-folk and pumping pop score.

Have you met Stan? follows the emotional journey of two young immigrants - Séan from Ireland, and Stan from Poland. Set in the early 2010s against a backdrop of “job stealing”, anti-immigration campaigns, and changing attitudes to homosexuality, the story explores themes of identity, trauma, and the immigrant experience. 

In a maelstrom of tabloid hatred for Polish migrants, Séan’s gaslighting, and having to invent a fake girlfriend to keep his deeply Catholic mother at bay, Stan loses all sense of himself and who he wants to be. Experience an Irish pub session like never before.

Book, Music and Lyrics: Bart Thiede

Director: Vivi Bayliss

Sean: Matty Molyneux

Stan: Jamie Turner-Douglas

MD/Keys: Bart Thiede

Guitar: Lucy Gowen

Drums: Georgia Ayew

Have You Met Stan? will be playing in May 2025 at Brighton Fringe (Have you met Stan? A new musical - Brighton Fringe) and King's Head Theatre, London (Have You Met Stan? - A New Musical — By Bart Thiede | King's Head Theatre (kingsheadtheatre.com))