Welfare State International are brilliant at making an audience of strangers into a community Guardian Welfare State International, the inspirational theatre company founded in 1968 and based in Cumbria, creates and facilitates celebratory art and theatre, ranging from carnivals, lantern processions and rites of passage, to flags, banners and pyrotechnics. In a mixture of personal stories, clear instructions, poems and artists' sketches, Eyes on Stalks is a detailed and practical guide to their production techniques. It includes sections on caravans and street shows, community regeneration, comedy extravaganzas and alternative naming, betrothal and funeral ceremonies.