- October 2022
Roll up! Roll up! Step inside The Carnival. Observe: the Astronomical Horse; a monkey that walks like a man; and a soldier who eats only peas! Oh, and I almost forgot - he’s hearing voices. It looks like we’re in for a tragedy.
- March–May 2021
Over the next month, HATS will be releasing 10 radio plays online to stage the huge talent at Cambridge! This is a selection of plays you won't want to miss!
- March 2020
Packing List for The Storm:
Umbrella
Wellies
Picnic Blanket and Hamper
Hymnal
Opera Glasses
Complete Works of Chekhov
In this experimental and environmental production of an under-performed classic of the Russian theatre canon, actors and audience will come together to create and perform rites and rituals that are both familiar and fantastical. Let's construct our own spatial dreamscape in a black box!
- February–March 2020
What does a handbag have to do with love? HATS is bringing you Oscar Wilde’s iconic comedy of romance and relationships, built on witty dialogue and double entendres, what could possibly go wrong? Jack and Algy are fun-loving bachelors, bunburying in town and country to escape the mundane middle-class routine of champagne dinners and dead-pan butlers. But when Jack falls for Gwendolen his double-life as Ernest lands him in complicated territory. Navigating the troublesome antics of Algy and the intimidating conventionalism of Lady Bracknell, will Jack ever understand the importance of being earnest?
- March 2019
Play choice still to be confirmed. Looking for a director and producer! With a budget of £300 and a choice of plays at your disposal, direct Homerton Freshers' play in Homerton's own small studio! Contact zs322@cam.ac.uk or cea50@cam.ac.uk for more information.
- June 2018
Don't embellish. Don't exaggerate. Tell the truth. Stick to it.
Deep Cut Army Barracks:
9th of June 1995.
27th of November 1995.
17th of September 2001.
23rd of March 2002.
Privates Sean Benton (20), Cheryl James (18), Geoff Gray and James Collinson (both 17) were discovered, dead under suspicious circumstances. Or not-so-suspicious according to those in charge of the inquiry...
Following botched investigations, questionable court proceedings and potential cover-ups, these cases still remain, in the minds of the victim's families, unsolved.
Winner of the 2008 Amnesty International Freedom of Expression prize, and with new additions reflecting the still-developing details of this case, this thought-provoking Verbatim piece sets out to inform and captivate the viewer, with the hope that they will continue to follow this case in the years to come.
- August 2016
"Captain sir, contact's engine noise ceased. We are hearing breaking up noises. Metallic noises and hull popping... She's on her way down..."
'Kursk' is inspired by the real 2000 sinking of the Russian submarine K-141 Kursk and is set on an imagined British submarine on a covert mission in the Barents Sea.
Over the phone, the crew say their final farewells to their loved ones at home as the submarine sets off for their three month voyage. Similar farewells are echoed by Russian crew-members setting off aboard the Kursk.
We get an insight into life in the claustrophobic confines of a submarine. We learn of the politics and military action, namely the crew’s secret mission; to spy and gain intelligence on the Kursk. But we also see the beautifully human stories of the crew living in tight confines for months on end. They receive ‘familygrams’ - messages from home - they write poetry, and CassanovaKen gets caught wanking in the toilet.
But when a huge explosion is felt, the British submarine jolts and the crew are thrown into chaos. The Kursk has ruptured and it sinks to the seabed. The captain must decide whether to ignore their secret military mission and save the Russian submariners, or obey orders and leave them to die.
- February 2016
"I don't want realism. I want magic."
Blanche DuBois is a faded Southern Belle, her whole life taken away from her. But she is determined to cling on to the past, come what may. She seeks refuge in the dilapidated home of her sister in New Orleans but here she finds Stanley Kowalski, brash and aggressive, and determined to bring Blanche's fragile existence crashing down around her. As Blanche and Stanley's confrontation comes to a head, Blanche retreats further and further into fantasy and delusion until she can no longer distinguish between reality and illusion.
Tennessee William's masterpiece is a violent and moving tale of lust and death, the New World and the Old, the brutish and the delicate, dreams and harsh reality.
This intimate new production brings the audience not just into the cramped tenement in the New Orleans French Quarter but into Blanche DuBois' fragile and haunted mind.
- November 2015
In return for aid in war, King Pandion of Athens gives his daughter in marriage to Tereus, King of Thrace. But once in Thrace, Procne misses her sister Philomele and sets out to fetch her from Athens. On the way back Tereus deceives and seduces Philomele, silencing her by tearing out her tongue.
An adaptation of the Ancient Greek legend of the rape of Philomela by her brother-in-law Tereus, and the gruesome revenge undertaken by Philomela and her sister Procne. The play takes a feminist look at the ancient tale.
Timberlake Wertenbaker combines elements from Greek myth and the history and drama of classical Greece to make a play that is as original as it is modern.
- August 2015
24 hours, 9 friends, and 5 years’ worth of tension…
"A brave and perceptive piece of new writing" - TAB, 2015
The story begins at the end, and weaves its way back through the 5 years after Graduation to the party that once felt like the last time nothing had a consequence. The same group of friends – a medley of housemates, siblings and ex-lovers – reunite once a year at Christmas. Old tensions are covered up with tinsel, as the friends try their best to eat, drink and be merry, while the threat of all that’s been left unsaid hangs like an awkward bauble.
Much like real life, or a drunk 21 year old, the play ricochets between laughter, tears, and vomit. Though the characters may graduate from drinking games to playing the game of being ‘grown ups’, they still struggle with the consequences of what they have done to each other, and the devastation of what can’t be undone.
- June 2015
Take a walk with Puck through the beautiful setting of the gardens of Homerton College and enjoy Shakespeare as you've never seen it before.
- June 2015
Trouble is brewing in London as Harry and Bill receives an anonymous phone call, followed by a visit from a young man who refuses to leave his name. The visitor turns out to be James, who confronts Bill with the accusation that Bill had a one-night affair with his wife Stella. Attraction, affairs and ambiguity soon fill this one-hour play. Don’t miss out on this Pinter classic that unravels the difficulties and delight of being “in” and “out” of love.
Check out the preview video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEpzWwcLka8&feature=youtu.be
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/902904863083942/
TICKETS HERE: https://www.cambridgehats.org.uk/book-online/
- June 2015
When David Cameron finds out he hasn't won a majority in the 2010 election, one of the most turbulent terms in British politics ensues. His unlikely partnership with Nick Clegg witnesses riots on the streets of London, sexy scandals, and the Green Party's disillusionment culminating in a terrorist attack which irrevocably shakes the country. A satire of our perception of politics.
A once-in-a-Cambridge-lifetime opportunity to satirise and reflect on our political culture following an election!
- February 2015
The year is 1669 - a bawdy and troublesome time. The theatres have just reopened after seventeen years of suppression under the Puritans, encouraging a great surge in dramatic writing. Of vital importance to the development of drama was the entrance of the first actresses upon the English stage.
When considering the role of women and their position in theatre 'Playhouse Creatures' is a fascinating look back at the routes of the ‘actress’ as we know her. This tragicomedy is undoubtedly one that will showcase the importance of female acting in Cambridge and will subsequently evoke thoughts about the relevance of the modern actress.
- February 2015
24 hours, 9 old friends and 5 years' worth of tension. Starting at the end and moving back this play explores the complexities of the relationships you share with the people you most love and the inability to separate the past, present and future.
- December 2014
This version of Frank Wedekind's extraordinary play Spring Awakening was specially commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company. The themes it addresses and the sheer energy of the writing make this masterpiece of German symbolism startlingly relevant today.
With its scenes of pubescent angst and sexual outspokenness, the play still, more than one hundred years after it was first staged, has the power to shock. Ted Hughes's rendition lends the dialogue a particularly modern terseness and bite, drawing out all the erotic energy of the original.
- June 2014
BRAND NEW COMEDY WRITING. Once-famed super villain Lord Asgoroth and his trusty minion, Minion, awake from their centuries-long slumber, ready to wreak havoc on medieval England. Only, they’ve overslept by 900 years, and have instead awoken in the present day. Can our demonic heroes overcome Snapchat, Tinder, and CRB checks to take on the 21st century, and fulfil their destinies? Probably not. But they’re going to give it a ruddy good try. Inconceivable is a comedy romp through modern life as we know it, as our two pre-historic demons find themselves unexpectedly going head-to-head with new technologies and social phenomena to try and conquer a cynical, self-absorbed Britain, one selfie at a time.
- May 2014
- March 2014
"I ofen looked up at the sky an' assed meself the question - what is the moon, what is the stars?"
Dublin 1922. The bitter civil war between the Die-hard Republicans and the Free-Staters continues. Amidst the chaos, in an overcrowded tenement flat, the long suffering Juno Boyle desperately tries to keep the family together. Unemployed, 'Captain' Jack Boyle drinks his way through life with his side-kick Joxer Daly. Their daughter, Mary, is on strike. Their son, Johnny, injured fighting in the IRA cowers in doors, petrified.
A visit from an English solicitor changes everything. A distant relative has died and the family have come into an inheritance. An escape from a world that's falling apart.
A comedy, a tragedy, a story of survival and human will, Sean O' Casey's Juno and the Paycock is one of the greatest plays of the 20th century.
'Searing, sobering, devastating and beautiful.' Sunday Independent
‘Intensely moving.' Sunday Independent
'A mesmerising mix of comedy and tragedy.' Daily Mail
- March 2014
'I knew more about love... betrayal... and death, when I was ten years old than you will probably ever know all your life.'
The relationship of Alison and Jimmy is complex, dark and seductive. As they struggle into their third year of a young marriage flanked by the besotted best friend and the other woman, the characters attempt to live in a world of monotony and pessimism.
Named 'the best young play of it's decade', Osborne presents violently passionate, tumultuous, strained and hostile lives and relationships throughout this antagonizing three act play. With a concentration on human connections, emotion and mortality, a snippet of the world is examined through the eyes of angry youth.
- February 2014
Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm', originally subtitled 'A Fairy Story' is arguably one of the most significant pieces of fictional political satire ever written. Adapted for the stage by Guy Materson in 1994, this production will adopt a modern, abstract approach.
"A brilliant adaptation which delights with its physical grace and artistry. It's complex and entirely theatrical; a combination of bravura acting and poetic storytelling which milks new nuance and meaning!" – THE SCOTSMAN
"ANIMAL MAGIC! This famous tale is ignited, bringing both humour and a sinister aspect to the rhetoric of the upwardly mobile pigs" – THE HERALD
Originally written in 1945, the performance will re-establish the central issues of the novel placing them in the context of the twenty first century. The adaptation toys with the 'dog eat dog' nature of our society and the cruelty of mankind. This particular production focuses on multi-role play, caricatures and stylized movement. Orwell's allegorical cult tale is brought to the stage in this harrowing adaptation which integrates powerful acting with movement and music.
"Man serves the interests of no creature except himself. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a friend. All the habits of Man are evil."
- January–February 2014
“There are noises in the room, things creak, footsteps on the stairs, out in the corridor, I think it’s him, every time I think it’s him. They say he’s dead but what if he’s not?”
Billy is violent, disturbed and sexually dominating. He controls his wife and two adult daughters to the extent that they can't leave the room without asking permission: the women are there to service him and his insanity. One day his family shoots him dead. 'Five Kinds of Silence' shows a distorted world of madness, control, and despair through the eyes of dead Billy and those of his family, struggling to understand reality outside their stifling tomb.
A harrowing, yet provocative physical theatre production.
- December 2013
HATStands is Homerton's termly talent show and this year it's undergoing a thrilling enthralling all singing all dancing revamp: we're going to be sending you all off home for Christmas with a (metaphorical) glittering confetti-filled bang. We will be providing our audience with an array of performance treats including improv sketches and group drama sketches, dances, singers and musicians, comedy monologues and new writing! Chill out with your friends nibbling on sweeties and snacks while we entertain you, and join us for a few in the Homerton bar afterwards. It's going to be a night to remember!
- November–December 2013
The HATS Freshers Play 2013 offers a performance platform for all new students across the University, and provides the opportunity to take part in an exciting performance entirely created by freshers. Our freshers' play 2013 is Tom Stoppard's 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead'.
Heads... Heads... Heads... A game of heads or tails takes us into the world of Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find themselves caught up in the world of court diplomacy. Tom Stoppard's tragicomedy follows the befuddled journey of these two comic characters through a literary classic, raising questions from the profoundly philosophical to the humorously trivial.
- November 2013
How could it happen?
Doesn't God hear our agony?
During World War 2 in Auschwitz Concentration Camp a group of male prisoners waiting to discover their faith of either hard labour or death decide to put God on Trial. The charge is that God has broken his covenant he made with the Jewish people by allowing the Nazis to commit Genocide. With the knowledge that their death is almost certainly imminent, the prisoners put forward their arguments, raising fundamental questions concerning religion, morality and the purpose of human existence. The journey to a verdict leads us through the Jewish faith and the personal experiences of the prisoners. Preconceptions are consistently challenged by each argument presented. This is a play where reason and emotion collide in an atmosphere of desperation.
God on Trial written by Frank Cottrell Boyce was originally aired on television and has now been adapted into a play. This is an intense, dramatic play that promises to be a challenging and powerful piece of theatre.
Reviews for God on Trial when aired:
"The nature and existence of God, the nature and necessity of faith, the role humans occupy in the universe and, most important, how to reconcile the idea of a loving deity with the ongoing tragedy of war and genocide. They are big topics addressed with a striking lack of sentimentality, quite a feat considering the setting. You will weep, but you will also think." Los Angeles Times
"It asks a profound and relevant question: how could a benign and loving God allow the Holocaust to happen?" Telegraph
"Surely the most beautiful thing ever written" The Guardian
- July 2013
- May 2013
"I wish I could see some different colours. There must be some more behind that door. I know there are a lot more than this, more than just one type of green, one dark blue, a black that makes your eyes hurt and a horrible kind of yellow.
Because if you look outside you can see things… Big, green and brown and blue things, everywhere… it’s really nice, like a painting."
The audience become a fly on the wall inside a children’s care home, we grow familiar with six children, but no adults. Some are big kids, others are too young, all are ruined. Surreal, witty and disturbing.
- February 2013
Two pieces of new writing encouraging experimentation regarding characterisation, physicality and staging.
'Medea' by Rhianna Frost and Caitlin Derham
"This tainted filth, this broken doll. China on the floor at his feet, but the voice-box still in one piece, crying out for a love strong enough to heal."
An exploration of the inner psyche of one very complicated female, inspired by the works of Euripides, Tenessee Williams and Sarah Kane.
'Visiting' by Ciaran Chillingworth
A man arrives at an address written on a note he found on his desk. He assumes he is supposed to be looking for something or someone but all he finds is a brother and sister doing the washing, who, aside from a few references to an unknown crying girl, seem intent on making his job as difficult as possible...
‘Visiting’ is a new play that explores the tensions between characters caught up in the oddities and uncertainties of daily routine.
"Hollow. Empty. Thud. The voices call to me"
"On the basis of tonight’s deeply odd extract, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of her [Frost's] work on the Corpus stage in future." - Hatch Round-up, The Cambridge Student
- March 2010
BOAT is a devised piece to be performed in the beautiful Orchard of Homerton College. It will mix physical theatre, music, new writing and acting in a unique and thrilling performance taking the audience on a journey through the trees of the orchard.
- February 2010
Three women come together in Winkham village hall to try their hands at creative writing. What they really encounter is a journey of self-discovery in which secrets roam wild and nothing is sacred. A heart warmingly comic and poignant piece of theatre. So captivating, observant and witty, you wont want it end!
- February 2010
Some people say God created humanity. Others say we evolved from monkeys. What if they were both right? Dawn of Man is the hilarious new comedy by David Stevenson that charts God’s quest to transform chimps into humans, with all the problems and pitfalls along the way. Join the self important Lord, his downtrodden assistant Cyril, and 4 loveable apes as they encounter the difficulties of walking, talking and run-ins with the Devil’s rival Neanderthal species and the results of “that night” with Mary to come out the other side as the fully modern humans we’ve come to know and love today. A nominee for the 2009 Footlights Harry Porter Prize, this show is guaranteed to tickle your God-evolved funny bones. Dawn of Man tries to merge the two conflicting theories of creationism and Darwinian evolution with a comic slant, with a mixture of physical theatre, subtle wordplay and good ol’ fashioned jokes. With a wide range of characters, from God himself to his evil sister the Devil through apes and scientists this is a show not to miss.
- November 2009
HATS Freshers' Play 2009
- October 2009
Judith leaves her ex-boyfriend a desperate message on his answer-phone saying that she is not coping with their break-up, that she has brought some razor blades and some henna in order to either slash her wrists or dye her hair and she might be pregnant. However, it is his new partner, Ros, who hears the message and it is she that rushes to Judith's bedsit. An evening of emotion, combined with subtle humour, ensues that will conclude with the two women, despite their differences and rivalry, finding friendship and gaining something positive from each other.
- October 2009
In this zany musical we meet Reverend Mother Regina, a former circus performer; Sister Mary Hubert, the Mistress of Novices; a streetwise nun from Brooklyn named Sister Robert Anne; Sister Mary Leo, a novice who is a wannabe ballerina; and the delightfully wacky Sister Mary Amnesia, the nun who lost her memory when a crucifix fell on her head. Featuring star turns,tap and ballet dancing, an audience quiz, and comic surprises, this show has become an international phenomenon.
- February–March 2009
HATS Freshers' Show 2009
‘We left our country for our country’s good’
Funny, poignant and thought-provoking, ‘Our Country’s Good’ is the true story of the first convicts transported to Australia: how, despite the dangers of hunger and disease and so-called justice, the criminals manage, with the help of Lieutenant Ralph Clark, to produce a play – showing the true universal power of theatre to connect, and to humanise.
‘Theatre is like a small republic, it requires private sacrifices for the good of the whole’
- February 2009
‘The foreigners will pack up and leave to go home. Others will read about it in the papers or hear a two minute spot on the television. Are we worth two minutes of someone’s time?’
New writer Bryan Oliver presents us with a moving tale of three women subjected to the horrors of an ethically divided society. Through the mode of retrospective storytelling we are introduced to slices of a shocking reality that becomes increasingly identifiable as a depiction of those tragic events that we all hear about in our lives, but which few of us actually see and recognise as real. Night Breath takes us through a heartrending emotional journey at the end of which we are forced to question whether the displaced stories we hear about in the news are indeed worth more than the two minutes’ thought we give them.
