- October 2023
Magdalene Dramatic Society is delighted to announce our very first Bar Night! We will be taking over Magdalene Bar to fundraise for the society. Come to see a range of talented performers!
- March 2022
The shock resignation of the President of the Student Union sparks a succession crisis amongst the surviving sabbatical officers. Meanwhile, a febrile mental health crisis and the emergence of a mysterious, anonymous gossip blog threaten to destabilise the student community - and secretive plans are afoot at the highest levels of the university.
As candidates campaign and conspiracy theories run rife, how far will they go to succeed?
And who will emerge victorious?
The Student Union is an explosive new political satire exploring power, truth, and democracy, from the writer/director behind five-star hits like Doctor Whom and Tomorrow's News.
- June 2017
"Are you lonesome tonight? Do you miss me tonight? Are you sorry we drifted apart?"
A local pub. One night. Two actors. Fourteen parts. Lots of alcohol.
Jim Cartwright's intimate, 'two-handed' play explores the lives of fourteen very different people at the pub over the course of one night.
Hilarious and touching in equal measure, from the first round to last orders, the Landlord and Landlady invite you for a drink as you watch the Cambridge University premiere of Cartwright’s acclaimed play.
Varsity: ★★★★1/2
https://www.varsity.co.uk/theatre/13236
- March 2017
In the West Country, during the Second World War, the preoccupations of adults become those of children, as spitfires swerve through the sky and a little boy's arms become wings. Donald’s father is missing in action, and a klaxon warns that a German prisoner of war is believed to have escaped, but these are the least of the children’s worries.
In Dennis Potter’s tragic and poignant drama, seven seven-year-olds, including the class bully, a just-minded cowboy and a little girl with “many best friends” spend a Summer afternoon together in the woods, playing house and fighting, as all their fears and chimeras are brought to the foreground and their actions become increasingly violent. The very nature of innocence is under fire, and ultimately, the question becomes whether it is even possible for it to exist.
- February 2017
“I can make… impossible things happen”
Jude Beringer thinks she’s going mad. Then she meets Leon, a young card magician who can make people disappear. What follows is a wildly entertaining journey through the minds of two young people surviving against the odds in the big bad city.
A Sudden Burst of Blinding Light is at once a delirious game-show, a witty and inventive exploration of mental illness, and a powerfully compassionate play about family, friendship and illusion.
- November 2016
Cambridge Footlights Haydn Jenkins, Mark Bittlestone, Ruby Keane and Luisa Callander present a brand new sketch show where two established double acts (vowels) combine to create…. DIPHTHONG. If you have ever seen the word Diphthong, or heard the word Diphthong, or even if you have never seen it or heard it, you are guaranteed to enjoy this hour of comedy from these experienced chuckle monsters.
- 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
Finally, you can get your comforting dose of late-ish night comedy LIVE, and next to other real human beings. You might even get to participate.
Join two teams of jolly funny people in this eclectic homage to panel games. Mix a dollop of intrigue from ‘QI’, a dash of satire from ‘Have I Got News for You’, some Mochrie from ‘Whose Line is it Anway’, and some ironic minding of ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’, and you’ll have something that has a really long title.
Will anyone actually have some news for you? Where are the missing 2 out of 10 cats? What exactly is a buzzcock? All these questions and more might be answered in Cambridge’s improvised answer to panel shows.
- November 2015
This year is Yeats150. Events around the world are celebrating the great poet, a leading figure in the fight for Irish independence. In Cambridge, on 23 November, there will be an international conference, commissioned by the Irish Embassy. But when Yeats accepted the Nobel Prize in 1923 it wasn’t as a poet. It was as a dramatist and founder of the Irish National Theatre. The Cambridge Conference will therefore stage two of his plays. Both focus on Yeats’s life-long obsession, the legendary hero and man of blood, Cuchulain. When the leaders of the abortive Easter Rising occupied Dublin in 1916, Yeats saw them as possessed by the ghost of the Cuchulain he had brought back to life on stage. Hence the troubled question in his last book of poems, published after his death:
Did that play of mine send out
Certain men the English shot?
The Marlowe Society and Magdalene College Dramatic Society will present to the Conference the play in which Cuchulain first appears, On Baile’s Strand, followed by the play Yeats wrote on his own death-bed, The Death of Cuchulain.
- October 2015
Getting into the boyband game can be difficult. Despite having one good singer, one with a regional accent, and one token Asian, Orlando, Haydn, and Yaseen haven't been able to crack it. So you'll have to join them for an hour of stand-up comedy instead.
The new show from the stars of "Smile", "Who Am I?", "Telly Visions", "Bafflesmash", "The Witt Club", "Picasso Stole the Mona Lisa", and countless Footlights and college smokers. No lip-synching. Guaranteed.
Previous praise for the performers:
"Simply sensational."
"Had the audience laughing from start to finish."
"A slimline Michael McIntyre."
"Thought provoking, exquisitely written, and doesn't scrimp on big laughs."
- March 2015
Back in the early 90s, Daniel Leigh applied to join the East Coast rap group the Wu-Tang Clan. After narrowly losing out on the final spot to Method Man, he found himself in the hip-hop wilderness for the next 20 years. Now he is back, exacting vengeance in the form of an hour-long stand-up show.
- November 2014
Shortlisted for the Harry Porter Prize 2014, 'Hell of a Life' is a new comedy/drama that brings a whole new meaning to ‘we found love in a hopeless place’. Recently deceased Theo and Steph meet in the fiery brimstone of Hell and form a loving relationship that now must withstand an overly optimistic Devil, a bitterly cynical Beelzebub, a host of demons, dictators and awful productions of Dr Faustus. Who knew eternal damnation could be so romantic.
- June 2014
"If you shall chance to visit Bohemia, you shall see, as I have said, great difference betwixt our Bohemia and your Sicilia."
Leontes and Polixenes were childhood friends but then they both grew up to be kings. During Polixenes' nine-month stay in Scilia, Leontes suddenly loses faith in his wife and nobody can convince him otherwise. The results of his actions play out across the two very different countries.
- April 2014
Two nameless men from different worlds sit in a run-down New York apartment. One of them has just tried to commit suicide. The other managed to stop him. Now all he has to do is convince him not to try again. With differing life stories, altering world views, and opposite opinions on the nature of belief, the two men discuss the world around them, especially the meaning of life and religion. Powerful and moving, with sweeping, heartfelt dialogue, the Sunset Limited takes the audience on a thought-provoking journey. This meditative work is the product of Cormac McCarthy, one of the finest writers of our time.
- June 2013
A sun-blushed festival comedy with some dark shadows. Performed in the Magdalene Fellow's Garden.
- November 2012
In an unnamed totalitarian state, a writer of short stories - Katurian - finds himself implicated in a series of child murders, the deaths bearing an uncanny resemblance to the gruesome events of his literary works. His brother, Michal, mentally disabled and vulnerable, is being tortured for information in the next cell. As a duet of policemen - the sardonic Tupolski and volatile Ariel - interrogate them, information is revealed in teasing increments. Through the interrogation of the brothers and Katurian's twisted fairy-tales, the boundaries between reality and fantasy, fact and falsehood, begin to shift.
Winning the 2004 Olivier Award for Best New Play, with David Tennant and Jim Broadbent taking the leading roles at its première, 'The Pillowman' is both unnerving and provocative, stomach-churning and darkly humorous. "It's a puzzle without a solution."
https://www.facebook.com/events/262003463922607/
- February 2012
Dion Boucicault was a witty, selfish and deceitful charmer, a bigamist, a profligate spendthrift and the author of dozens of successful plays, of which only a handful survive. ‘London Assurance’ opened at Covent Garden in 1841 and was the hit of the season.
“The funniest and most assured comedy in all of London” - Sunday Telegraph
The setting is Oak Hall, Gloucestershire. Some have come for money, some have come for marriage, and some have come for as much free alcohol as they can get their hands on.
Sir Harcourt is brought out of his fashionable life in London by the prospect of marriage to the beautiful Grace Harkaway, several decades his junior. Distraction soon presents itself, however, in the form of her hearty cousin, Lady Gay Spanker.
Meanwhile his son Charles turns up - fleeing from his debts - along with a mysterious but charismatic companion, Dazzle. Charles is forced to disguise himself, and (rather awkwardly) happens to fall in love with his father’s bride to be.
- November 2011
When Fox comes up with a brilliant idea for a movie, he and Gould think they’ve made it. For one blissful day the world seems about to open its arms to embrace them...
An effervescent satirical dissection of the American film industry; a 'dizzyingly funny' world in which 'language is fatally out of sync with emotion'. (Guardian).
- January 2011
Footlights alumnus and Wolfson Howler regular Liam Williams returns to the ADC to perform stand up comedy. He is joined by current Footlights Phil Wang (Chortle Student Comedian of the Year 2010) and Dannish Babar to present this piece of gentle late-night art brut. The show will strive to be both 'modish' and 'good'.
Some quotes and noun phrases to convince you of the performers' collective credibility:
Liam Williams So You Think You're Funny?' Runner Up 2010, 'Amused Moose Laugh Off' Runner Up 2010 "There's something irresistible about Liam Williams... such a charismatic performer" (Tab) "Great voice, smart gags and a great sense of being right in the moment" (Chortle)
Dannish Babar "Stunning character, originality, confidence... had the crowd captivated" (Varsity) "An unattractive man who did a slow stand-up routine" (Cherwell, Oxford)
Phil Wang "A skilful and hilarious individual" (Varsity)
- April 2010
Frimston and Rowett have been through a lot together. They've fought together, loved together, lost together. Now they're lightening up a bit and doing an hour of comedy together.
Join them at the ADC Theatre for a night of sketch comedy the like of which no man has seen and lived.
- February 2010
- January 2009
In an age where traditional ideas of decency and propriety have all but been forgotten, Ryan Alright wants to make a change. As an attempt to extrapolate himself from the world of smutty, second-rate broadcasting and in order to establish himself in the realm of mainstream decency, he has accepted the role of co-presenter of the new Channel Yes show Breakfast at Night.
The station is pitching the show as ‘a morning show for people who are not awake in the morning’, but everyone involved knows that the real purposes of the show are to fill an hour in the middle of the night. Everything rests on this pilot. If Ryan can hold it together for just one hour, and prevent his fellow presenters Lucky Dorigo and Michael Middle, not to mention the vast and varied array of guests from derailing the whole thing, then things will be alright.
Breakfast at Night is the newest slice of brand new writing from three of Cambridge’s brightest comedy talents who between them boast a dazzling and undeniably well-received back catalogue. So come on down the studio and watch the pilot crash.
Free croissants.
Not only is Breakfast the most eagerly anticipated late-show, and perhaps any show, of next term, but the requirements and resulting effects of the show require a really strong little team. The challenge to present a comedy show which is keen to fully endorse and exploit the technical abilities of the Cambridge/S.O.D underworld, on little budget, should bring together a crew capable of ensuring brilliance.
- October–November 2008
~At the ADC Theatre this Halloween~
Beneath a fragile veil of Victorian domesticity, Jack Manningham is slowly and deliberately driving his wife insane...
Victorian London. The latter part of the nineteenth century. The capital is robed in yellowing smog, and in drawing rooms all over the rapidly expanding metropolis, couples are settling down to tea and an early night. Just like Mr. and Mrs. Manningham. Except that Mr. Manningham has to rush out on an unexplained errand, leaving his wife all but alone in their dark Mayfair house. The gas lamp mysteriously begins to dim, suggesting a human presence elsewhere in the building. Footsteps start to echo and the unexplainable becomes unbearable- only a retired detective named Rough can pierce the fragile veneer of domesticity and expose the horrible core within. Murder. Concealed identity. And several million pounds worth of jewels.
- March 2006
The traditional power structures of both the theatre and the bedroom are called into question as three women live their lives and play their games. Sexuality and its repressions and expressions, and the politics of everyday life find voice in this devised production where the inadequacy of the status-quo must be met head on.
- February 2005
The show is an urban lifestyle show featuring top models such as Leah Wood and the Miss California 2000, performances by Amy Winehouse amongst others. The event is being held for 'Save the Children' charity for their work on AIDS in Africa
