- October 2015
And it was written: let there be a book tour. Tristram Shandy's sizzling autobiography, 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman', has just hit the shelves and the author is touring the country, wowing audiences with a theatrical extravaganza which captures the scandal, wit and wisdom of this instant classic. Morrissey's autobiography went straight to Penguin Classics; Tristram's got Oxford and Wordsworth as well. Although we tend not to talk about the Wordsworth edition.
Join us at the ADC, for four nights only, and revel in the sex, the scandal, the song, the dance, the love, the lies and that bit where he gets his thingy trapped in a sash window. This new adaptation of Laurence Sterne's hilarious and groundbreaking novel takes you on a poignant and compelling tour through some of the life and many of the opinions of Britain's finest Tristram.
Torquay is still reeling.
- December 2014
New York City, 1955. Angie and her friends are having a dinner party. Angie and her friends are the wives of seven career-criminals in the underground world of organised crime, but they don’t like to talk about it. When the ‘job’ their loved ones are on goes awry, the emotional fallout starts to fracture their relationships, their sanity, and even Angie’s dining room.
Resplendent with chaos, profanity and Italian food, The Wives Of Others is a brand-new, pitch-black comedy from the writer of And The Horse You Rode In On and The Angel Rails, chronicling an evening for the world’s most inept gangsters, at the world’s most dysfunctional dinner party. Think Goodfellas meets 12 Angry Men; Agatha Christie meets Quentin Tarantino.
- August 2014
It's 2014. There's a new pill on the streets - ask the Friar. Mercutio wants to try it. Juliet's BBQ - Rosalind and three friends attending. What lady is that? She speaks. The Friar, a drug-dealer, commands authority from the periphery. Rosalind's compartmentalised brand of seduction is a lingering temptation. Mercutio lives in half-hour highs and wants his mate back. Shakespeare's timeless story is re-imagined in the atomised present day. No Montagues, no Capulets: just love sabotaged by modern whims.
- April–May 2014
Four survivors of a train crash, all of whom have lost family members to disaster, leave the court following the acquittal of the driver, who has been found innocent of any gross negligence or misconduct. Unsatisfied with the verdict, and driven by their grief-stricken sense of righteousness, the group resolve to exact their own form of justice on the man they believe murdered their loved ones, by whatever means necessary.
- November 2013
“I couldn’t forget about gender, it was the elephant in my mind”. Bess and Bobby are twins. They sit at a table in the Vesper cafe. They sit at this table every day, because it suits their hipster image, which may or may not be ironic. They aren't sure. Sipping coffee and smoking, they spend their time scrutinizing the lives of other regulars, and trying to get the cat's attention. There's a cat. Then one day a story comes along, a story that they want to be true, that they need to be true. And somehow they must bring it to life. But as their obsession grows, their plans become increasingly daring, and they start to forget where the story started. And now they’re not sure where it will end. The story is gender.
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- May 2013
"She's mad. She needs therapy."
"You are her therapy, Doctor."
Fifteen years have passed since political prisoner Paulina suffered at the hands of her captor: a man whose face she never saw, but can still recall with terrifying clarity. Tonight, by chance, a stranger arrives at the secluded beach house she shares with her husband. Paulina is convinced that the stranger was her tormentor and must now be held to account...
Death and the Maiden is one of the most successful and highly acclaimed works of twentieth-century drama. A profoundly moving indictment of the torture carried out by fascist regimes across the globe, it has become a modern classic lauded both for the power of its message and the deceptively simple skill of the playwright in putting that message across. Winner of the 1992 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play, Death and the Maiden is one of the most important, thrilling and deeply humane plays of our time.
- May 2013
Murray’s dream is to win the Golden Fleece, an award given to the farmer of the best sheep's fleece in the land. His father won the award for many years, and the pressure is mounting on Murray to do the same. There’s only one problem: Murray’s not very good at farming.
To make matters worse, since the death of his wife in an unusual farming accident, Murray’s obsession with winning the award has escalated, leading to a disintegration of both his social propriety and personal hygiene. However, when Murray’s enthusiastic nephew from Auckland comes to stay, Murray is given a new lease of life and suddenly winning the Golden Fleece seems not such an impossible task after all.
Shortlisted for the 2013 Footlights' Harry Porter Prize, 'The Golden Fleece' provides a quirky glimpse into life in the heartland of rural New Zealand, and explores ideas of family, farming and golden fleeces.
- April 2013
“I do not believe in God. I don’t believe in miracles. I cannot explain how a fish can fall from the sky in a town surrounded by desert…” In Alice Springs in the year 2039, fish are almost extinct. Rainfall is incessant. But one day, a fish falls from the sky and lands at the feet of Gabriel York.
Spanning four generations and two hemispheres, from the claustrophobia of a 1950s London flat to the windswept coast of South Australia and into the heart of the Australian desert, follow Gabriel’s ancestors into a past that merges with the present and the future.
When the Rain Stops Falling won the 2008 Victorian Premier's Literary Award and the 2008 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. Experience the expansive beauty of Andrew Bovell’s most ambitious play in this production, where the landscapes that separate us become a chance for redemption.
- February 2013
Paris. 1944. Winter. Coco Chanel meets Spatz, her Nazi lover, for the last time.
In this room the only war is between two lovers and the rest of the world. But as Coco and Spatz fight to save their relationship they discover a new hidden enemy in love itself. As time slows down and hastens, and the outside world works its way in, the two become so out of sync with one another that they must question how strong their love really is.
To be together, both must escape from time and the reputations that keep them alive. But in the war of love against time, who is victorious?
A lyrical new play comes to the Corpus Playroom for its debut.
- January–February 2013
35 Characters. 5 Actors. 1 Farce.
An Italian Straw Hat follows the hapless bridegroom Fadinard on his wedding day as he blazes through the streets of Paris and the idyllic French countryside on a futile quest to return a straw hat to a promiscuous young lady. Along the way Fadinard is followed by his pertinacious Father in Law and eight cabs of wedding guests throwing at the audience a whirlwind of relentless activity. Join these five intrepid actors as they are pushed to their limits to provide a dazzlingly multi-role extravaganza of a show. A celebration of vaudeville; it promises slapstick, dance, puppetry, a live band and cream pies. It will provide unadulterated mirth, joy and anarchy to the late night Cambridge audiences. Farce like you’ve never seen it before.
- January 2013
A little while ago, not much more than a few days ago, I was a child who went about in a world of colors, of hard and tangible forms. Everything was mysterious and something was hidden, guessing what it was was a game for me. If you knew how terrible it is to know suddenly, as if a bolt of lightning elucidated the earth. Now I live in a painful planet, transparent as ice; but it is as if I had learned everything at once in seconds.
Yellow is a new sketch-show from the writers of the 2012 Footlights’ Spring Revue: Donors, sell-out Edinburgh sketch-show BEARD, Rookie and numerous Footlights’ smokers.
“Original and brilliant” Three Weeks “Sickeningly talented” Varsity “Top 5 sketch-shows to see at the Fringe 2012” The List
- November 2010
'Pure and dirty, innocent and vulgar, it all withers, washes away. Eighteen going on thirty-five, because they think they're got to, because they're forced to... I dunno.'
John Godber's 'Bouncers' is a fantastic play which balances insightful wit, crude humour bordering on the scatological and genuine, thought-provoking moral commentary into an energised piece that has widespread performance success from London to the Edinburgh Fringe. The play relies on fast-paced delivery from four flexible male actors who must seamlessly change between a plethora of characters which vary widely in personality, age and gender.
Four talented male actors guide you through a twisted scenario of lads on the pull, drunken girls, rave maniacs, DJs, pornstars and the titular Bouncers who stand trying to make sense of the whole mess in their own twisted, sardonic way. Bouncers promises an hilarious experience of visual and aural immersion whilst also posing the poignant question of why humanity will so willingly degrade itself for a cheap thrill.
- February 2010
Alcock Players Freshers Play - the best new Jesuan talent!
'And I am a Lady of Sorrows'
When her husband Jason abandons his wife, Medea, and their children for a new marriage, Medea finds herself thrown into a cycle of destruction, vengeance and misery. Having abandoned her home land for love she finds herself abandoned, outcast and persecuted. From her spiral of self-destruction she resolves to avenge herself upon Jason in any way she can, and at any cost.
Euripedes' Medea is a classic text and the translation by E.P. Coleridge retains the energy that has made it famous for millenia. In a play dealing with love, betrayal and gory revenge, the Alcock players present a modernist interpretation including an orginal musical score.
- June 2009
Administrator's note: This show's venue was given as Jesus Orchard and Chapel with a timestamp of 2009-06-18 02:21:22 (2019 database update)
- November 2008
THERE IS A TIGER ROARING INSIDE YOUR HEART.
Joe Maloney can’t be the man his mum wants him to be; he can’t be like the boys in Cody’s gang; he can’t learn to how kill. But on his own, he can slip into another skin, fly with the larks, hear the tiger’s footsteps in his dreams. He can be anything within his secret heart.
When Joe meets Corinna and her strange circus world, everything changes. Under the canvas of the big top, Joe finally begins to feel at home. But when protest and violence from the townsfolk of Helmouth force the circus to close, can Joe return the spirit of the tiger to where it truly belongs?
Secret Heart, based on the novel by Carnegie Award Winning author, David Almond, combines puppetry, music and movement to bring to life the delicate tale of Joe’s discovery of the tiger within him.
- November 2008
Dangerously close to the centre of a new-found and fragile political stability, in a society exhausted by decades of civil war, stands a man physically deformed and psychologically scarred, raised in a warzone, incapable of empathy - but overpoweringly charismatic. A chorus of women whose lives Richard has destroyed can only look on, prophesying their nation’s destruction, as he manipulates, seduces and kills his way to the only thing he believes can restore his disfigured sense of self-worth: the crown. Discover the disturbing power of Shakespeare’s first great anti-hero.
- April–May 2008
"There are women who believe all men are rapists. I don't believe that because if I did believe that how - as a woman - could I go on living with the label 'victim'? Because I am not a victim - oh no - that's not a part I'm willing to play - believe me."
Far away a battle rages and an entire city is turned to dust. Amelia can't sleep. She waits for news of her husband. He's a great General and this seems to be a decisive victory. But when the motives for war start to look disturbingly personal, his wife becomes desperate to hold on to his love.
Martin Crimp's new play takes Sophocles' ancient story of marriage and violence - The Trachiniae - and propels it into a modern world of political hypocrisy and emotional terrorism.
- February 2008
It is 1170. King and Church are engaged in fraught conflict over rights and privileges. King Henry II has a vast array of followers willing to fight his cause. The Church has Thomas Becket, prepared to die to protect the powers of the Church and all that it stands for. We know what will happen. All that the country's public can do is watch. All that we can do is watch. After all, this is history. But this is a distorted version of history. This production promises to be as uncanny as the play itself. Set in the eerie depths of Jesus College Chapel a sense of history will be unavoidably present; but as shadows come to life and we move towards the pivotal moment of murder, all sense of familiarity and orientation will be spectacularly distorted.
- February 2008
An artist, a scientist and a sexpot are coming to dinner. Paige, hostess extraordinaire, is celebrating the publication of her husband's best-seller about the psychological apocalypse. The arrival of Mike, marooned in the foggy lane having crashed his van, provides an unexpected addition to the evening's entertainment. A silent waiter, sourced from an obscure website, completes the picture. Primordial Soup is first on the menu - let the dinner from hell begin. In this macabre yet humorous work Buffini makes it clear revenge is the main dish on the menu, spiced with pungent allegory. The dinner party is the perfect dramatic arena: the intimate battleground of men and women, public and private, pretension and reality, passion and restraint. This production's colourful and playful design explores these tensions.
The production side is very exciting - I envisage the set design as minimalist but stylised and prominent. This will be complimented by a bold and striking lighting design. I'm taking the play, a colourful and vibrant black comedy, in a surreal direction and the design should mirror this weirdness! Lots of use of unusual and bright colours and playing with some sharp angles (in both set and lighting) are all part of the design concept. The Technical Director would face some original challenges - from dealing with huge chandaleers (which must be functional as well as being able to fly out!) to overseeing the life (and death?) of real lobsters (and their aquirium home) - both examples of how this play is very different to your usual mainshow. This play changed from 'Festen' recently and we have the challenge of finding a talented and creative production team in a very short space of time...
- January 2008
Alcock Improv have brought some of their friends to the ADC for a week of adrenaline-fuelled comedy! Tuesday - Alcock Improv - "The Footlights should watch their back" Varsity ** Wednesday - The Institute - Canal Cafe, London regulars Thursday - The Oxford Imps - "the best improvised comedy that I have ever had the pleasure to witness" *** - Three Weeks August 2007 Friday - Pappy's Fun Club - “Extraordinarily fresh and funny" Dominic Maxwell, The Times Saturday - Scratch Impro - “Side splittingly funny” The Guardian
- November 2007
Stop Press! Here comes a play set in a local newspaper office, which redefines the idea of NEWS: Old lady savaged to death by her own collection of cats! Abusive secretaries! The tragic tale of a man who was just too good at digging holes without a spade! Ian McKellen's furtive fancy dress hobby! Chicken wings! An aristocrat in a cardboard box! Murderous schoolchildren! Indestructible gardeners! THE END OF THE WORLD! (on a provincial scale). - Forget world news! forget Heat magazine and The Times, and come to a place where 'Botox' is how posh people say 'buttocks', where congestion charges are when the price of Kleenex goes up, where the men are men, and so - for the most part - are the women. Hot new writing from Cambridge alumnus Tom Hensby, (shortlisted for the Harry Porter Prize and the 'Other' Prize): I Scream Scoop: Terrible pun. Terribly funny play.
- October 2007
The top improv group in Cambridge for improvised comic sketches, games, songs and dances. Come and see us in our greatest show yet, fresh from a national tour and performing at the Fringe. It'll be good.
Nothing is prepared - the audience provide all of the scenarios. Want us to do a song about flan? We'll do it. Want to see David Cameron present a political cooking program? No problem. Want to see a horror movie based on squirrels? That we can do.
- June 2007
Alcock Improv, fresh from their national tour, want to show everyone what they can do! Come along for an hour of improvised comic sketches, songs, dances - anything. You name it, we'll do it. And make it funny. Check out our website - www.alcockimprov.co.uk - for more info.
- March 2007
'Be not afeared, the isle is full of noises...'
This term, the medieval setting of Jesus College Chapel will provide the perfect venue for a production of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest,' a play written at the height of the playwright's imaginative genius. Dreamlike and often obscure, 'The Tempest' is also a work brimming with beautifully noted characterization and windswept emotion, as well as forms of light entertainment rivalling the best of our modern Soap Operas! This production fully intends to embrace the unique space provided by Jesus Chapel; with shadow play, candlelight, blackout and onstage actor-musicians assisting the performance of this fantastical narrative.
- February 2007
Come along and see what we do best - improv! As ever we don't know exactly what'll be happening, but the likelihood is we'll be trying out a couple of the new games we've been working on at the workshops and in private rehearsals. We're an improvised comedy group, so everything we do will be made up on the spot. Games, songs, sketches - you name and (quite literally) we'll do it. Why not come along and see something new? Check us out at http://www.srcf.ucam.org/alcock for more info.
- January 2007
Ever wondered what would happen if Alcock improvised some songs with a jazz/funk band? Well wonder no more, because we've teamed up with 'The Jazzuans' to show you! Come along to see one of our normal shows with about ten minutes of combined improvisation at the end of it. After that the Jazzuans will be performing one of their sets as well. 2 for the price of 1! Bargain!
We're an improvised comedy group, so everything we do will be made up on the spot. Games, songs, sketches - you name and (quite literally) we'll do it. Why not come along and see something new?
Check us out at http://www.srcf.ucam.org/alcock for more info.
- November 2006
"I was the one who first judged what out of dreams came truly real...for mankind I gave meaning."
Jesus College Drama Society presents Aeschylus' masterpiece. The god who took fire to mortals is nailed to edge of the world, tortured, left with only his power of storytelling. This is a play of pain, prophesy, and possibility.
Jesus College Forum, Tuesday 21st-Saturday 25th November, 9pm, £5/£6
- October–November 2006
A new translation by Ade O'Brien, promises to be the best Chekhov production this year. Bringing the rich and youthful humour of the piece to the forefront, the production is both uplifting comedy and an intimate tragedy.
- February 2006
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? - Act III, scene I
This production seeks to question interpretation and evoke.
- February 2006
'The Father' is one of Strindberg's most aggressive works; it relates a feverish nightmare of the struggle Strindberg saw between defiant masculinity and the treacherous weakness of women. The play is a stark portrayal of a bitter domestic battle.
- November 2005
Entering an empty house after an extended honeymoon with her mediocre husband, Hedda Gabler struggles with a life that is devoid of excitement and beauty. Unfulfilled by her marriage, she strives to find an escape from the conventional, stifling domesticity in which she finds herself. Her manipulation of men and disdain for traditional feminine values only lead Hedda to violence and tragedy.
- October 2005
"The night air is thick as molasses. Maggie doesn't notice the strap of her slip as it slides down one shoulder. The ice clinks softly in Brick's glass as he pours himself yet another drink. She's sick of the routine; he's sick of her. And tonight they've both reached boiling point. In Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a southern family's simmering secrets rise to the surface as the family gathers to bid a final happy birthday to their ailing Big Daddy.
Tennessee William’s Pulitzer Prize winning play about the lies and distance that are part of our nature comes to the ADC in its 50th anniversary year."
- March 2005
Khonon is a brilliant scholar in nineteenth-century Eastern Europe. He’s in love with Leah, the daughter of Sender, and she with him, but Sender won’t consent to the match. Khonon delves deeper and deeper into Jewish mysticism in order to force Sender to allow them to wed, but Sender still betroths her to someone else. Khonon wastes away and becomes a dybbuk, a wandering soul who can neither rest nor ascend to paradise. His soul in dire need of a harbour, Khonon possesses Leah. This is an unusual and compelling play, in its first-ever Cambridge production. Not to be missed!
