- June 2025
BATS (Queens' College Theatre Company) is open for pitching for Michaelmas 2025!
Please find information about BATS, the space, the company and pitching process and more in the attached google doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BuXSIKCeVQhT3_T9AWQS2nLrTxgpwvn3kX3vH_y2Tn8/edit?usp=drivesdk
In order to pitch-
Make sure to fill in the google form:
https://forms.gle/UwXR9LwGu1Qb3aqr6
Select a 10 minute pitching interview using the strawpoll here (please just choose one slot):
https://strawpoll.com/wAg3QGrvWy8
Deadline for google form/interview slot: 20th June 5pm
We can't wait to hear your pitches!
- June 2025
Set up on a blind date by a mutual friend, Rob and Rebecca are bound to get along. Yet as their conversation unfolds, Rob talks the talk while Rebecca holds on to a powerful secret.
If you have any questions, please contact Millie at silverstreetproductions@queens.cam.ac.uk
- June 2025
BATS invites you to an afternoon of love, laughter, and music in our beloved May Week Show! This year, Twelfth Night takes on a groovy new twist, transporting you to the ultimate 60s music festival. In the historic Queens' Cloister Court, disguises are donned, identities mistaken, and hearts set spinning, in a whirlwind of mischief and rock 'n' roll.
With a rich history of renowned alumni and special guest appearances, the annual Shakespeare play is the true highlight of the BATS calendar. Don't miss out on this unmissable May Week celebration: grab your sunglasses, best flare trousers, and colourful scarfs, and join us for Twelfth Night, a festival you won't soon forget!
- March 2025
Death is nothing at all, I have only slipped into the next room…
Who do you love? What do you want from them? How long do you have to decide?
A group of friends rally around one of their own as he experiences unfathomable grief. But their own anxieties and tensions threaten to fragment their relationships beyond repair. And all the while something strange is going on in the background of Silas’ photographs…
- February–March 2025
'In painting one destroys everything…in life one can’t do it. The day to day crudities destroy all things one’s used to…known already. It’s a sort of rage…'
A play about form, history and friendship.
- February 2025
BATS and Magsoc bring you their first musical... ONCE!
Book by Enda Walsh
Music & Lyrics by Glen Hansard/Markéta Irglova
Based on the Motion Picture written and directed by John Carney
‘Once’ tells the enchanting story of a guy and girl, both dealing with their own lives in Dublin, who meet as a result of a chance encounter and the beauty of music. As their feelings for each other grow, so does the power of their music. This emotionally captivating musical has won the Academy Award, Grammy Award, Olivier Award and Tony Award.
- February 2025
A dance piece by Eoin McCaul.
- January 2025
After a sold out event last term, BATS is back with another night of new student writing showcasing talented writers from across the university!
- January 2025
Ben: That’s how they get away with it, they just lie. Nod their heads and lie, and we all go on with it...
Ben was sure he asked for two single beds. Tom says it's not that big of a deal, and they can just share the double. What does it matter, really? They've been friends for long enough.
As Ben and Tom wind down for the night, now seems like a good time for Tom to raise some questions around Ben's recent engagement to Holly... and his internet browsing preferences.
The Hotel Bed, based on the extract from the play of the same name by Jay Palombella, will be the first short film created under The BATS Company's new film production branch, Silver Street Productions. We would encourage all film-making enthusiasts to apply, even if this is your first time working in film, or are simply curious, as we would love to get in touch with all filmmakers across Cambridge.
*Please note dates/times listed above outline proposed shooting days, not screening times.
- November–December 2024
PROFESSOR BERNHARDI IS COMING TO THE FITZPAT AS THE MAINSHOW FOR MICHAELMAS WEEK 7
Arthur Schnitzler's seminal 1912 work, translated with vigour and flair by Samuel Adamson, will be landing in Cambridge between the 30th November and 1st December!!!
Vienna, 1900. A Jewish doctor prevents a Catholic priest from absolving a dying patient. A witch hunt ensues.
The play itself, which was banned shortly after its first performance in Bavaria, provides a gripping and intense depiction of the innate frictions between science and religion. The titular Bernhardi, having refused a priest entry to the room of a dying girl for fear she might realise the end is near and pass away in fear and pain, is subject to overwhelming professional and public scrutiny. The court of public opinion frowns upon Bernhardi even more spitefully once the fact of his Jewish identity is used as a mark of supposed bias against the priest he dismissed. In the face of a foul and pervasive antisemitism, Bernhardi struggles to be judged on his professional merit alone as those around him become increasingly polarized.
In an age where the 'town forum' froths with more fervor than ever before across all places of discourse, online or otherwise, Professor Bernhardi is a work which demands viewing. At its core, the play presents the highest stakes imaginable: the struggle for the human spirit to define itself in the face of forces desperate to confine and silence it.
- November 2024
Pitching for a Lent term show with BATS is now open!
BATS is thrillied to be opening pitching for shows in Lent term!
If you are interested in pitching a show for BATS:
Please read the following information pack
Information Pack:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e2X8rQieCH5NbzVYOCUq3Z7BmGkZKNbUQK9miniMjk0/edit
Fill in the google form by 11:59pm Sunday 24th November (please use cam email to access form)
Google form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScsON01BCX5tfbCXxYq9N-fNujieQf2A7WN3ds9_Ox5z72b5w/viewform
Select a 15 minute interview slot from the strawpoll below:
https://strawpoll.com/NoZrze6KBZ3
Interviews will take place Monday 25th 6-9pm an Tuesday 26th 4-5pm. They will be hosted in Queens’ Fitzpatrick Hall ‘Green Room’. Signs will be provided, to ensure easy navigating!
We look forward to hearing your pitches!
If you have any question at all, email cg944@cam.ac.uk
- November 2024
MagSoc presents the return of Dancing Queens'!
After its highly successful debut event last year, we are hosting another night of music and dance in the Fitzpatrick Hall, but with a new twist. This year, join us for an amazing night of live music, singing and dancing of hits from a range of iconic musical theatre shows! Featuring astonishing solo vocalists, dynamic dancers for waltzes, sambas, quicksteps and a fabulous live band.
Refreshments will be served afterwards.
Tickets £3.
https://fixr.co/event/dancing-queens-tickets-137214484
- November 2024
One actor. One hour. No words.
- November 2024
Well in no particular order...
I love you, I need you, I want you, I go to sleep thinking about you and wake up with your voice winding through my head, I look at you and I can't focus, the whole world shimmers, I'm ashamed, I'm angry, I'm in love.
You kiss my mouth, you bite my lip, you draw blood, you're on fire, you're on fire, your eyes are flame, your hair is flame, the whole world shimmers and I burn and I burn with love -
We are thrilled to announce Martin Crimp's spoken word 'Cyrano de Bergerac' as BATS Week 5 mainstage SHOWSTOPPER!!
Set in the glossy, wooden stretches of the Fitzpatrick Mainstage, we invite you to join us as we play with the guts of the theatre - tearing out its ropes, its ladders, its lights.
From the company that brought you 'Closer', and 'Much Ado About Nothing', the BATS Company is back and bigger than ever with our first mainstage production.
Devise. Understand. Study. Explore.
As a BATS production, we welcome the challenge of Crimp's 'Cyrano'. This script and this company is anchored in the pursuit of creating ensembles of artists, who grow in support and development of each other throughout the BATS process.
Our cast will be training through devised workshops, which will be led by a series of fantastic practitioners. We will be inviting a special guest from Frantic Assembly's Ignite to host workshops in lifts, fight choreography, and 'the frantic method'.
For our production team, we have organised specialised training from the Almeida's lighting designer, and a bespoke workshop from Scott Fleary - the set design and construction team for the National, Barbican, Old Vic, and Lyric theatres. We are incredibly fortunate to have received such a wealth of support from industry professionals.
- November 2024
In 2014, the UK’s first legalised red-light district opened in the Holbeck area of Leeds. Sex workers in Holbeck were able to operate with police supervision and without fear of arrest between the hours of 8pm-6am. This initiative was known as the Managed Approach. Managed Approach, the stage play, merges verbatim interview material into a plotline that portrays the dynamic between a mother and daughter who live in Holbeck.
- November 2024
England is in crisis, but its Prince is in a pub. Join his crew of rogues led by the notorious Falstaff as they rave and revel - for their England may not always be so merry...
Excavated from Shakespeare's Henry IV, FALSTAFF! is the ultimate tragicomedy. Our play is about fathers and sons and the roles that we play, whether as King, mentor, or friend. It's a play about what it means to perform a role, where we will attempt to reconstruct Shakespeare's Merry England just to take it apart and see how it ticks. The first BATS production in memory to take place in Queens' Old Hall, get ready to explore medieval England in an appropriately medieval setting. Take a seat in Old Hall, transformed into a tavern, transformed into a royal palace the way a Prince may play at being transformed into a King - when we take off the jester's hat with all its bells, we shall see it is not so different from a crown.
With a 3 performances in Week 3 (evenings Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd of November, and a matinee on the Sunday to boot), FALSTAFF! is one to watch out for! Follow us on Instagram for more updates: https://www.instagram.com/oldhall_falstaff/
- October 2024
SHORT FILM
Oh those bright young things...
Born of a compound of grief and relief,
How they dazzle and shimmer and daze
Pia’s twentieth birthday. The start of a decade of glitter and glare; there must be a reason it’s roaring. Soph, for one, cannot wait to turn twenty. Pia couldn’t care less.
Like a moth to a flame, Soph dotes on her friend with delight, planning her a birthday party like no other. But appearances can be deceiving, and you can’t dote forever on a dream.
- October 2024
BATS presents its first showcase of new student writing!
The night's 'cauldron' will consist of 15 minute extracts from new student plays, comedy, story telling - all original pieces written by students and performed in our wonderful black box studio.
Join us for an intimate night celebrating original work by talented students writers!
- June 2024
BATS invites you to an afternoon of blistering romance in our yearly beloved May Week Show. Set amongst the flora and fauna of Queens' Cloister Court, this production promises to entice you into the winding drama of Much Ado About Nothing. As we transport you to a small island, in the south of Italy, betrayals, dalliances, and passions are sure to get heated!
With a rich history of renowned alumni and special guest appearances, the annual Shakespeare play is a real highlight of the BATS calendar. Don't miss out on this tempting May Week affair!
- March 2024
Brought to you by 'BATS - The Company', Patrick Marber's 'Closer' is a beautiful four-hander, which at its heart, asks us why, who and at what cost we can love.
‘I’m grateful to her. She changed my life. She’s completely lovable and completely unleavable.’
Set in the blaring, woven streets of London, Closer follows the lives of four individuals, as their desires intersect, run in parallel, and ultimately annihilate one another. Closer makes us question, what is desire? What is jealousy? Where do we draw the boundaries between need and want, between cruelty and honesty.
‘It’s the only way to leave: ‘I don’t love you anymore, good-bye.’
- March 2024
miracle on w. 50th street explores the details and intricacies of leaving one's home, and coming back again. It ponders questions of freedom, belonging, and connection as its characters intersect and part ways across the globe.
This workshop production of the play will marry rehearsal with performance, creating a unique opportunity for its audience to be a part of the creative process of a new play.
- March 2024
In a unique double-bill, BATS brings you David Mamet’s Prairie du Chien and Stephen Jeffreys’ Bugles at the Gates of Jalalabad. On a 3AM train passing though Wisconsin a traveller tells a tale of jealousy, murder and the supernatural; at night, outside the gates of the last British fort in Afghanistan, four buglers stand guard, awaiting their fate, sounding the advance. These plays present us with charged moments of fear and uncertainty, and the sudden catastrophes that can spring out of them.
- February 2024
“You’re not my type. You’re not particularly funny and you’re a bit too intense for me. But I think you have the potential to be marvellous.”
- February 2024
In 1996, the renowned auteur-translator Giovanni Pontiero has been diagnosed with AIDS — and it’s fatal. Staving off medication, his sole ambition is to translate the last great work of Portuguese novelist Saramago: a blistering dystopia called Blindness. Yet, whilst Pontiero himself loses his sight, the question of his life’s work hangs in the balance: will he be able to finish his translation before the time runs out?
A heartfelt portrayal of the grave particulars of one man’s final days during the AIDS crisis, this remarkable, true story of queer expression asks us to question our responsibilities to our art, work and each other, posing the question: how far would we go for what we believe is true to us?
- November–December 2023
‘I will always love you.
I will never lie to you.
I will never betray you.
On my life.’
What is it to desire? To express desire? To prevent desire? Cleansed engages with these questions and more, mediated through a vocabulary of violence. There are betrayals and dismemberments, hopes and communions, as each character struggles to come to terms with how the love they require damages those around them
- November 2023
Being in your twenties is the best! If you stop acting like you’re having fun all of the time. (Or, like, at all.)
It’s Tibby’s twenty-fifth birthday and she is throwing a big party: after years, her friends from uni are coming together — and they are all doing better than her. All except Ginevra, Tibby’s best friend; too bad the two have barely kept in touch since Gin moved back to Italy. When she finally decides to visit the shabby flat she and Tibby used to share, tensions between the two friends become impossible to hide. Especially from Anika, Tibby’s new housemate with the perfect job, the perfect girlfriend, the perfect yoga outfits. As the three prepare for Tibby’s party, feelings get untangled, secrets revealed, and rejection emails — inevitably, relentlessly — opened.
What do you mean, So what? So I’m rapidly decomposing. So I’m running out of youth. So the radiant expectations of my early years have come to no fruition —
- November 2023
The Concert Performance of a new, original musical: Foresight
In 1996, the renowned auteur-translator Giovanni Pontiero has been diagnosed with AIDS — and it’s fatal. Staving off medication, his sole ambition is to translate the last great work of Portuguese novelist Saramago: a blistering dystopia called Blindness. Yet, whilst Pontiero himself loses his sight, the question of his life’s work hangs in the balance: will he be able to finish his translation before the time runs out?
A heartfelt portrayal of the grave particulars of one man’s final days during the AIDS crisis, this remarkable, true story of queer expression asks us to question our responsibilities to our art, work and each other, posing the question: how far would we go for what we believe is true to us?
- June 2023
Prepare to be transported into a world of wonder and magic as BATS proudly presents Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Ensconced amongst the greenery of Queens' Cloister Court and amidst the captivating surroundings of the oldest buildings standing on the River Cam, our outdoor performance promises to immerse you in the mystical realm of Shakespeare's beloved comedy. Join us for a night of enchantment, laughter, and mischievous fairies as we bring to life this timeless classic. With a rich history of renowned alumni and special guest appearances, the May Week Shakespeare play is a beloved tradition and a highlight of the BATS calendar. Don't miss out on this truly magical experience!
- March 2023
N.B. this show has been cancelled
i read books about women who nurse men back to life and i want to be moving about the sick room like a saint.
i want to be the hero who stands up in parliament and makes a momentous speech
i want to be lady mary who rides like the wind and shocks everyone with her nerve
they know what they want from life and they make sure they get it
why cant my story be like that?
Anna Karenina is beautiful and admired but empty – until a chance meeting throws her into emotional turmoil and a scandalous affair. Contrasting with this tale of destructive love is the story of Levin, an idealistic man striving to find meaning in life – and a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself.
Helen Edmundson's celebrated and 'exemplary' (The Times) adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's enduring classic is a vibrant and deeply moving meditation on the nature of love. Staged in the Fitzpatrick Hall, Queen's College, this stripped back production interrogates the core themes of the novel, updating them for a modern audience.
- November 2022
In the backdrop of an unnamed, impassive mental institution, three characters – Alpha, Beta and Gamma – are plagued by their pasts and conflicting desires to live the life they can or escape the institution at any cost. Under the ever-watchful eye of the Doctor who supposedly treats them for their illnesses, the true reality of the institution is unveiled as the Doctor’s own sanity is called into question and the walls of reality break down around them.
Reflecting on the abhorrent treatment of patients that has happened in asylums throughout history, this abstract play is inspired by the writings of Sarah Kane, and Fox’s Legion. It will take you on a stylised, visceral, yet less explicit exploration into the interactions, thoughts and deepest secrets of the so-called ‘clinically insane’.
- November 2021
“If we are all eternal, and if Human Life is only the first mile in a billion, do you honestly believe that God could abandon any mothahfuckah so soon in the journey?”
In purgatory, a court case is being heard against Judas Iscariot, the notorious betrayer of Jesus Christ. Witnesses from across history are invited to give their testimonies. Was it a terrible crime, or was it a necessary part of God’s great plan?
Set in a time-bending, seriocomically imagined courtroom where saints talk streets slang and lawyers barter with Satan, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is an ambitious philosophical meditation on religion. The play alternates between riotously funny and deeply thought-provoking, revealing at its heart profound reflections on human fallibility, guilt and forgiveness.
Regardless of your faith-or lack thereof-you may discover a new gem or two from a two-millennia-old story.
- November 2020
N.B. this show has been cancelled
It's a murder mystery... in space!
- March 2020
"The bonds of heaven are slipp'd, dissolved, and loosed."
Seven years into the Trojan War, the two sides are at a stalemate. Dissent is growing in the Greek camp, prompted by the hero Achilles' refusal to fight. Within Troy, King Priam and his generals are beginning to wonder whether keeping Helen - the Spartan queen who has eloped with Trojan prince Paris - is worth the toll the conflict is taking. Against this backdrop, two young Trojans, Troilus and Cressida, are taking tentative steps towards romance, aided by Cressida's boorish uncle Pandarus. Will they be able to carve out a place for their fledgling love amidst the violence and bloodshed, or will, as the clown Thersites puts it, 'war and lechery confound all'?
This production will be accompanied by a symposium bringing together professional theatre practitioners and literary academics to discuss Shakespeare’s play on the page and on the stage. More details to follow.
- February 2020
"Let me give you some advice. Number one - never mix music with politics..."
Alexander Ivanov is imprisoned in a Soviet mental hospital for statements against the government. He shares a cell with another Ivanov, who believes himself to be a conductor with a symphony orchestra under his command. Alexander's son Sacha is in a classroom with a teacher convinced of the genuineness of his father's illness, whilst inside the hospital, a doctor attempts to cure his patients by setting them lines. Ivanov's imaginary orchestra, on stage with the actors, surrounds them all, filling the spaces between their truths with music...
In this rarely performed one-act play with live music, playwright Tom Stoppard and composer André Previn interweave six actors and a chamber orchestra to create a strange and compelling world of authority, artistry and madness.
- June 2019
Rosalind loves Orlando. But thanks to a family feud, both must leave the court of Duke Frederick and enter the Forest of Arden, where romantic entanglements run wild.
In 1948 the first BATS May Week Shakespeare production, As You Like It, was performed in the Cloister Court of Queens' College. This year, to coincide with the renaissance of the BATS society, As You Like It will return! Take the opportunity to be a part of this historic event in a beautiful outdoor venue, bringing to life Shakespeare's timeless comedy.
May or may not feature a live goat.
- November 2018
Test Batch Special is a semi-improvised comedy drama set in a cricket commentary booth featuring a whole cast of guest characters that nobody on stage knows anything about.
Its the long awaited England versus New Zealand Test Match - or the "Lashes" - and Beaver Bassenthwaite and Suzie Redmonds, are as ever here to provide you with ball by ball commentary. Every slip catch, every reverse sweep and every badly sung version of Sweet Caroline, they're here to soothe your radio airwaves. But with Beaver considering retirement, Suzie contemplating management consultancy and a ball-tampering scandal involving the CIA, will cricket ever be the same again?
Partly written, partly improvised, Test Batch Special is about what happens when a tightly written script dissolves into chaos in front of your eyes and still manages to seem more professional than an England batting collapse.
Praise for Test Batch Special:
"Everyone's got something to hide except me and my offshore tax return" - Beaver Bassenthwaite, 2018
"The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey" - Brian Johnston, 1976
"They think its all over, it is now" - Wrong Sport, 1966
