- November 2005
Things don’t always go to plan. Schedules don’t always run as intended. The world of theatre can be a tricky place. On Tuesday 8th November at 11pm, the audience at the ADC Theatre could have been watching something else. Something well written, lovingly rehearsed and impressively acted.
But that’s not happening. Instead, Cambridge’s top improvised comedy group have taken over and, with the help of their enthusiastic audience, they will guess what the original show would have been about, and put it on anyway!
Expect laughs, expect drama, expect dastardly plots and unconventional performances. Expect anything you like - it doesn’t really matter, it’s all made up on the spot. But expect a night at the theatre that’s literally like no other, because the Comedy Iceberg are taking over.
No scripts. No rehearsals. No idea.
- November 2005
One theatre. One stage. Four nights.
In celebration of one hundred and fifty years of drama, a kaleidoscopic assortment of scenes and monologues is brought to life by Amateur Dramatic Club talent past and present. Different generations of ADC Membership meet on stage and off in a cabaret-style project involving both students and alumni. These evening performances will celebrate the accomplishments of the past 150 years and look to the future with great hope and expectation.
- November 2005
Michael Frayn’s 1985 adaptation is a brilliant reworking of Anton Chekhov’s first play, Platonov. The characters re-assemble in the wake of the long harsh Russian winter which has finally given way to a 'summer of wild honey' and an atmosphere rife with sexual intrigue and the 'wayward sweetness of forbidden attraction'. Beneath the witty banter the characters lurch from one amorous disaster to the next chaotic affair, and the light humour of the opening scenes gives way to darker and more painful comedy as the play hurtles towards its climax.
Wild Honey forms the focal point of this term's theatrical programme as theADC'S 150th Anniversary MainShow. With an extremely talented cast and crew this is a production that promises to reflect the ingenuity and creativity of generations of Cambridge students, taking as its starting point the celebratory and vivacious nature of the play and its characters.
- October 2005
"Only love can save me and love has destroyed me."
Crave presents four characters/aspects of human nature: A, B, C and M. They reveal fragments of speech to reveal a litany of rape, infidelity, loneliness, romantic rejection and childlessness. Crave explores the niggling truths we suppress within; the secrets we have, the lies we tell and the games we play... The truth hurts, doesn’t it?
- October 2005
GERARDO What if he has nothing to confess?
PAULINA Tell him if he doesn't confess, I'll kill him.
GERARDO But what if he's not guilty?
PAULINA If he's innocent? Then he's really screwed.
A man sits bound and gagged in a living room, accused of the most terrible of crimes. A woman, haunted by a brutal past, points a gun at him. Her husband looks on in horror. Can this charming doctor really be a sadistic torturer? Can the innocent confess to crimes they did not commit?
Ariel Dorfman's taut thriller about torture and guilt is brought to vivid and shocking life.
Visit: www.deathandthemaiden.co.uk
To book tickets, email tickets@deathandthemaiden.co.uk
- October 2005
When widower Charles Condomine and his second wife Ruth invite an eccentric local psychic to conduct a séance as research for Charles’ latest novel, they don’t expect much in the way of supernatural spectacle. Unfortunately for Charles, they are proved wrong by the materialization of his first wife, Elvira, who is determined to keep him under the thumb from six feet under.
The ghostly ménage à trois descends from confusion to chaos to carnage as Charles’ dreams of a quiet life come crashing down around him, along with much of his furniture...
Blithe Spirit is a hugely entertaining play from one of Britain’s best-loved dramatists. Brimming with Coward’s trademark wit and panache, it remains an enduring and classic comedy.
- October 2005
‘WHEN CAN I STOP RUNNING DOWN THAT STEEP WHITE STREET IN CABEZA DE LOBO?’ Catharine, fresh out of the asylum, has a story to tell. The viperous Mrs. Venables, who snaked an umbilical cord of pearls around the memory of Sebastian is intent on denying the truth about her son and his death. Suddenly Last Summer builds to a climactic revelation of what happened to Sebastian in Cabeza de Lobo. But the true cannibalistic horror lies far closer to home… In the garden district of New Orleans, where massive tree flowers suggest organs of a body, still glistening with undried blood, Williams’ darkest examination of emotional violence screams, hisses and thrashes its way towards a bloody conclusion where ‘truth’ is a weapon and survival hangs by a spider’s thread. Emotional myth-making, desire and corruption strike an iconic balance between dignity and hysteria in this most theatrical of productions.
- September 2005
Eveline never could sit stll she perches on the window sill Eveline could take a ship and split but sh*t her ankles are chained to a chair in that room where she danced as a girl
- August 2005
Herakles lies dying, killed by his wife’s gift. Daysair lies dead, killed by her husband’s sword. The women of Trachis watch and lament. Music, dance and Pound’s poetry revitalise Sophocles’ tragedy of love, heroism and conflict.
- August 2005
"World-premiere by award-winning playwright. A refugee suffers the secrets of war; stories of things killed and died for. This powerful fable explores mendacity and vanity in contemporary politics. Cambridge's finest present total theatre with an original musical score."
For more information, see http://www.astrakhanwinter.com
- August 2005
Fusing Shakespeare's verse with a battery of music, rhythm and physical theatre, Cambridge University’s acclaimed ADC brings you a spellbinding hour of theatre in their new interpretation of Macbeth. "Breathing dynamic life into familiar Shakespearean territory." (Steve Waters, Playwright)
- May 2005
Abby and Martha Brewster enjoy all the leisurely pursuits of the respectable old lady; tea parties, church, crocheting and biscuits - not to mention murder, if one has the time. Their nephew Mortimer, fazed by the stockpile of dead gentlemen inhabiting the cellar, attempts to shift the blame onto his conveniently insane brother Teddy. When the estranged third brother Jonathan, evil and ghastly, returns to his aunts' house with his slimy sidekick Dr. Einstein, the situation - and the body count - spirals out of control.
Set in 1940s Brooklyn in the elegant household of two loveable old darlings, this gory black comedy is as witty as it is unsettling. Combining old-fashioned elegance with sharp humour and shocking wickedness, Kesselring's classic play will make you fear your own grandmother.
- May 2005
'The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember.'
But then what is the present when all you have is a distant past?
Based on Oliver Sack's Awakenings, Pinter brings to life the tale of a woman awakening from a catatonic state, known as sleeping sickness, after 30 years. Sleeping as a child she awakes as an adult, terrified, confused and alone. This beautiful play offers a glimpse into a mind that has been suspended in time and space, examining a woman who has been dreaming a 16 year olds' dream for three decades.
For one night only, come explore memory and the human experience, and witness one of the most delightful and simply beautiful of Pinter's plays.
- May 2005
Albee returns to the land of middle class suburban America which he explored to such biting effect in his classic, 'Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?'. The Pulitzer-Prize winning 'A Delicate Balance' is a caustically funny and moving exploration of love, compassion and the bonds of friendship and family. Agnes and Tobias, a middle-aged couple, are engaged in a battle of wills with Agnes' sister Claire, a self-professed drunk, and their daughter Julia, who has returned home after a fourth failed marriage. Their equilibrium is further jeopardised by the sudden arrival of their best friends, Edna and Harry, a couple seeking refuge in an already threatened home.
At once horribly tragic and wonderfully funny, the play further explores the American drama ideas of truth, illusion and secrecy. Fueled by alcohol and pure vitriol the characters embark on a tirade of accusation and humiliation, revealing the emotional savagery of suburbia and the psychological terror of empty lives.
- March 2005
The Hen and Chickens theatre is 109
St Pauls Road Islington, London, N1 2NA.
box office number is 02077042001, or visit website
http://www.henandchickens.com
A Patient arrives at the surgery. Just a weekly check-up? In some ways, yes: it is. Although perhaps this time the Doctor is merely part of the schizophrenic Patient’s subconscious. Probably. Or vice versa. Or not at all: but still probably. Either way, there’ll be a twist – nothing will be what it seems. Maybe…
Join “…Cambridge’s hottest comedy talent…” – Cambridge Evening News, in their brand-new, action-packed, feature-length session of theatre-therapy as they unravel the Doctor-Patient dynamic in ways never before considered interesting or funny. Described as “…very slick and extremely funny…” – Varsity; “…absurdly comic…the most cutting-edge comic writers around…” – TCS, Diagnosis promises to deliver the most exhilarating, inventive comedy without compromising on laughs, and without a comic staple in sight.
- March 2005
My Fair Lady charts the transformation of Eliza Doolittle from a Cockney street-urchin into a genuine Edwardian lady. Starting as a bet between Higgins, an opinionated linguistics professor, and the affable Colonel Pickering, Eliza’s journey takes her into the lives and homes of the English upper class, to Ascot and to the Embassy Ball. But after all the beautiful dresses, the elegant parties and the handsome suitors, perhaps all she really wants is a little kindness.
This fresh and exciting revival capitalises upon Cambridge’s finest talent to combine the vibrancy of London’s East End with the refined world of the Edwardian aristocracy. Including musical classics such as ‘Wouldn’t It Be Loverly’, ‘I Could Have Danced All Night’, ‘On the Street Where You Live’ and ‘Get Me To the Church on Time’, My Fair Lady is one of the best-loved musicals of all time.
- March 2005
A mouth-watering selection box of dramatic treats; monologues by the likes of Bennett and Kane interspersed with work devised by some of the university’s most imaginative performers. These short pieces come in comedy, tragedy, tragi-comedy and strawberry cream flavours.
- March 2005
In 1529 two worlds collided – lands were colonised, people were enslaved and thousands upon thousands were slaughtered.
Francisco Pizarro is a man disillusioned by life. Jaded, faithless and cynical, he is driven only by his hope of achieving lasting fame, and so recruits a motley group of no-hopers to join his last voyage to the New World in search of gold, prestige and a place in the annals of history. Instead of the primitive communities they anticipate however, they encounter the Incas – an empire of millions, subjugated by their divine ruler, Atahuallpa; the god-king, the son of the Sun. As the fate of the two men becomes intertwined, Pizarro’s personal confl ict between his hubris and his new-found faith reaches a captivating and ultimately tragic climax.
Based on factual historical accounts, this is the story of the first contact between the Spanish conquistadors and the Incas of Peru, given life by Shaffer’s compelling play. A true spectacle, involving ‘not only words, but rites, mimes, masks and magics’, this production captures the thrilling allure of the empires of the New World – and the harrowing consequences of conflict and conquest.
- March 2005
Youth of Cambridge! Your country needs you to see OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR!
Step right up, do it for God, King, and Country! Here, at last, in one
show, experience the dangerous trenches of France along with those of the
cabaret girls! Two parts War Game, three parts Music Hall, four parts
History, six parts Song, five parts Floozies, and nine parts Machine Gun
Fire, let Oh What A Lovely War! take you OVER THE TOP!
- February 2005
A chorus of actors. A century-defining poem. A genre defining drama. Innovative and exiting, Wasteland offers a visual-vocal invigoration of T S Eliot’s magnificent poetic creation. Sometimes words speak louder than actions as this energetic new drama demonstrates, bringing the unique power of spoken verse to the ADC Theatre. In a spectacle of voice, movement, music and iconic visuals, Eliot’s poetic vision and narrative thread are drawn out and rendered in sight and sound.
Including music especially commissioned for the piece and composed by one of Cambridge’s most talented aspiring young musicians, as well as additional new writing from 2004 young poet of the year, this is a remarkable bringing together of the complex strands which have defined nearly a century of modern thought.
Watch and listen as Wasteland stamps its bold impression on the Cambridge drama scene. We will show you fear in a handful of dust…
- February 2005
The Amateur Dramatic Club preposterously offers you 24 Hour Drama. Devised, scripted, rehearsed and performed in just one day.
Join us in the ADC Theatre bar at the 23rd hour...
- February 2005
This gothic adaptation of a classic play, refreshed for the modern generation, offers a satire on contemporary life and current news, asking the questions we’re too afraid to ask. Examining the corruption of wealth, the exploitation of power and the commodification of the sexes through the medium of the media, this show promises to transform the ADC into a live news room! Volpone, the protagonist, endeavours to trick his ‘friends’ out of money by pretending to be at death’s door, upon receiving the gifts he wants more…the wife of one of his friends, to save him from death and fall into his grace. His humble servant Mosca aids his master all he can, but his intentions are far from innocent… With all the farce of the original play, but with the politics and lust of the 21st century, come witness the humour and the horror, come deceive and be deceived.
- February 2005
"…his death was uncalled for, but our generation just became intolerably bored. We are the STILLBORN generation! Rise up, young fellows. Jump off the bridge. We have nothing to lose but our mediocrity…"
The place: here. The time: now. The world: ours… and something parallel. A cultural revolution, the end of a rancid era. Assassinations, riots, the bloodsucking vampire generation finally brought to its scabby knees. Power the only currency, circumstance the only government. Into this terrifying anarchy stumble professors and students, lovers and leeches, intellectuals and rude boys. Let the games begin…
- February 2005
Alex isn’t very nice. Alex says things like ‘If a butterfly flaps it’s wings here, a series of knock on reactions make a hurricane happen in Tokyo.’ When he’s feeling angry, Alex sticks his hairdryer out the window and thinks of Tokyo. Martin spends his time sitting on the lino talking to matchsticks. Xavier says he always empathised with matchsticks (passively). Jackie is not feeling too happy. Jackie says her son is probably the antichrist. Kate says it’s just as likely to be Jesus; which would, I think we can agree, be lovely.
Written by Luke Roberts, this is a series of short conversations where people talk at each other and things go wrong...
- February 2005
Part of CUSU Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender Awareness week, the Amateur Dramatic Club has commissioned new writing from across the city to create an evening of monologues that explore life as seen from the perspective of members of the LBGT community.
A rare opportunity to share the experiences of a minority group whose voice, in the light of recent political events, has become ever more important. It promises to be a provocative and affirming night of community theatre.
- February 2005
In a sordid bedsit, a prostitute welcomes a client. So it seems. But what is he really looking for? And what does she really want from him? When they are joined by a second man, more questions are raised - is he just another client, a lover, or a brutal rapist? Dwelling on a passing sweetness and descending into dark demanding self-investigation, through warmth and sentimentality, flirtation, make-believe and confession, "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" is a modern-day morality play which explores the blurred lines between love, dependence and psychotic attachment.
Following the success of Cross Road Blues at the ADC in Michaelmas 2003, "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" is David Hall's second play as writer/director.
- February 2005
In the amateur premiere of this new adaptation of Bulgakov’s magic realist novel, we are transported to 1930s Moscow. The Master, a playwright the authorities consider subversive, is locked away. His sole ally is his mistress, Margarita: until the Devil arrives in Moscow. ‘Woland’ wreaks merry havoc, making people disappear, chopping off heads and staging a spectacular black magic show. The Muscovites’ socialist rationalism shatters at the sight of Satan himself and his deranged troupe of assistants: bare-breasted Hella, fanged Azazello and a giant black cat. The Devil befriends the hapless Master, on one condition: that Margarita hosts his Satanic ball where history’s most infamous murderers carouse. The Master strikes a Faustian bargain with Woland: but at what price? Bulgakov’s modern masterpiece throws together epic romance, political satire and comic absurdism in a story which throbs with the variety of life. An aesthetic extravaganza which celebrates the best and worst of existence: people die horribly, love madly, and nothing happens in moderation.
- December 2004
This year's Footlights/ADC Pantomime brings a classic Dickensian masterpiece to the stage. Deep in Victorian London, this panoply of music, dance and humour tracks the funny and poignant story of a young boy's quest for happiness. As our comic hero treds the pathway from poverty to riches, he is accompanied by a sparkling cast of lovers, villains, dames, ugly sisters and the all-important Pantomime Cow.
This bizarre mix of the idiosyncratic and grotesque combines romance and redemption with gothic comedy to form a hilarious Christmas treat for adults and children alike.
- November 2004
Test the mettle of Cambridge's finest improv comedians at a One Night Stand of riotous spontaneity. This perennial favourite fuses the exotic ingredients of the audience's imagination with wits so sharp they could julienne a carrot
- November 2004
Matilda is a liar. She tells so many lies, even she can’t keep up. But one day, something happens that changes Matilda entirely. She can no longer lie – everything she says is the absolute truth.
But Matilda’s family, held together only by a web of lies, falseness and façades, soon realise that if the lies hurt, the truth could be even worse. Will they be able to live happily ever after? Only one thing will guarantee their fairytale ending – Matilda must be stopped!
This jarring fable is an enthrallingly surreal fairytale for our time, and a grisly warning for anyone who ever thought a little lie wouldn’t hurt. And that’s the truth.
- November 2004
Shakespeare's last play, The Tempest, is a triumphant comedy of magic, love, and forgiveness. The exiled duke Prospero uses his magic powers to guide his enemies to repentance, his attendants to freedom, and his daughter to marriage. An enchanting classic celebrating some of the most complex and exciting characters Shakespeare has written.
HATS and Blank Theatre Company, in association with the Amateur Dramatic Club, join forces to bring to the stage this brilliant play. Blank Theatre Company, Cambridge's first dedicated Theatre in Education company, specialize in infusing the plays of William Shakespeare with a new form of ensemble ‘total theatre’ – utilizing physical theatre, naturalism, mask theatre, puppetry, verse, music, dance and voice – often bringing new and remote forms of international theatre to the stage wherever it advances the clear and entertaining telling of a story. Be moved, be inspired, be entertained.
Praise for Blank Theatre: 'Servants and Masters', (Blank’s first production), breathed new and dynamic life into familiar Shakespearean territory through a battery of multimedia, physical theatre and musical techniques – a really exciting and accessible piece.’ (Steve Waters, playwright)
- November 2004
Finding the Sun is three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Albee's
captivating study of human relationships.
It's a warm sunny day at the beach. Some people sunbathe. Some people play
ball. Two men embrace while their wives aren't looking. A mother muses
about the possibility of seducing her teenage son to a woman she's only
just met. A marriage breaks down. And at least one person dies.
This is a fascinating, funny, and disturbing play, brought to the stage by
the cream of the crop of Cambridge's new theatre talent. The action takes
place in only a few hours of a single day, in a single location, but the
characters' pasts are more than rich enough to keep us entertained: Why did
Cordelia invite a bisexual swinger into her family home? "It was cheaper
than a new playroom."
- November 2004
“A Small Family Business” is produced, directed and acted in entirely by Freshers. In previous years, the theatre has been fully packed for the shows and they always receive an extremely positive response, as Cambridge's fresh theatrical talent is introduced to the community.
- November 2004
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of
Shakespeare's Hamlet, as seen through the eyes of two bewildered courtiers,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. This comic duo finally take centre stage in
this chilling comedy which has been widely acclaimed as a moden dramatic
masterpiece. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find themselves caught up in the
plot of Hamlet and, frantic to find out what is going on, try to cope with
crazed Hamlets, hysterical Ophelias, dead Polonii and a group of sexually
depraved (and indeterminate) players. They struggle to escape the plot of
Hamlet that traps them in a world where reality and illusion intermix: Who
are they, where are they going, and where did those pirates come from? But
can they flee the unfolding tragedy? Or are Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern...DEAD?
- October 2004
Two people, two writers, two situations, two points of view, two genres, two atmospheres, two languages, two chairs, two spaces, two countries, two characters, two moods, two plays.
To be seen.
After Racine’s Phèdre and William’s A Streetcar named Desire (both performed in French tours), ACCENT, European Theatre Group, presents a new cross-Channel production. Nathalie Sarraute’s Elle est là (with subtitles) and Harold Pinter’s Landscape are two provocative short plays, performed one after the other, offering a contrasting vision of modern incommunicability and misunderstanding from two masters of contemporary European drama. Ranging from the absurd to the poetic, the comic to the tragic, the prosaic to the abstract, this production hopes to reconsider playfully the never-ending question of love-hate relationships between the two sexes and even the two countries…
- October 2004
For one night only, an exciting piece of new writing!
After a dismal evening ‘celebrating’ their silver wedding anniversary, Penny is confronted with the news of her father’s death. As the root of a mysterious family rift is slowly revealed, Penny is forced to make a choice: will she choose the family she hasn’t seen for twenty-five years over her hapless husband Neville, who can offer her little more than a bag of doughnuts. This jam-filled, sugar-coated comedy promises an evening filled with laughter, love and lots of… doughnuts.
