- February 2016
Laden with moments of both comedy and searing tragedy, Frank Wedekind's famous double bill is brought to the beautiful Howard Theatre. Combined as "Lulu: A Monster Tragedy", Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box are two of the most striking and famous of fin de siècle sex tragedies: forming a commentary on the destructive potential of sexual and material excess in the turn-of-the-century bourgeoisie. A tale which Wedekind tells through the fatal and enigmatic figure of his protagonist Lulu. Travel from Berlin, to the opulent high society of Paris, to the grimy slums of London, following Lulu and her successive lovers, as, at each shift in setting, the play's world and its characters slowly degenerate, before the play’s now iconic and brutal climax.
- November 2015
‘I like this place, / And willingly could waste my time in it.’
This is a story one can hear softly spoken around a campfire in the glowing embers of an evening. It is a tale of ‘the golden world’, disguised lovers and gender swaps. We will be beckoning in our audience to join the company of witty Rosalind; ardent Orlando and wry Jacques in this production's autumnal Forest of Arden.
- March 2015
Downing Dramatic Society are hosting a New Writing Festival Downing's Howard Theatre. We are looking for new one act plays, running at no longer than 20 minutes, to be submitted by the end of January. The best submissions will be staged and watched by a panel of top industry professionals and special guests who will then offer advice and feedback. The winner's prize will include an opportunity to develop the writing further, with support from the society. Many exciting surprises to be announced in due course. Get those pens scratching and await further announcements!
- February 2015
One of the greatest revenge tragedies of Western theatre, Aeschylus’s ‘Agamemnon’ offers a telling depiction of the danger of meeting violence with violence that is gruelling, visceral and strikingly modern.
Set in the aftermath of the Trojan war, the play follows the bloody chain of murder and revenge within a royal household. Power, sacrifice, social oppression; it’s a ruthless portrayal of the extent to which humanity is willing to go for control.
- February 2015
Not so very far in the future, Paulina Salas, a medical student, falls prey to the repressive regime controlling her country. Whilst captive, Paulina is raped and tortured by a Doctor she never sees, who is obsessed with playing Schubert's 'Death and The Maiden'. Paulina is eventually released when the regime falls, and leads a normal life with her husband, the lawyer Gerardo. But the past remains with her.
One night, her husband is stranded by the roadside and is rescued by a kind man, Doctor Miranda, who drives him home. When Paulina hears his voice she is instantly reminded of her rapist and tormentor, and seeks to have his confession by any means possible, while her lawyer husband seeks to ensure Doctor Miranda has a fair trial in the hands of his seemingly deranged wife....
Come and see this play about trauma and the ambivalent nature of guilt and innocence.
- November 2014
- June 2014
May Week 2014 will see the revival of the Downing Dramatic Society May Week show. A brand new take on the traditional May Week Shakespeare, Strange Capers will be a relaxed, funny and hopefully sunny (or at least dry) hour of everyone's favourite bard in the stunning grounds of Downing College.
- May 2014
Free comedy to get you through exam term!
- March 2014
“A non-theatrical, theatre production about language and chance. The story Cinderella, with much of the translations of the world from Serbian to Soqotri. More than 500 versions, of millenniums many, Cinderella is understand as universal knowledge. What happens when languages kiss: A Cinderella masala, of stories bring us together, interpretations apart.”
- February 2014
A pearl necklace broken on the floor. A bloodstained yellow motorcar. A green light always just out of reach.
Welcome to the 1920s. In this innovative new adaption of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s famous novel, see a fresh take on the American novel that defined a generation.
- February 2013
He's the most contemptible, sly and supercilious slave known to man. A low-down good-for-nothing liar. But when trouble raises its ugly head, a little lying can go a long way.
It's 200 BC and in the foetid streets of Athens stands Calidorus, a strapping young man-about-town with his head in his hands. He's in love you see, with a beautiful slave girl called Phonecium. But young love comes at a price, a particularly high one when a sadistic pimp is involved, and the evil Ballio has received an offer that he can't refuse. Our hero has one day to stump up enough cash to save his Phonecium and if he fails, she'll be sold to a merciless Macedonian officer. What can he do but to turn to the one and only person that could help him achieve the impossible, his father's silver-tongued slave: Pseudolus?
The Downing Drama Society is bringing back the bad-boy of Roman Comedy, for a three night extravaganza of ribald farce. Enter the salacious world of Plautus, and discover the esoteric delights that have been suppressed and censored for centuries.
- November 2011
- June 2011
Unperformed in Cambridge for over five years (because not enough people did it at GCSE), we bring you Shakespeare's truest depiction of heterosex this side of Sonnet 129.
The gentlemen thugs of neo-classical Victorian clubland make roaring war on each other with swordsticks and Queensberry fisticuffs. The presidents of the three most powerful clubs of St. James's have formed an uneasy alliance to consolidate power and preserve decorum. But one of them keeps fucking off to Limehouse and smoking smack with a gypsy queen. Consequences.
- May 2011
How far would you go for love? for art? What would you be willing to change? What price might you pay? Such are the painful questions explored by Neil Labute in 'The Shape of Things'. A young student drifts into an everchanging relationship with an art major while his best friends' engagement crumbles, so unleashing a drama that peels back the skin of two modern day relationships, exposing the raw meat and gristle that lie beneath.
- November 2010
Michael Frayn's "gorgeous farce" about a university reunion premiered in 1977 at the Globe Theatre, London. It returned to the West End in 2006 in a sparkling new production featuring David Haig and Samantha Bond. It remains a classic comedy.
Twenty years after graduation, six former students return to their Oxbridge college for a reunion dinner. While their lives may have had varying degrees of success, all are connected by a common past. Once locked in college for the night, the graduates begin to relive their youth, and old friendships, feuds-and the much-desired but absurdly proper Master's wife-come tumbling back into the present. Don't miss the first ever Cambridge student production of this hilarious farce.
- February 2010
The Downing Dramatic Society is proud to present The Relapse by John Vanbrugh. First produced 1696, it is one of England’s most beloved Restoration comedies, featuring biting social satire that is still popular today. Vanbrugh contrasts fashionable London life with provincial sensibilities through a menagerie of outrageously comic characters including: reformed rogue husband Loveless, his virtuous wife Amanda, her ardent admirer Worthy, buxom widow Berinthia, peacock beau Lord Foppington, his profligate younger brother Tom Fashion, his perpetually plastered manservant Lory, their lecherous matchmaker Coupler, cantankerous country squire Sir Tunbelly Clumsy, his innocent yet up for it daughter Hoyden, her faithful governess Nurse and the buffoonish parson Bull.
To be presented in high period style, at the brand new luxurious Howard Theatre, this show is not to be missed.
- February 2009
It's party conference time and in the leader's hotel suite, the spin doctors are sweating over the Prime Minister's speech. With public opinion increasingly volatile, there are rioters on the streets, and there is panic at the top ...this time it's all got to be perfect. But in the same hotel a journalist is piecing together a scandal so far-reaching that it could keep the party out of power for a generation. Can the story be killed? Can the journalist be bought off? Exactly how far will a government go to save itself? And more importantly, when will the transvestites having sex in the lobby stop spraying pink paint at Her Majesty’s Ministers? ‘Feelgood’ is a hilarious, daring and bitingly funny satire on the politics of spin by Alistair Beaton, whose extensive writing credits include Spitting Image and Not the Nine O'Clock News.
- November 2008
In Verona, best friends Proteus and Valentine see themselves as experts in love. Yet when they travel to Milan, Proteus is so attracted to Valentine’s beloved, Silvia that he is willing to do anything to win her hand. This is all news to his beloved, Julia, who has travelled to Milan in disguise to find him. Add in some scene-stealing servants, an over-protective father, a gang of bandits and a mangy dog called Crab and you’ve got The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of Shakespeare’s most youthful comedies. In matters of love and war is all really fair?
- November 2008
It's 14th century England and Canterbury is the place to be. When little known writer Geoffrey Chaucer takes a pilgrimage to that holy place, he finds that the figments of his imagination take on a larger role than first suspected - what happens when your creations start talking back to you?
As Chaucer's attempts to entertain his fellow travellers falls on deaf ears it is the turn of Alison - the infamous Wife of Bath - to keep the group entertained. But, as Alison begins to tell her tale the pilgrims begin to unconsciously play out her story...
- June 2008
A light hearted restoration comedy to be played in the beautiful grounds of Downing College during May Week.
- February 2008
GASP IN WONDER as before your very eyes we conjure up the wondrous world of the complete works of the greatest writer who ever lived…with a cast numbering literally into the lower single digits!
GAPE IN AWE as, armed only with a bare stage and a bare slate, we re-create this wealth of literature!
There is nothing to stop the action spilling over and engulfing you in a whirling tornado of energy, cookery programmes and maybe the odd banjo. Join us for a night of cross-dressing, bad dancing, curious accents and the greatest literary event of the century!
Forgotten your Shakespeare? Let us remind you!
“What cheek! What nerve! What sheer, heavenly, unadulterated fun!” Sunday Express
- January–February 2008
Downing Dramatic Society, Alcock Players and GODS present.. ALL THE ORDINARY ANGELS.
Two brothers. One girl. A whole load of ice cream.
When Guiseppe Raffa decides to retire from the ice cream business, only one son can take over. It's not long before tactics get dirty.
Rocco is up to something with the garden wall. His wife, Bernie, is sick of waiting at home for the children that may never arrive. Lino is in love with Lulu, even though she says that she’ll break his heart.
And Lulu?
She has bigger ideas. She’s in love with ice cream and will let nothing stop her from reaching her goal. When Lino starts to lose the competition, she helps Rocco invent a very special ice cream, an ice cream that the people of Manchester can’t stop craving.
Will Manchester get their ‘fix’?
- November 2007
A lavish formal but with DEATH! What more could you want?
You come along as a guest to a Reunion after 10 years away from college, but some of the staff and students don't get on as well as they used to...then the bodies start mounting up...
You will have chance to mingle with the characters in the Howard Building with a sparkling wine reception and then move over to the Hall for the meal itself, but tempers are quick and nostalgia is replaced by something else...a desire for revenge.
This will be a fantastic event and a first for Downing and one of the last big events in the Hall before it's closed, so grab the opportunity whilst you can! It is open to everyone so do bring your friends along!
- June 2007
- May 2007
DDS and HATS present... WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
"There were old ladies in the audience not merely tearing up their programmes but jumping up and down on them out of sheer hatred…" Stanley Baxter [Dr Prentice] remembers the original West End run.
Dr. Prentice, the chief psychiatrist at a private clinic, wants to have an affair with his secretary. His wife, Mrs. Prentice, has invited a hotel porter to her husband’s clinic in an attempt to seduce him. This leads to inevitable problems as both husband and wife lie and deceive each other as they hide their lovers in a bizarre variety of disguises. From this outrageous situation, chaos ensues when the Chief Government Health Inspector turns up on the scene and, relying heavily on his Freudian training, decides to section them as clinically insane …
Add in a leopard print dress, far too many doors and a scandalously damaged statue of Sir Winston Churchill and you have a recipe for disaster.
- November 2006
A true spectacular, Cambridge has never seen anything like this!
An outdoor production with the audience all snug in a heated marquee while the action happens in the dark and eerie settings as lights and mist provide a brilliant but scary atmosphere.
"I want your fear. For your fear, like a current, rushes through your body. Your fear makes your heart pound, it renders your veins rich and full. Your fear hemorrhages deliciously within you."
Based closely based on the original, this adaptation presents the frightening story that made Dracula a horror classic.
- November 2006
One of the big events of the calender. There'll be music, dancing, comedy, and no doubt a few surprises too. This is set to be the best Cabaret there's been.
- June 2006
Adapted from the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, this is a truly beautiful and moving play adaptation that upholds, in every way, the purity and intent of the author.
Story Summary: Mary Lennox, a young English girl awakens one morning in colonial India to find her parents and all the house servants dead from a cholera epidemic. She is sent back to England to live with a cold, grieving, and self-preoccupied uncle. In her aloneness she discovers a secret garden and becomes totally possessed of the idea that Colin - the crippled son of her uncle, can walk if he too can share the Magic of the secret garden.
- June 2006
After the success of the Michaelmas term Cabaret, DDS offers you the chance to be involved in the first ever May Week Extravaganza!
An outdoors, Cabaret-style event with plenty of good music and comedy from home-grown Downing talent providing splendiferous entertainment for the JCR Garden Party.
Due to the nature of this performance it is currently only open to Downing Students
- March 2006
A brand new musical comedy featuring Downing’s hallowed gravel paths, beloved plodge, nefarious Master, a brave Natsci, and students from minority subjects finally finding love.
In a future not far from now, anarchy reigns supreme. The lawyers have water bombed the librarian and taken over the library; The historians have started a new religion in the chapel worshiping the IT technician; The mathmos have locked themselves in the P basement, the exiles have been exiled to J and the medics are kidnapping helpless language students and conducting terrible experiments on them! Can a small group of students make it through the chaos, avoid the gangs of evil natscis, outwit the Master and discover the secret of the Thing? Featuring classic songs like “There’s a hyper-spatial vortex where there used to be a plodge”, packed with suspense and intrigue, and brimming with Downing talent, this is a must see show!
- November 2005
Annual Cabaret - talent show
- June 2005
- June 2005
This is a brilliant Ancient Greek comedy, written by the best in Ancient Greek Satire, none other than Mr. Aristophanes. Despite being written almost 2500 years ago, this play remains at the height of humour and will have you laughing out loud.
Plot Outline: Strepsiades an Athenian, has a son, Pheidippides, who is very keen on horse-racing and has run up large debts. In aim to relieve the debt Strepsiades asks his son to study at Socrates’ Thinkery to learn how to argue himself out of the debts, Pheidippides refuses to go and Strepsiades goes himself. Being utterly confused and ridiculed by Socrates, Strepsiades goes back and forces his son to go to the Thinkery. On arrival they witness to figures having an argument, one is the stronger argument and the other the weaker, the weaker argument is seen to defeat the stronger. Pheidippides agrees to study at the school and learns how to evade the debts, however, he also exposes how the arguments can be used to defeat morals.
- February 2005
Caught in the dull routine of office work in London, Rob and Alex struggle to find excitement in their mundane lives. While Alex is drawn ever closer to suicide by his dangerously destructive urges, Rob has worked his way into the undergarments of every attractive female in the vicinity and now awaits his next 'discovery'. When work colleague Julia sees Alex's vulnerability, she tries to help him, much to Rob's annoyance. Having vied for Julia's attention for some time, to no avail, Rob sets about his own plot to get his own back on Julia, theough her one weakness - Alex. As Alex edges ever closer to suicide and Rob comes closer to murder, who will get there first? Or will Julia stop them both before it's too late.
- November 2004
- June 2004
A once in a lifetime spectacle! Your one and only chance to see a notably amusing and enthralling new production, subtly entitled 'HELEN OF TRINITY'! An epic tale of inter-college rivalry, between the lean and disciplined troops of Downing and the rich and unstoppable hordes of Trinity. Who will get the girl?
Love! Fate! Prophecy! Frolics! (and some quite unecessary debauchery.)
