- November 2021
So excited to finally announce this: three short Samuel Beckett plays are to be performed in King's College Chapel on the 12th of Nov: Catastrophe, Ohio Impromptu and Not I. These plays are starkly minimal and visceral. They are also imbued with an innate poeticism and sympathy towards the human condition; and I can't think of a more suitable venue, so see you there...
- December 2019
Work is (almost) over - how better to unwind than with an evening of some of the best student comedy Cambridge has to offer?
- November 2019
I Am A Camera tells the story of writer Chris and nightclub singer Sally Bowles and their host of friends in 1930s Berlin whose carefree lives disintegrate with the coming of Nazi Germany. This semi-immersive production in the Judith E. Wilson Drama Studio is sure to be an innovative and exciting piece of theatre, transporting the audience to Weimar Berlin in all of its fragile decadence. Don't miss this chance to see the play that inspired the film and musical Cabaret!
- November 2019
Come and see Cambridge's finest fresher comedians as they dip their toes into the waters of Cambridge comedy - see them before anybody else does!!
- November 2015
“I can tell the difference between who I am and a side effect.”
Four people are involved in a failed drugs trial for RLU37, a new anti-depressant created by the international corporate giant, Rauschen Pharmaceuticals. Doctors Toby and Lorna battle with the meaning of depression and the limits of medical science, as they administer the trial in an explosive professional partnership. Tristan and Connie, volunteers on the trial, soon develop a violent love for each other. But they are cannot get past one burning question: is their love ‘real’ or is it induced by the dopamine coursing their veins? Does it matter?
The Effect is a funny, passionate and moving depiction of modern medical science, depression and love.
Winner of Best New Play, Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards 2012.
'This is a provocative and challenging play ... it ends in an edgy gesture of good sense that made me feel like cheering.' - The Independent
'The Effect is a headlong delve into the mysteries of the human brain. And Prebble pulls it off with assurance, tickling our cerebellums in the first half, before tugging on our heartstrings in the second ... heartbreaking ... it has a heart as well as a brain.' - Time Out
- March 2015
The Polis is back. Join us in an evening of short political performances in the ADC Bar, where we ask: is all politics theatrical, is all theatre political?
short plays // monologues // spoken word poetry // verbatim theatre // satire // songs
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” - Brecht
Previous praise:
"The Polis was rough and ready, but therein lay its beauty...In the intimate and informal setting of the ADC bar, this one-night-only performance provided a powerful platform for a critique of modern politics through multiple perspectives" - **** Varsity
"..never let the audience forget the fact that it was a play because of the overlap between the stage and the audience" - TCS
"amusing, witty and an enjoyable way to spend an evening" - Tab
- March 2013
Edward Damson, famous English playwright, has died violently at his remote Aegean home. His son, an American academic whom he has never acknowledged, has had a lifelong obsession with a father he never knew and he begs permission from his stepmother, Helen, to write Edward’s biography. She agrees reluctantly on condition that Philip tells the whole, painful story. Helen re-enacts her bizarre turbulent eighteen years with wildly passionate, explosive and self-absorbed Edward. Inspired by the Greek classics, Edward was driven by the need to depict violence and the purity of revenge; directly opposing Helen’s plea for reason and restraint. Interspersed by intriguing and dramatic extracts from his own plays, 'The Gift of the Gorgon' tells the story of Edward’s rise to fame, decline into ridicule and estrangement from Helen; all mirrored in the Greek myth of Athena and Perseus, who slays the Gorgon, only to become a gorgon himself.
- February 2013
King's College Drama Society presents... The King's Jest
For one night only King's presents the rising stars of the Cambridge stand-up comedy scene.
- January 2013
A man who turns hope into a business proposition. The anger of the gods. And the strangest blind date you've ever seen. 'Although' can mean a lot of things. Find a different perspective at PACE: although.
Our second monologue showcase of new student writing, PACE:although is a collaborative project bringing together new talent in writing, directing and acting, PACE is a new start for theatre this term.
"I’ve raised your expectations now. I hope I don’t disappoint. I know how vicious that can be."
- November 2012
- June 2012
What can you fit into fifteen minutes? Nothing and everything, fame and obscurity, one interminable moment and the excitement that's over too soon - it all depends on the pace you set.
- March 2012
For it's inaugural play, the brand new King's College Drama Society is going to be putting on Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit. It is a brilliant depiction of an existentialist hell with the red-hot pokers remarkably absent - instead its inhabitants find something much more chilling within themselves. We mean to re-create this hell in the underbelly of King's itself, as the first play in the newly re-opened King's Bunker.
www.kingsdrama.co.uk
- May 2009
Summer, 1985. The Dewitt-Parkers gather in their country-house in Kent to celebrate Edward’s sixtieth. It’s time for Christian, the eldest, to propose a toast during dinner. But before that, he must give a speech. He has prepared two—one in a green envelope, and the other in a blue one. One contains a celebratory account of his father's life. The other contains what Chris claims is an interesting alternative. Edward makes the wrong choice.
- December 2008
King's Drama is proud to present its first ever production!
'Never Swim Alone' is a bizarre, funny yet unsettling play by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor, which takes place as a surreal competition by two men, Frank and Bill, who know each other too well. No ones knows what the competition is about, and the referee interrupts whenever she feels like it. But as the play unfolds, the deeper purpose of their rivalry emerges... A beach. A bay. A point. Two men. A girl. Their past. Who is the first man? Who is the man with the gun?
- January 2006
Set in contemporary Northern Ireland, this bold new play uses the Antigone myth to respond to the McCartney murder.
Two young men perform a suicide pact. The deaths act as a catalyst, revealing familial hatred and resentment, forcing the characters to evaluate their existence within a social and political climate of mistrust. The varying hurts of the characters are slowly revealed and the dead will not sleep. A serenading chorus, old drunken whores, 'heavies' and a pizza deliveryman voice just some of the action.
Ismene is a new play by recent Cambridge graduate Stacey Gregg, written in response to a small but growing tradition of Greek Tragedy appropriated by Irish writers. The piece addresses problems of contemporary society in Northern Ireland, whilst fusing a literary tradition that evokes the Ancient Greeks for our sense of 'Tragedy'. This play is challenging, forcing you to look at events taking place now and see them in the bloody light of supposed 'myths' and 'stories'. Tragedy is not such an ancient concept.
- May 2005
Where we are is hell, And where hell is there must we ever be’
Bound within his mind and bored by all the knowledge he has attained, Dr Faustus is a man struggling to break free. He sells his soul to the devil and flies around the world performing tricks, whilst the other characters struggle to keep up.
Time is running out: twenty-four years translates into the one hour that Faustus has to realise his dreams. The plot speeds up and the stage shrinks as Faustus moves towards the precipice of eternal damnation and the edge of the stage… where we sit, waiting in anticipation.
Dr Faustus is trapped, a prisoner in this world. And his fate is a reflection of our own...
