- March 2018
Paris in the late 1800s: the place for artists and romantics. Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, two of the greatest French poets, embark upon a near fatal affair that sparks questions about love, poetry and the importance of present experience.
From Academy Award winning playwright, Christopher Hampton, this historical play takes a close and very human look at the two world-famous poets, exploring the power of art and the nature of creativity, questioning how much of oneself one should give – both to one’s craft and to the person one loves. Showing considerable insight into the bourgeois and artistic societies of the period as well as a moving understanding of homosexuality, this promises to be both an exciting and challenging play. Coming Lent Term 2018!
- February 2018
It's an important day for Helen Alving: not only has her son Oswald returned from living in Paris, after many years away, but she's opening a new school in the memory of her late husband, Captain Alving. During a visit from Reverend Manders, an old friend who is due to dedicate the school, the day before the grand opening, secrets reveal themselves all around, and Helen has to face the possibility that her life is going to collapse around her. How can she carry on, as the ghosts of her past continue to haunt her?
'ghosts' is the premiere of an exciting new adaptation of Ibsen's play by director Josh Cleary, who has moved the play's setting from 1880s Norway to 1990s Kensington, dealing with LGBT issues of the time, particularly the AIDS crisis.
CONTENT WARNING: AIDS, Homophobia, Incest, Suicide
- February 2018
Prepare for the return of the swankiest, most sophisticated smoker of the year! The Black Tie Smoker showcases some of Cambridge's finest comedians as they fight tooth and claw for a £50 cash prize (and mad street cred).
As the name suggests, dress code is black tie and the theme is FREE WINE. The smoker has been known to sell out since the beginning of time (or at least since records began), so snap those tickets up!
- February 2018
Stockings Open Mic nights are a space for women and non-binary comedians to try out material in a relaxed, supportive environment. All styles of comedy are welcome, and there are no auditions - just email Ania (am2489@cam.ac.uk), Emma (ep429@cam.ac.uk) and/or Ruby (rnk23@cam.ac.uk) to request a slot!
REMEMBER the Four Ws of Stockings Open Mic Nights:
Women
Wine
Works-in-progress
Wlaughter
- February 2018
Twenty Four is a sketch show set over a day with a sketch for every hour on the hour.
Starting at noon in the offices of Pixar, join Footlights Smoker regulars Joe McGuchan and Alex Watson as we take you through an afternoon of unfortunate schemes in customer relations, an evening of couples who can’t keep them thoughts to themselves and finish in the morning.
- February 2018
The White Rabbit Red Rabbit website says:
"THE PLAY YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE IS SEALED INSIDE AN ENVELOPE.
The actor about to perform has never seen it. In fact, there is a new actor every performance, and they’ve only been told what is absolutely necessary:
Do not Google this play.
Prepare to impersonate a [blank].
Once you start, you must finish...
NO MATTER WHAT.
WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT has been called a play. But it’s a lively, global sensation that no-one is allowed to talk about. Its award-winning playwright, Nassim Soleimanpour, is Iranian. His words have escaped censorship and are awaiting your audience. Slyly humorous and audaciously pointed, this ‘theater entertainment meets social experiment’ is unlike anything, and will make you question everything. Have fun!
WE DARE YOU NOT TO GOOGLE FOR MORE.
JOIN THE ACTORS AND LEAP."
(http://www.whiterabbitredrabbit.com)
Five performers. A different performer every night delivering the 'monologue'.
Come along to see this audacious piece of 'theatre' in the Pembroke Players committee play!
Dates List:
Ashleigh Weir (Tues 6th Feb)
Joe Pieri (7th)
Jess Murdoch (8th)
Tilda Wickham (9th)
Tom Taplin (10th)
URGENT: This play is NOT overtly political, and should not be portrayed as such. It operates on a deeper, metaphoric level, and very expressly avoids overt political comment. All media and press agents have to keep in mind that the playwright lives in Iran. We therefore ask the press to be judicious in their reportage.
- November 2017
"Lovers to bed; 'tis almost fairy time"
Welcome to this re-imagining of the Shakespearean classic, where the real and fantastical collide in a kaleidoscope of love, loss and magic.
It's got everything you could ever want: comedy, romance, drama - even a man with a donkey's head!
In a world where the forest is home to the human and the faerie, nothing is ever quite as it seems: actions have unimaginable consequences and confusion reigns throughout.
Join us in the Pembroke New Cellars and dream the night away!
- November 2017
63 AD.
Nero’s Rome.
The city is in turmoil under the rule of a dangerous tyrant, but Encolpius is more worried about the fact he can't get it up. Join him and his fellow reprobates as they drink, argue and shag their way across Italy in a journey that will take them all the way from the brothel houses of Puteoli to the sex-mad cult at Croton, enduring along the way shipwrecks, terrible poets and the grotesque company of the obscene noveau riche Trimalchio.
Adapted from the ‘Roman Novel’ of Petronius, The Satyricon will be a dark and scandalous journey through the twisted decadence of the Roman Empire, and a riotous piece of immersive theatre.
Presented in association with the Cambridge University Classics Society.
- November 2017
“Unfortunately it’s never gonna stop, Molly. People are always suspicious of people who are different. Human nature.”
Set in present day Philadelphia, White Guy on the Bus follows the life of a wealthy white businessman Ray who rides the same bus week after week, eventually befriending a single African American woman. What initially appears to be friendly rapport between unlikely acquaintances soon turns into an uncomfortable business proposition. As Ray’s alternative motives are revealed, it becomes clear that this is definitely not a play about mutually beneficial relationships formed across social and racial divides, but one revealing the hard truths about the latent racism that characterises much of American life today.
- November 2017
We're back! After a smash sell-out Fresher's Week Smoker, Pembroke Players have teamed up with GADS for a fantastic collab night of comedy and sticky-floors. Featuring a hot-to-trot line-up with some of the best comedians Cambridge has to offer, this is one you won't want to miss!
As always, wine will be provided ~~
Ticket link below:
Students: £6, Concessions: £4 (Girton students eligible for this discount).
- November 2017
A brand new sketch show from Footlights Rhiannon Shaw, Rufus McAlister, and Adam Woolf.
Rufus has been really struggling in the bedroom department lately, so Rhiannon and Adam, our resident sexperts, have agreed to take him under their wing, and show him the finer points of attracting that special someone.
Through a series of sketches, songs and monologues, we go on a whistle stop tour of all things sexy, from 1st dates to bondage, and everything in between.
Will Rufus be able to use his new-found knowledge to woo his beau? Maybe his would-be lover is already in the audience...
Previous Praise:
"A sample of the quirkiness and brilliance of Cambridge’s late-night comedy scene" - Varsity
"Varied, relatable and, most importantly of all, funny" - The Tab
"Innovative and excellent with a glorious bizarreness" - CTR
★★★★★ Varsity
★★★★★ CTR
★★★★½ The Tab
9/10 TCS
- November 2017
Join a line-up of hilarious Cambridge Footlights regulars as they go entirely off-script in Panel Show: Live From the Cellars!
- November 2017
Sean O'Casey's masterpiece revolves around the harrowing events of the 1916 Easter Rising. Set in a Dublin tenement, the play follows the lives of its ordinary residents. Dealing at first with their almost comic vivacity, the threat of militant nationalism moves further indoors and O'Casey's play delves into the heart wrenching consequences of war. He poses a question all too relevant for today: what happens when political terror forces its way into the home?
One of O'Casey's best plays, indeed one of the most significant Irish plays ever written, this play is a story of community, of hope in the face of terror and terror in the face of violence. It both comically and painfully represents and recreates the tenement environment of a Dublin under siege.
This production in Pembroke New Cellars will be atmospheric, intense and claustrophobic, immersing the audience in the war-torn Dublin streets: to feel the heat and glow of the artillery fire, the slamming of the door and the shattering of the window as the domestic tenement must necessarily bow to the pressures of its violent political master.
- October 2017
‘No, we are not all in the same boat. And I’ll tell you why. Because we are not all drowning together.’
In the town of Crestyn, the British government is testing a new kind of democracy: every major decision in every citizen’s life that could possibly affect the community – taking local jobs, moving houses, marriage, divorce – must be voted on by the town. The power is entirely in the hands of the people.
Michele, a twenty-something Italian immigrant, and his adopted teenage daughter Daisy have finally escaped from Michele’s abusive partner Paolo, but Crestyn is unwilling to grant them a divorce. And when Daisy reveals that a frightening new obstacle has been thrown into their path, their fight to win over the anonymous judgement of their town becomes far more urgent.
Thy Neighbour is a dystopian parable about contemporary politics, reproductive rights, the amount of information needed to pass judgement, and whether, if given power over the lives of others, our decisions are motivated by love or hate.
- October 2017
After an explosive one night stand at the Corpus Playroom in June, 'Baby Steps' is back for two more nights! With a chunk of new material thrown in with last time's big hits, last year's freshers sketch show is fresher than ever.
Every October, 3000 teenagers are carried south by the University of Cambridge Admissions Storks (U.C.A.S.), and deposited onto a fleet of punts stationed on the River Cam near the village of Grantchester. The triumphal procession then advances down the river into the Cambridge city centre, and the ‘freshers’ are carefully hand-picked by the various colleges. This birthing process is known as ‘the pool’.
This year’s dregs, the final six freshers to be picked, unified by collective outrage at their misfortune, have banded together in the silliest way imaginable. They’re taking things one little bit at a time in the big world of Cambridge, so come along to track their baby steps. Join bleary-eyed freshlings Emmeline, Will, Aimee, Noah, Alex and Tom as they learn how to walk and then perform comedy in quick succession.
- October 2017
The DDR, 1983. Fairy tales and Censorship.
“It isn’t about being dead or not, it’s about what you leave behind”
So says the writer Katurian, who finds himself in police custody after it is discovered that several of his short stories have a suspicious connection to a series of recent child murders. Whilst Katurian thinks that he’s been arrested for getting on the wrong side of the regime in this totalitarian state, the good cop/bad cop double act Tupolski and Ariel have other ideas. When Michal, Katurian’s brother, is brought in for questioning, Katurian’s involvement in the crimes no longer seems as tenuous as it first appeared... nor the connection between fiction and reality.
Martin McDonagh's satirical black-comedy brings together elements from across the latter half of the 20th century, from the lies of countless Presidential administrations to the fall of Soviet Russia.
Please be aware that the play contains several triggering themes, including allusions to abuse and rape
- October 2017
Pembroke Players' Smoker is back! It's been a long summer and we are so ready to unleash some of the funniest comedians on the circuit on our audience.
Whether you're a nervous fresher or an embittered finalist, get yourselves down to the cellars for the first Smoker of the year!
- August 2017
“Why do you drink so much?” / “The fags aren’t killing me fast enough”
Sat together by chance, four unnamed strangers unearth their darkest moments. In this post-truth world, Kane’s brutal and unadulterated tragedy is defiantly honest. One of Sarah Kane’s final works, CRAVE returns to the festival where it premiered in 1998. Brought to you by a creative team previously described as “visionary” and behind many “must-see” productions in Cambridge (Varsity; TCS), this retelling of Sarah Kane’s masterpiece is unmissable.
“I’m looking for a time and place free of things that crawl, fly or sting”
- August 2017
Two women decide to write a play about their interracial queer relationship. ‘Funny’, ‘honest’ and ‘explosively entertaining’ this piece of new writing is an exploration of race, gender, sexuality, family and what it means to love someone who doesn't look like you.
Combining comedy, with hard hitting social commentary, SCENE is a heartfelt, engaging, and at times laugh-out-loud hilarious portrayal of two women in love rarely seen on stage.
“the writing is honest and raw” ★★★★ — Varsity
“the best, most purposeful exploration of queer characters that I’ve ever seen” — FLY
- August 2017
It’s the opportunity every comedian dreams of. Double act Will Hall and Leo Reich have been given an hour to record their very own TV pilot. Except, they’ve been given Studio 9, the smallest studio known to man. It doesn’t help that the tech keeps malfunctioning, the producer’s getting worried and the show barely resembles the script. But they have a lot of sketches to get in the can, and only sixty minutes to do so. Well, fifty nine...
Studio 9 is a brand new, fast-paced sketch show from a pair of Cambridge Footlights Smoker Regulars that promises to be a slick hour of uproarious comedy.
- June 2017
It’s the opportunity every comedian pines for. Double act Will Hall and Leo Reich have been given an hour to record their very own TV pilot. Except, they’ve been given Studio 9, the smallest studio known to man.
It doesn’t help that Leo is drunk. Or that Will is in love with the runner. Or that the tech keeps malfunctioning. But they have a lot of sketches to get in the can, and only sixty minutes to do so. Well, fifty nine...
Studio 9 is a brand new, fast-paced sketch show from a pair of Cambridge Footlights Smoker Regulars that promises to be a slick hour of uproarious comedy.
This is your one chance to catch the show before it heads up to the Edinburgh Fringe this Summer
- June 2017
Our final smoker of the year is here! Join us for an evening packed with comedy including both sketches and stand-up from experienced veterans and fresh new talent alike.
Wine served from 8.15 with the show starting at 8.30.
- May 2017
After two years of legal troubles involving his [REDACTED], family entertainer Stuart Brown is back on your screens with a brand new show that certainly promises to be “a format” (The Guardian) with “guests” (The Observer) and “attempts at comedy” (The Telegraph). This special pilot episode, featuring hilarious segments such as “Who In The Audience Will Date Me?”, “Brown Noise” and fan favourite ‘“Where Did I Put The Thimble?” will be an unforgettable return to form for one of the nation's most persistent broadcasters!
From the comic mind who brought you Dropouts!, Black Tie Smoker, Crow, Quinoa: A Middle-Class Sketch Show, 7 Steps to Becoming a Student Druglord and numerous Footlights Smokers, SBVH:LIC promises to be a tragicomic tour-de-force through the damaged psyche of a repressed man, and a showcase of Cambridge's finest character comedians!
Previous praise;
"Like the weird uncle at a family Christmas, Wright united and energised the audience as a whole – only occasionally traumatising individuals”- The Tab
“Elliott’s acting performance was outstanding throughout and although the nudity was a comic highlight of the show, the rest too was of equal caliber”- Varsity
"dimwitted self-parody"- The Tab
- May 2017
A one-night entente cordiale of stand-up, featuring past, present and future Footlights Ruby and Raph. (Music and lyrics by Cardinal Wolsey).
Previous praise:
‘An intelligent and uproariously funny illustration of everything Cantabrigian comedy can and ought to be’ – TCS, 9/10
'Keane proved herself to be Queen of the call-back' – The Tab, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
‘This ex-Footlights team will be very hot property in years to come’ – EdFringeReview, ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
‘Yeah Raph's alright I suppose’ – Ruby
- March 2017
Seventeen years ago, the Picksford Amateur Photography Society held its final ever meeting, and went their separate ways. However, at the funeral of former treasurer Dorothy, the remaining four members are reunited, and take a trip down memory lane as they look through their old sketc- photos. Photos. It's photos. That's the premise.
Join Footlights regulars Will Hall, Laura Cameron, Rufus McAlister and Leo Reich for a fast-paced night of sketch comedy in which every picture tells a story.
“Punch after punch of genuinely funny gags” – Varsity
“Phenomenally funny” – The Bubble
“Inexperienced or amateur it was not” – CTR
- March 2017
For the third year in a row, Pembroke Players Comedy presents The Lady Smoker, our annual showcase of the funniest women and non-binary people on the student comedy scene!
- March 2017
Seventeen years ago, the Picksford Amateur Photography Society held its final ever meeting, and went their separate ways. However, at the funeral of former treasurer Dorothy, the remaining four members are reunited, and take a trip down memory lane as they look through their old sketc- photos. Photos. It's photos. That's the premise.
Join Footlights regulars Will Hall, Laura Cameron, Rufus McAlister and Leo Reich for a fast-paced night of sketch comedy in which every picture tells a story.
“Punch after punch of genuinely funny gags” – Varsity
“Phenomenally funny” – The Bubble
“Inexperienced or amateur it was not” – CTR
- March 2017
Howard Barker’s ’13 Objects’ is a modern play, published in 2006. It is a series of vignettes, each centred around a different object such as a pair of shoes, a camera or a spade. The play ‘reveals the investment we make in inanimate things, their power to unsettle us, and how their talismanic qualities license new ways of seeing the world’.
- February 2017
It's that time of year again! Prepare for the return of the swankiest, most sophisticated smoker of the year: The Black Tie Smoker. Sit back with your complimentary glass of wine and laugh your socks off* as eight of Cambridge's finest comedy acts duke it out for a £50 cash prize, and more importantly, mad respect.
As the name suggests, dress code is strictly black tie please. The smoker has been known to sell out since the beginning of time (or at least since records began), so get those tickets quick!
*please don't remove your socks, this is a swanky event.
- February 2017
Biff, a mean private eye with a quick wit and a slow Southern drawl, is back in her hometown Bogalusa after a break from the detective game. But now it looks like ol' Columbos gonna have to dust off her magnifying glass. Her philandering ex-lover Jake ain't changed one bit, and now her sister Sally's gone missing.
But the mysteries don’t end at home. Both local reverends are acting pretty sketchy, and Brenda the businesswoman seems willing to do anything to get cigarette sales back up, even if that means hiring weedy marketing consultant Trevor.
In Bogalusa corruption, like smoke, rises straight to the top and comedy, like smoke, is everywhere and sin, like smoke, is probably a bad thing.
Adjust your suspenders while you still can: noir is about to get seriously silly.
- February 2017
An hour of no-frills sketch comedy just as nature intended.
Since flexible patterns of thought provoked by jokes and certain types of laughter are proven to boost productivity, the University permits students to take a short break from fact-learning and essay-writing for an hour of compulsory mirth. Fun is obligatory. Attendance is mandatory.
The gimmick is that there is no gimmick.
Laugh, why don’t you.
- February 2017
Dirty Hands is an existential play that tells the story of Hugo, fresh from prison, who visits his former boss, Monica, a Labour party deputy. In an attempt to prevent Hugo from being ‘eliminated’ by party members angered by his indiscretions, she must decide whether he is récupérable for the cause before midnight. This ultimatum frames the play, while the story is told in flashback. Hugo is a young intellectual, keen to prove himself as an homme d’action. He accepts the challenge of assassinating Turnbull, a rising star on the right of the party, making it look like a suicide. As the play progresses, we see Hugo’s internal struggles and self-doubt emerge; if he abandons his task he will be killed, but if he murders Turnbull will he lose his integrity? Hugo’s girlfriend, Jessica, warns Turnbull who, ever the persuasive politician, convinces Hugo to join his cause instead. Hugo agrees, but when he returns to proclaim his excitement for the future, he walks in on Jessica embracing Turnbull and shoots him. With the killer’s identity established from the beginning, this political drama considers the “why”, not the “who." Crime of passion or political murder? The audience must decide.
- February 2017
Hot Cross Men smashed it right out of the improv park with their Edinburgh Fringe hit, What the Dickens. That’s a fact. Many thought that was the end of their story. Untrue. Colin Rothwell (Actor-in-Chief, 1st Computer Science), Haydn Jenkins (Footlights Enforcer, 2.i [predicted] Geological Sciences), and Ted Hill (Doctors Hate Him, 2.i Biological Anthropology) are back, and now even the bad guys are left quivering in their boots. These boisterous beasts have improv oozing from their every hole; and they’re offering you a taste of the action. Our three comedy renegades were birthed, kicking and screaming (no midwife needed), from the gentle womb of The Cambridge Impronauts, and they haven’t looked back since; not even when there was a big explosion.
I hope you’ve got your copy of ‘The Conventions of Comedy’ because Hot Cross Men will blast it to smithereens, then throw it in a chemical fire (no safety goggles used), where it belongs.
It’s fully improvised. They’re fully in charge. And you’ll be pleased to learn they won’t be held back by anything: not by scripts, not by directors, and certainly not by the pesky establishment. The boys are trying out some new formats, popularised in Chicago, America. That’s right. America. They’re red hot, Red Cross, red men redemption. Hot Cross Men.
PREVIOUS PRAISE:
'Truly Marvellous' - EdFringeReview, 4 stars.
'Ridiculous and hilarious' - The Tab, 4.5 stars.
'An impressive display' - Varsity, 4.5 stars.
'It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but hot cross men' - Charles Darwin (Ordinary Degree, 1831)
- February 2017
Cathy has one ambition: to be the first person to fly solo from Scunthorpe to Paris. Unfortunately, her world-weary father just wants her to stay at home under his watchful eye and new hybrid Perspex ceiling whilst he tries to recreate his brief croissant-inspired love affair with the spirit of his dead wife in his specially made ghost garden. A fast-paced, absurd comedy show that takes you from the llama fields of Scunthorpe Aerodrome to the most left-wing corner of Scandinavia, Frank and Cynthia is a timeless love story that will have you weeping out of your ears.
- February 2017
- November 2016
George Orwell may have been one of the greatest authors of the twentieth century but 1984 had nothing on the travesty of 2016...
The heating in Pembroke has broken once again and two freshers who unwittingly signed up to row for the PCBC have been assigned the job of saving college from freezing over. They fight their way through the political instabilities of Cambridge to reach the gates of Pembroke only to find that the situation in college is in even more dire straits than they could have imagined. Will they be able to overcome the malice of Donald Trumpington and the Tab Editor in time to save the day?
Brace yourselves for an evening of Oliver award-worthy performances from the cream of Pembroke's fresher thesp talent
Bring some bevs and get ready to laugh your (Christmas) socks off!
