- June 2008
"I spit on your happiness! I spit on your idea of life - that life that must go on, come what may. I want everything of life, I do, and I want it now! I want it total, complete; otherwise I reject it! I will not be moderate."
It's May Week, garden parties abound: come to one with a dark twist in the Pembroke Gardens. As the cast sip champagne and eat strawberries, a tragic tale is unfolding on a golden summer afternoon. A heroine desperate to die for what she believes in confronts a monarch who has no time for tragic destiny. Politics struggle with principle and ideas of happiness conflict in a dramatic encounter on the library lawn. Meanwhile a doomed love story plays out the irrationality of youth and the compromises of age. Jean Anouilh's Antigone explores the nature of tragedy and catharsis, bringing it out of Ancient Greece and into our daily lives.
- June 2008
Possibly the most fabulous, definitely the most frivolous garden party of the season, with a sparkling comedy line-up:
ALCOCK IMPROV, ALICE FRASER, CATHY BUEKER, DAVID ISAACS, GILES REGER, HARRY WINSTANLEY, JAZZ JAGGER, JULIET SHARDLOW, KATY BULMER, LAURIE COLDWELL, WILL HENSHER, WILL McADAM
... and TOM OVENS' last Cambridge appearance before he leaves for Germany.
£4 a ticket, pay on the door. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=22953790099
- May 2008
Cambridge's finest comedians in all their shiny glory.
FEATURING: Tom Ovens, Nate Dern, Will Hensher, James Moran, Lucien Young to name a few...
Compered by the dazzling Will McAdam, this will be quite the night.
Please email wpm22 for more information.
- March 2008
An unnamed man - apparently a war criminal -is being interviewed by a woman possessed by an absolute conviction in her nation's ability to kill history, and her assistant, who tells bad jokes. They discuss Viennese coffee, quantum physics and the multi-world theory, art, advertising, Shakespeare as an infinitely-typing monkey and how best to kill a man with a set of dentures. They also discuss the extermination of a race.
Partially based upon Hannah Arendt's account of Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem, Indivisible is the latest play from the writer/director Freddy Syborn who was responsible for last term's Flesh-Eating Jacobean Zombies, and who is currently co-writing a new sketch show for Tiger Aspect, a comedy and drama production company.
- March 2008
On a Saturday evening in July, Sarah, arrives with her husband Reg, to his mother's home to give Reg's sister, Annie, a weekend off from caring for their cantankerous invalid mother. Norman, Annie's brother-in-law, a scruffy assistant librarian, who dreams of sexual conquests, also arrives. An exploration of deceit, sex and control soon follow with Sarah learning that Norman, having had sex with Annie the previous Christmas, now intends to take her away for a dirty weekend to East Grinstead. That evening, a hilarious scene of false manners ensues. Etiquette and absurdity dominate this brilliant "comic masterpiece".
- February 2008
This powerful thriller sees two Oxbridge students, Brandon and Granillo, first deciding to murder a fellow student, and then to hide him in a chest in their flat, justifying their actions as "intellectual pursuit". Before disposing of the body, however, they decide that inviting the boy's father and aunt around for a party would provide their actions with a fitting denouement. Cue suspicions and sexual tensions in this dark, but striking 1920s drama.
- November 2007
Four young men embark on a three-year course of study with the noblest of intentions. In fact, they are so well meaning that they swear never to see a woman until their studies are over with.
And that's all fine until the Princess of France arrives…
Love, banter, Spanish princes, this hilarious but rarely seen comedy is not to be missed. ESPECIALLY because it's set in the 80s.
Book online to avoid disappointment at www.pembrokeplayers.org or get your tickets at the door.
- October–November 2007
“Gemma was fine. Political.” “She wasn’t political.” “She wanted to adopt a Vietnamese baby outside the Uffizi.”
Gemma has stopped speaking. Lorna thinks it’s because she’s been sleeping with Rob. Alastair thinks it’s because of his love-letter. Gail wonders how she is going to cope with a baby when her best friend won’t speak and her boyfriend keeps coming to bed in a tracksuit. Rob wants to come round later for sex.
Minghella’s sharply comic view of modern life questions why silence is such a threat. This onslaught of infidelity, intimacy and indifference will make you laugh, but also make you wonder what we’re doing with all these words anyway...
- October 2007
Of all the names it is possible to give a man (and there are many - Watkins, Smith and so on) there is one in particular which seems to hold a strange and profound significance; a name that seems to declaim itself from the rooftops, and from the peaks of mountains, and the cry echoes through the valleys of the ages like the bellow of a frustrated hilltop gorilla, resounding from one end of the rainbow to the other and washing back in the whisper of the tide… "Lancelot Sebastian von Ludendorff…"
This is the winner of the first year of Pembroke Players' New Writing Initiative. The Initiative was set up to encourage and draw attention to new theatrical writing from Cambridge students. We will be open to new applications at the end of Lent Term 2008. For more information visit www.pembrokeplayers.org.
- October 2007
Newcomers to the Cambridge comedy scene and old Footlights favourites join together for a night of stand-up, sketches and a bit of singing. 100% of ticket price goes to Oxfam, as part of the nationwide Oxjam Music Festival.
- June 2007
"All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players"
Orlando's brother Oliver is plotting against his life. Rosalind's father Duke Senior has been banished by his brother Duke Frederick. Duke Frederick then also banishes Rosalind. Eager to escape the perils of court life, all three banished persons retreat to the pastoral bliss of the Forest of Arden; a place of song, dance, disguise, and most importantly: love. Cue cases of mistaken identity, murderous plots and wedded bliss! This Mayweek will see a unique collaboration of a Pembroke Players' production in the intimate setting of Emmanuel college fellow's garden with one of Shakespeare's relatively lesser known, yet highly entertaing, pastoral comedies.
- June 2007
"All the world's a stage, / And all the men and women merely players"
Orlando's brother Oliver is plotting against his life. Rosalind's father Duke Senior has been banished by his brother Duke Frederick. Duke Frederick then also banishes Rosalind. Eager to escape the perils of court life, all three banished persons retreat to the pastoral bliss of the Forest of Arden; a place of song, dance, disguise, and most importantly: love. Cue cases of mistaken identity, murderous plots and wedded bliss! This Mayweek will see a unique collaboration of a Pembroke Players' production in the intimate setting of Emmanuel college fellow's garden with one of Shakespeare's relatively lesser known, yet highly entertaing, pastoral comedies.
- May 2007
Escape revision, chill out and chuckle in the company of Cambridge's coolest comedians... Friday 4th May, 8:00 for an 8:30 start Pembroke New Cellars Drinks served To reserve tickets, or to arrange an audition, email comedy @ pembrokeplayers.org.uk or visit www.pembrokeplayers.org.
- March 2007
On his travels, and eminent British writer stumbles across a set of memoirs, which he concedes might make a good play. Even this 'provincial' story could be saved from obscurity by an 'artistic' adaptation that he is quite willing to provide.
In the white heat of the afternoon, the residents of the tiny village of Perdido await he arrival of the Guagua. As the play unravels, the paradoxes of the writer's heavy-handed interventions compete with the tragi-comic stories of the villagers. Intrigues of love, power and betrayal unfold, and somewhere in the play the original author of the memoirs is growing impatient...
- March 2007
Enter a Catholic world of blurred edges and deepest shadows. See madmen normalise before your eyes and the civilsed become like animals. Every step you make will be an exercise of will in this promenade performance. Choose between the clown cabaret, the holy romance, or a grotesque homicide. Two things are sure: you cannot see it all and you cannot trust that what you see is true.
- March 2007
“How long have you been here?”
Experience the surreal figures of the bitter “Thump,” the glutton “Guzzle,” the vain “Gazer,” the medicated “Gloom,” the chatterbox “Gossip,” and the indecisive “Twittering,” with their respective inner worlds of entrapment and illusion.
Enter their cage and “home”.
Watch as their bizarre characters unfold, and then how their deluded inner worlds are threatened with the entrance of “The Wild One:” their newest “cage companion;” bent on escape.
Will the Wild One succeed in her aim of breaking free from the cage?
Or are all the Cagebirds destined to remain trapped, oppressed by the authoritative “mistress” who rules over them?
Campton’s play presents a poignant exploration of freedom and oppression; considering what happens when one individual attempts to initiate change; and subsequently posing serious questions as to the kinds of self-imposed mental and physical “bird-cages” we may all entrap ourselves in.
- February 2007
Charley loves Amy and Jack loves Kitty. The boys are on the point of proposal - but it must be done quickly. This being the 1890's, to get the ladies away from their dour guardian a chaperon is required. Enter Charley's Aunt - a millionairess from Brazil, visiting Oxford and her nephew that day. However, events take an unforeseen turn when the real Aunt is delayed. Undeterred, the boys press in a thespy friend to impersonate the real Aunt - who then manages to arrive on time after all...
Book tickets at: www.pembrokeplayers.org
- January 2007
The times are bad in Chicago. Arturo Ui, a small-time gangster with big-time ambition, is on the prowl. His prey? Vegetables. Cauliflowers, to be exact. The moral bastion of the city is bribed, the witnesses are silenced, one way or another, and the moral line blurred - this isn't just about eating your greens.
Brecht wrote The Resistible Rise in 1941 as a parable of Adolf Hitler's rise to power; Ui (Hitler) is joined by a company of hardened gangsters, including a florist (Givola/Goebbels) and 'super-clown' (Giri/Goring). A down-and-out actor gives Ui lessons in public speaking. Chopin's Funeral March plays in dance time. Slapstick is fused with hard-hitting political comment. The stage is heaped with corpses, and Chicago's cauliflower is covered in blood.
In an explosive and slick production, this important text will be given a new lease of life. Think a silent movie of Alice in Wonderland. The company will create a flower shop, a coffin and a court room using nothing but their bare hands (and a dozen umbrellas).
- November 2006
- June 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
A new adaptation of Flann O’Brien’s cult novel, The Third Policeman, brings devilish policemen, human velocipedes and eccentric philosophy to the stage. Follow our one-legged hero as he limps his way through a surreal world of guilt, gags and rap-trap pedals. If you’ve killed a man with a spade or fallen in love with a bicycle, this is the show for you. Sinister smiles, weird words, macabre melodies, curious characters and oiful Oirish!
MURDER mystery. Hilarious COMEDY. Romantic LOVE. Village POLICEMEN and lots of BICYCLES.
- February 2006
Bound by circumstance, a father and daughter find themselves boarded up in a bed. She's got polio, and he's obsessed with furniture sales. Join us for arse-licking, murder, and arson: an extraordinary adventure stretching from Dublin to Gay Paree, as they rage down their twisted memory lane with toxic humour. In a fragile nightmare bordering on breakdown, father and daughter exorcise their pasts, and struggle towards tenderness: a misplaced bedtime story.
- February 2006
On 22nd July 1928 in the dusty heat of Andalusia, a young bride flees with her ex-lover on her wedding night to a dank forest where death waits.
Based on a true story, one of the 20th century's most celebrated writers, F.G Lorca, uses the 'crime of Nijar' to investigate illicit desire, repression, ritual, and constraints of the community. Using a bold new translation, a large cast fuse music, drama, poetry and electro-tango to present a dark and poetic vision of love as a precursor to betrayal and violence.
- February 2006
THREE PLAYS. THREE SECRETS. THREE LINES CROSSED. Neil Labute's acclaimed and demanding short play cycle presents three stories, unconnected in character, place or plot, but somehow irrepressibly linked. Three people have three secrets that they have told nobody. Tonight, all they want to do is tell you.
bash: 1 (v) to hit; = "he bashed him with a stick" / 2 (n) A party, esp a good exciting one: "Her little soirée turned into a real bash" / 3 (n) An attempt; = "come on then, let's give it a bash"
www.whatsyoursecret.co.uk
- February 2006
- November 2005
The enigmatic figure known to the world of mad science only as ‘The Doctor’ and his gormless assistant, Arthur Nice, are hungry little moles. And they’re certainly going to gobble up lots of worms. Such worms as: human decency, basic morality and rigorous, empirical scientific research. A comedy extravaganza of top-hatted frock-coated mad science not to be missed.
In his underground lair (in the murky depths of the Pembroke new cellars) the doctor has called together the greatest cracked pots of his generation to partake in the 1st annual symposium of the association of crazed, reprehensible, odious and neurotic young men or A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. His aim? To bring to an end the all-to-long reign of good science and to usher in a new era of malignant, horror-inducing insane science. Or, failing that, do something really cool with acids.
But be warned. Enter his world and you enter a world of genetically spliced grotesques, a monstrous arena where mammals are forced to do battle armed with weapons they should never have got hold of in the first place, a place in which the greatest experiment ever conducted will take place, perhaps with uncontrollable results. You certainly aren’t in Kansas no more, folks, and Toto’s got a BB-gun.
This comic, chemically fuelled explosion is brought to you by two of Britain’s best young comedians. Adam Terry and Fred Crawley are recent graduates of Cambridge University (and were founding members of the Cambridge Comedy Club). Currently both are living in London and making their intrepid way onto the national comedy circuit. Come and see their critically acclaimed Edinburgh Festival Fringe tour show in its last three performances back in Cambridge. See them now, so you can say you saw them then.
“It is really funny. The script is so packed with one liners and throw away dry wit that you don't care it's late, you don't care that some idiot is drunkenly shouting "Gangster!" you just laugh.”
Three Weeks
“This is a fantastic show with a couple of guys who are seriously funny.”
www.edfringe.com
- November 2005
At the dark heart of master playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts lies the tortured fate of a woman denied any chance of fulfilment by a male dominated world. In Ghosts Ibsen damningly exposes the hypocrisy and limitations of a self-righteous society, and his subversive treatment of marriage, infidelity, incest and venereal disease provoked scandalized outcry when first performed. Yet ultimately it is the eternal question of the individual’s right to self expression and freedom which drives this powerful tragedy – a question voiced by Ghosts as shockingly and vibrantly now as it ever was.
- November 2005
ALL MY SONS opens on a Sunday morning in a garden in the Mid-West in August 1947. The day is to be burning hot but now it is cool as Joe Keller reads the want ads in the paper. The silence of mundanity hangs in the air as he, his wife and neighbours go about their weekend leisure. But his son has arrived home to marry the childhood sweetheart of his brother whose jet went missing over the South China Seas in the war. What follows is a devastating and tragic deconstruction of the American way of life- family, morality and community are all held to trial in Arthur Miller’s first great play:
“What was Larry to you? A stone that fell into the water? It’s not enough for him to be sorry.”
- October 2005
- October 2005
A story of two brothers and the tramp who comes to stay, The Caretaker is the most important play of one of the twentieth century's most important playwrights. This is a mysterious, obliquely comic and utterly unforgettable account of Aston, Mick, Davies, and the room that becomes their shelter and their prison.
The Caretaker perpetuated a theatrical revolution on its opening almost half a century ago and now three of Cambridge's finest actors make a fresh exploration into a modern masterpiece that terrifies, moves and delights all at the same time.
- June–July 2005
2005, finally, sees the revival of the 'legendary' Pembroke Players German Tour! This summer we'll be touring German schools and universities with a slick, traditional, flexibly staged production of everyone's favourite Wilde play. We'll also be running workshops with German students, giving actors a real chance to show their off-the-cuff skills, and techies time to fiddle with awkard foreign power supplies.
- March 2005
On Christmas Eve, two strangers arrive in the Irish village of Bochtan. The crops are blighted, and all must prepare for another year of poverty. But in the face of their misfortunes, the villagers begin a laughing contest... Years later, Mommo tells the story of this night of mirth, repeating it time and again without ever reaching its tragic conclusion. Every evening her tale intrudes on her granddaughters' modern lives, and its repetition seems to hide the secret of their broken family. But tonight, things turn out differently...
Tom Murphy´s unique combination of drama and storytelling has made him one of the most acclaimed contemporary Irish dramatists. In this grotesque Christmas tale, he addresses the haunting past of Ireland's poverty with all the fierceness of satire and the black humour of tragi-comedy. When bedtime stories go wrong, and families are torn apart by misfortune, what else can we do... but laugh?
- March 2005
"This is the game of life as we all have to play it." The devious Mrs. Chevely gatecrashes the party of Sir Robert Chiltern, MP, to inform him that unless he supports her fraudulent schemes she will reveal to the press that he made his fortune by selling a government secret. Trapped in the glittering, steely and unforgiving world of Victorian politics, Sir Robert, with the help of his suave, sophisticated friend Lord Goring, must walk the tightrope between corruption and disaster, and above all, prevent his secret from ever reaching the ears of his perfect wife, Gertrude. But Lord Goring has problems of his own. His irascible father keeps insisting that he marry, or do something else useful with his life. Mabel, Sir Robert's pretty and vivacious younger sister, is of the same opinion. Mrs Chevely is openly trying to blackmail him into marriage. But all he wants to do is... nothing.
- February 2005
INTRODUCING THE THEATRE OF TOM MURPHY: a round-table discussion with live
scenes from the theatre of an Irish outsider.
Introducing a mini-season of Tom Murphy’s plays in Cambridge, we would like
to invite you to a round-table discussion of his work on Monday the 28th of
February, at 5 pm in the English Faculty Drama Studio (Sidgwick Site). The
round-table will provide a general introduction to his work and place in
contemporary Irish theatre, with more detailed presentations and
discussions of live scenes from The Morning After Optimism (2-6th March,
10.30pm, Fitzpatrick Hall) and Bailegangaire (8-12th March, 10.30pm,
Pembroke New Cellars).
The speakers will be Dr Deana Rankin, Yvonne McDevitt, Liliane Campos and
Saraid Dodd. The discussion will be informal and all are welcome to take
part: no prior knowledge of Murphy is necessary!
‘On the Outside…’ Dr Deana Rankin, Fellow of Girton College, will introduce
Murphy and his position as an outsider in Irish theatre.
‘The Impact of EXILES (1912) by James Joyce on Tom Murphy’ Yvonne McDevitt,
director and Judith E. Wilson Fellow, will take a look at Joyce’s influence
on Murphy’s work.
‘A Theatre of Voices: voice acts and speech acts in Murphy’s Bailegangaire’
Liliane Campos, director of Bailegangaire, will analyse the tension between
voice and language in Murphy’s work. A short scene from Bailegangaire will
be performed for discussion.
‘The Morning After Optimism: should we show it to children?’ Saraid Dodd,
director of The Morning After Optimism, will give a director’s view on the
play. A short scene from The Morning After Optimism will be performed for
discussion.
- February 2005
‘Entrails feed the sacrificing fire, whose smoke like incense doth perfume the sky.’
Titus Andronicus returns to Rome from war with his remaining sons to face a violent election campaign between the dead Emperor’s two sons for power. Titus names the eldest son as Emperor, but in doing so he sets off a horrific chain of revenge, murder, rape and mutilation in which he is stripped of his pride, children and sanity.
One of the most rarely performed of Shakespeare's plays, Titus Andronicus penetrates the very heart of evil and brutality, yet still finds humanity at its centre.