- November 2022
‘If music be the food of love, play on;’
To put it simply: Viola thinks her brother is dead. He thinks that she is dead. Everyone
thinks that she is her brother. Everyone thinks that her brother is her. Chaos ensues.
If there are any questions you would like to ask about the production, please don't hesitate to email us at mj587@cam.ac.uk
- November 2022
SMÖRGÅSBORD is the Corpus Playroom's own eclectic bi-annual showcase of new student-written theatre.
For over a decade, this evening has been a rite of passage for emerging student playwrights in Cambridge, and it’s the event at the heart of the Corpus playroom’s calendar.
We particularly seek to give a spotlight to those who haven’t previously had their work audienced, and to anyone who feels that they have an underrepresented narrative or cultural lineage to bring to the fore.
Come and sample a platter of the most exciting new theater in town!
- October 2022
“Do you see it? You see the bug? It’s feeding. It’s feeding off my blood.”
In a motel room in Oklahoma, Agnes is looking for comfort beyond her next fix. She finds it in local drifter Peter, who brings with him an unexpected guest in the form of a live egg sack underneath his skin. What follows is a feverish tale of twisted love, conspiracy and the contagion of paranoia.
- June 2022
I want this to be a validating experience for you. Can I suck your cock?
52 Monologues for Young Transsexuals will not be a validating experience for you. In this devised two-woman comedy show, we will take you on a journey from Germaine Greer to Jouissance, from Barbara Streisand to BDSM. Documenting our experiences of love, sex and intimacy as trans women, 52 Monologues promises to be outrageous, confronting and honest.
- June 2022
Now and Then is a show about illness, and the feeling of being ‘other’ whilst navigating modern life.
- June 2022
The Fletcher Players are proud to present a fresh new comedy scratch night for Cambridge, held multiple times a term in the McCrum Theatre. Presenting a variety of hilarious acts and showcasing some of the most up-and-coming talent, Steamers prove to be a laid-back, friendly, and side-splitting way to spend a Saturday night.
- May 2022
1 and 2 have been inside so long that they can’t remember their own names. It’s only when 3 appears that they recall there might be something beyond their living room. Over the years they have created their own world and named it Ballyturk, a place merging mythology and memory.
- May 2022
“What if I said you could go back in time. For just one hour. And change the course of your life, forever...”
Mild-mannered Ned Burger is 57 years old, happily married and runs a sandwich shop in San Francisco. However, he’s still got a chip on his shoulder from his high school rivalry with world-famous baseball player Garry Bonds. Following a visit from the ghost of baseball legend Lou Gehrig, Ned is given a unique opportunity: to go back in time to his high school days and show Garry who he is, once and for all…
This original comedy-drama by Rishi Sharma asks a fundamental question: what will you sacrifice to be the best? The play is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, and, most importantly, requires no knowledge of baseball, its rules or its history.
- March 2022
‘This is not the story of how they died. This is the story of how they lived.’
It’s time to tell a story that you’ve never heard before. A story that is not only culturally significant for Jews but also important for all of us as human beings. It is a story about resilience, about the best and worst we as people have the potential to be and, most importantly, it is a story about stories.
The story we want to tell takes place in Warsaw during the Second World war, more specifically the brutal Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jews of that great city were forced to live during the Nazi occupation. Our protagonist is Emmanuel Ringelblum. Through his creation of the Oyneg Shabes, a secret group of archivists, he would fight the Nazis by collecting and burying thousands of essays, articles, poems, payslips, photographs, songs- testimony to Jewish life and living- so that if indeed the Jews were wiped out of history by their oppressors, their true voices would survive in some capacity.
This devised piece of theatre celebrates life in the face of certain death. It celebrates Jewish culture as beautiful, wonderful and full of stories. Ringelblum understood and celebrated this more than anyone.
We intend to honour his legacy.
- March 2022
...it’s such a relief to have love again and to lie in bed and be held and touched and kissed and adored and your heart...
From a desolate and unnamed city, four voices emerge. A, C, B and M desperately seek out love and light, in the process finding life’s many ecstasies, horrors and heartbreaks. Sarah Kane’s Crave is a beautiful and unnerving one-act play, meditating on desire, belonging and obsession.
- March 2022
A hard thing has come under the people of Briggsley village: the soil they have ploughed for generations now rejects their tools impenetrably. It won't be shovelled, scraped, swept, moistened or wormed into! Every crumb of the earth refuses to budge.
Nina is a tyke or an oracle (depending on who you ask) and tries fervently to advise her folk. But who will listen? None! Except for Orla, of course.
As farce becomes famine and horizons prove tough, frustrations become frenzies and enough becomes enough becomes enough!
'Unsoiled' is an original drama, but will it break ground?
- February 2022
Smörgåsbord is a night of new writing, hosted by the Fletcher Players in the Corpus Playroom. We are committed to bringing you a taste the freshest writing in Cambridge, ranging from 5 to 15 minutes.
This term, as LGBT+ History month is around the corner, we are particularly interested in putting on pieces of writing with LGBT+ characters and themes, but we really want to work from people from all marginalised backgrounds, including BAME , working class and disabled people. There is no experience barrier - I really want the perspectives which we haven’t seen enough of on Cambridge stages.
- February 2022
Alex DiMaggio has made the most important discovery of their career. The identity of the Blue Lagoon statuette, one of the 21st century’s greatest archaeological mysteries, has finally been revealed. Tomorrow, Alex will unveil their discovery at an exclusive event within the prestigious Blast Museum to a select entourage of VIPs, reporters, and historical experts. Years of diligent work are finally paying off. That is, until Alex’ old friend, Susan, comes to call. Now the famed Blue Lagoon is shattered to pieces, and it’s up to Alex and Susan to try and replace it. And all the while they’ll have to dodge overbearing bosses, psychotic security guards, and a litany of ridiculously demanding VIPs. Will they get away with it? Or be strung up as yet another one of the museum’s artifacts, caught in the spotlight and judged by the world.
Based on farcical British comedies like Fawlty Towers, Blue Lagoon is a homage to the creative style of playwrights like Peter Schaffer, showcasing two character’s descent as they dig deeper and deeper into their own lies in the attempt to save their skin.
- February 2022
A witch coven consisting of three friends, Margaret, Emily and Lawrence, are highly unsuccessful in their activities. Margaret, the leader of the coven, takes her magic seriously, while Lawrence can’t tell the difference between magic and life hacks, and Emily just wants to keep their friendship alive. But when they summon a demon called Graham, master of banal evil, with grand, but underwhelming plans, their friendship is tested in ways they previously hadn’t thought possible.
This fantastic new comedy by Barnaby M. Evans draws on themes of friendship, witchcraft and Shrek 2 to weave a tale of magic and mirth.
- February 2022
Who are The Landsmen? Working-class heroes or satirical figures of fun?
Haz is a young research student who thinks he has uncovered some uncomfortable truths about Graydon Brookfield, the author of a 1920s novel about a workers’ commune that has a cult following. But David, an eminent expert in the field, seemingly isn’t ready to entertain new perspectives on the matter.
Ruth is close to Emma, her supervisor, but wants to ditch the study of literature altogether. Can they renegotiate the terms of their relationship without straying into ethical trouble and without alienating themselves from their peers?
A play about idealism, power dynamics, bruising compromises – and a mysterious fiction-within-a-fiction about a secret society of brooding, violent rebels.
- November 2021
Somewhere in the freezing wastes of the tundra, two weary researchers have been left at the edge of the world for... how long now? A year? A decade? A lifetime?
As cabin fever begins to set in and the walls of their reality start to crumble, Mov and Ramsey are forced to confront the nature of their stay at the Arctic Research Centre, and whether or not it, or they, have meant anything at all.
- November 2021
The Fletcher Players Present: Smorgasbord! An evening of new writing from the brightest, freshest writers in all of Cambridge!
- November 2021
The Nature of a Curve is a brand new play exploring the fractious and often ignored world of Welsh politics.
It’s election night in Wales, and Vicky Evans MS is seeking re-election to the Senedd. She is gunning for promotion in the government and will do anything to make sure she consolidates power.
Accompanied by her team of advisors, they progress through the evening, grappling with all the excitement and tension of the count. However, when her aide, Carys, discovers a shocking truth, all of Vicky’s ambitions are threatened to be derailed…
- November 2021
In the late 1960s, towards the end of the Biafran War in Nigeria, Agnes, a novitiate nun, experiences a complete nervous breakdown. Her path crosses with Taiwo, a photojournalist reporting on the brutality of the conflict, who quickly forms an attachment to her. After Agnes is largely shut away from human contact, he becomes her confidant, uncovering the malevolent reasons behind her mental deterioration, and the secrets of the convent she belongs to.
This is a play on turmoil, both internal and external, and the difficult choices people are forced to make for survival.
- October 2021
Stuck in a house, surrounded by death, strangers fight to hold off the undead and hold on to sanity. Tensions rise as society crumbles and the argument turns from survival to power.
Adapted from Romero's immortal Night of the Living Dead (1968), this immersive play re-examines what makes us afraid, how society falls apart and the power of solidarity in the face of the inevitable.
- October 2021
How do you take a photo of a ghost? Rose must find out to take revenge on her sister, but what lengths will she go to? Join four friends as they tell you a story spanning seven centuries and four generations, from the stealing of a child, to a tragedy at a subway station. Ghost Quartet in an intoxicating song-cycle with live music and strange tales of love, revenge, and spirits - alcoholic or otherwise…
- October 2021
Gerald Nest, kleptomaniac and erstwhile owner of the inimitable Historical Hotel. You haven’t heard of it? I don’t blame you. Nobody has.
Today it lies in wrack and ruin, a burning woman stalks its halls, and an endless war is waging over the mountains of memorabilia. As clearance officer Martha crosses the threshold, extinct birds whirling overhead, she becomes the first guest in over thirty years.
But in Gerald's shifting kingdom, walls have ears, and as Martha tries desperately to trim the family tree, she learns what happens when the roots fight back…
From the writer of The Man in the Air Balloon and The Backwards People comes Bricks and Mortality, a brand-new, surrealist play about loss, legacy, impossible decisions, and a world teetering on the brink of destruction.
- March 2021
Join Smorgasbord as we present our first ever audio broadcast!
Smorgasbord is a biannual event celebrating the best of new student writing at Cambridge University. We provide a space for emerging writers to test out their new material, and we are particularly interested in writing that features a distinct voice, an interesting cast of characters, and a unique perspective.
Smorgasbord is a fun and captivating event highlighting writing, directorial and acting talent in the Cambridge theatre scene. The night usually features 5-6 short pieces, and is often followed up by a Q&A with the director and writer, which in this case will be done on Zoom.
- December 2020
N.B. this show has been cancelled
The folktales of the Mabinogion are some of the oldest and strangest in the literature of the British Isles, telling the mystical stories of ancient Wales; in this world, children have been known to turn into fish, and a wizardly mouse may well cast a spell on you. Mabinogion follows the birth and life of King Pryderi - whose name translates to modern-day English as 'Anxiety' - as he contends with mysterious deerlike visitors from the Otherworld, battling the undead armies of the Irish, and a rather heated argument with a neighbour over a herd of pigs. This show reimagines the four branches of the Mabinogi for a present day audience, and our merry troupe of performers will be using song, puppetry, and comedy to sift through the surreal stories of Pryderi of Dyfed and present them in fantastical ways such as you've never seen the likes of before. From the minds behind Fables for Robots ('a space of vibrancy and innovation... a performance that is genuinely refreshing' - The Cambridge Student, ****).
Mae tegell yn ferwi and ty'n barod.
- November 2020
Smorgasbord is a biannual event celebrating the best of new student writing at Cambridge University. We provide a space for emerging writers to test out their new material, and we are particularly interested in writing that features a distinct voice, an interesting cast of characters, and a unique perspective.
- October 2020
FORGIVE ME, I HAVE SOME BAD HABITS
Grit your teeth, take a breath and prepare to be sucked into The Confession Booth.
Now un-grit them and let out that breath because really, it was unnecessary to ‘confess’ to Father Monahan that they brought down StockPhotos by photoshopping Herbie’s grandma’s toe into the logo.
‘Sinners’ - a saucy, spicy and slightly comedy show about confessions
- February 2020
The iconic night of new student writing is back for one night only in the Corpus Playroom.
Get ready to laugh, cry, and have your thoughts provoked by this fresh crop of new Cambridge theatre, and bring a couple of Qs for the writer/director/actor Q&As!
- February 2020
Come on down to the bottom with this open ocean sketch show. Follow Michael Phelps as he seeks official recognition as a fish and watch Steve the anxiety salmon as he regrets becoming a dentist for sharks.
The ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising and now even the Corpus Playroom is underwater. Meet a vegan piranha, the only octopus in the ocean who can't multi-task and a puffer fish Prime Minister as we answer the timeless question of whether fish would drive cars or submarines? BYO snorkels and make sure you do not slip on the plankton on your way in. Swimming lessons available on the door.
- January–February 2020
“Look at the moon. How strange the moon seems! She is like a woman rising from a tomb. She is like a dead woman. One might fancy she was looking for dead things…”
Late night, unreal city. The Tetrach is hosting a wild underground banquet. Salome - daughter of Herodias, Princess of Judea - escapes from the oppressive atmosphere of the party and the lascivious gaze of her step father.
Under the transforming moon, bodies become otherworldly and enchantingly strange. Through Wilde’s rich and symbolic mastery of language, we experience the world augmented through the eyes of Salome, culminating in the rapturous and notorious 'Dance of the Seven Veils'.
This new Soma Theatre production captures the queer and ecstatic spirit of Wilde’s most neglected and misunderstood play. In a world fluttering between enchantment and disenchantment, the familiar and the unfamiliar come face to face, breaking down boundaries of gender and exploring what it means to truly ‘see’ one another.
- November 2019
When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on his estate beside the paw prints of a gigantic hound, the great detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Dr Watson must travel to Dartmoor to unravel the mystery, and investigate the ancient curse of the Baskervilles. It should be elementary, but with seventeen characters, over thirty props, and only three actors juggling them all, we can promise it will be entertaining!
Packed with verbal ingenuity and slapstick comedy, this farcical retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic novel ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ is as relentless as it is hilarious. Prepare for a detective story like no other, as this ridiculous romp through the desolate moors will leave you howling with laughter.
- October 2019
The iconic night of new student writing is back for one night only in the Corpus Playroom.
Get ready to laugh, cry, and have your thoughts provoked by this fresh crop of new Cambridge theatre.
- October 2019
"If you're there, I want to talk. If not... that's fine. I want to talk anyway."
Valerie's sure that she knows what happened the day that Dean and Melanie died. An accident took the lives of the two people she loved most in the world, and she was left to pick up the pieces and try to move on. If one last conversation would help her get on with her life, isn't it worth a try? Even if both of them have two very different accounts of the tragedy, and she's given more questions instead of answers? It's amazing what you can achieve with some electric candles, an empty beer bottle, and some photographs.
Produced in association with Fletcher Players
- October 2019
Winner of the Cambridge Shorts/Fletcher Players New Writing Prize
'I want to cry but I can't, isn't that funny?'
When Beth receives some difficult news from her GP, she’s forced to confront a painful reality - one which she fears will haunt her for the rest of her adult life.
Beth is a short film about motherhood, long train journeys, and the coping mechanisms we use to stay afloat.
- June 2019
“There is too much love of pleasure among the upper classes as it is.”
A tea party in a country house. Three tumultuous pasts. One scandalous revelation.
Wilde’s glittering depiction of the superficial bubble of late 19th century high society falling to pieces in the face of American idealism is brought to life in the fittingly sumptuous Corpus Christi Old Court. Picnics strongly advised.
- June 2019
Three women. One beach. One conversation.
Written in her distinctly rhythmical prose, debbie tucker green's 'trade' examines the ways in which we financially and emotionally trade with each other. On the hot sands of an idyllic Caribbean resort, three women discover how their lives are connected by a single man in a fascinating examination of the relationship between first and third world countries, tourism and the power struggle between women.
- May 2019
Doctor Faustus is irreverent, chaotic and riotous fun. In a post-theistic age, the play ask questions of the modern conception of humanism: is immortality an achievable goal in the 21st century? What constitutes personal fulfilment, and to what lengths will one go – and should one go – to achieve it?
Faustus experiences hallucinogenic highs, balanced against moments of personal crisis and breakdown. With original compositions and jazz funk choreography, this show recollects something of the spectacular quality of the ‘Marlowe effect’ experienced by the play’s original audience.
Embrace the chaotic world of Faustus’ creation - and all its implications.
