- February 2019
Adapted from Virginia Woolf’s novel, 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature’ playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf’s close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Orlando, a beautiful charismatic nobleman, enjoys a lifetime of adventures, love and debauchery, spanning five centuries. At the midpoint of this period, whilst serving as ambassador to Constantinople, Orlando wakes from a seven-day sleep to find he has become a woman.
A dreamy adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s famous tale, Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando is a magical and poetic dance between gender and through time, a fantastical world in which courtly movement and biographical narration combine to tell the story of someone who lives outside of human expectations, and enjoys twice the experience that humanity has to offer.
- January–February 2019
"Here, there’s lots of money to be made in the business of opening graves. I’m serious. Farmers should be forgetting about crops and moving into the graveyard trade. It’s all about prime real estate for the dead nowadays."
A cloudy day in West Belfast. It’s Dennis’s funeral. Everything seems normal. The priest is drones on, the crowd half-heartedly pat their eyes with hankies. Then Uncle John orders an Indian takeaway (at eleven in the morning) and hijacks the sermon. There are only two remaining vacant graves in the family plot – and he will not miss out on one. Cue a morbid dogfight with vindaloos, Belgian girlfriends, and handbag-wielding octogenarians.
This piece of new writing by Connor Rowlett treads the line between morbid farce and naked drama as it explores the lives of a Northern Irish family who just can’t seem to change the subject from death.
Writer/Director email: cr579@cam.ac.uk
- January 2019
“Suddenly I felt very Shakespearean. Very Game of Thrones.
No longer was I the son of Stephen Bewley.
I was the bastard son of Stephen Bewley.”
Charlie is on a train from Glasgow to London Euston when he finds out that his mum is a brilliant liar. The man he has called ‘Dad’ for 21 years is not, in fact, his biological father. With one Dad in remission from prostate cancer, and another about to be released from HMP Brixton, Charlie is not sure of anything anymore.
Funny and moving in equal measure, 'Bastard' is a brand new one-man play about fatherhood, inheritance, and a talking unicorn.
- November 2018
The Cambridge Footlights and the Fletcher Players come together to bring you a brand new festive panel show! For one night only, two teams of top Cambridge comedy talent will compete to become the masters of McCrum - for this year at least...
- November 2018
A two-hander sketch show containing an oblivious schoolmaster, an overly analytical Sherlock Holmes and an interview with the first British 'astronaut'. In between sketches Lewis and Kit try to come to terms with what happened in Monaco all those years ago...
- October–November 2018
Siblings Daniel and Peppy have lived in the same house in South East London since they were children. Now adults, they are recluses; surrounded by a lifetime of memories lost in the chaos. They are isolated from the outside world until, following a misunderstanding, that world rushes in.
Deborah Bruce's humorous yet moving play reminds its audience of the importance of showing people the simplest kindness. It provides an insight into those left behind by society, and leaves the audience on a gentle tone of hopefulness.
- October 2018
Fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe, best friends Emmeline and Leo are still really lonely. It’s not like, an “issue”, per se? It’s just making them both quite depressed. So they’ve decided they’re going to find a lover. One each, ideally.
Join this Cambridge comedy double-act for an hour of characters, sketches and desperation as they search for the perfect man. Because there’s someone out there for everyone, right? All you have to do is hunt them down.
Manhunt follows Leo and Emmeline, as they embark on a quest to find love. Realising there is massive boyfriend-shaped hole in their lives, they make a pact to seek out romance. The pact turns into a game; the game turns into a competition; the competition turns out to be one of the ones where no one wins, and they end up back where they started. Over the course of the hour, Emmeline learns the hard way why you never flirt with a ferris wheel operator, Leo gets catfished on Ocado, and we witness more than one relationship counselling session with 80s pop sensation (and Oscar winning actress!) Cher. Through it all, we meet extravagant characters, navigate the pitfalls of modern dating, and put on a fast-paced, empowering hour of comedy that is ‘funny, sad and inventive – by the end, you will be completely seduced’ ★★★★★ (ThreeWeeks).
★★★★★- ThreeWeeks
★★★★★- EdFringe Review
★★★★★- Varisty
★★★★- Broadway Baby
- October 2018
Join us for this evening of new writing! The Fletcher Players bring you Smorgasbord: a festival showcasing some of the most exciting and original extracts from emerging student playwrights.
Hosted at the Corpus Playroom, this is a casual opportunity for writers to have their work performed on-stage, with the chance for the pieces to be discussed and critiqued afterwards by the audience.
Unlike many other writing festivals, there are no limits to the works being presented – they can be complete plays, extracts from a larger piece, or rough first drafts – as long as they are between 5 and 10 minutes in length.
- October 2018
Come enjoy an evening of comedy from one of the most underrepresented groups in the Cambridge comedy scene, with a stunning line up of BME performers. There'll be laughs, and friendship, and also more laughs. And also free wine!! Who could resist!?! Not you!
[ Tickets only £3! ]
If you want to take part then just send an email to Alex (af608@cam.ac.uk) or Bella (ah914@cam.ac.uk) for a slot!
Did we mention free wine?
Bella & Alex x
- October 2018
“Theatre should be grand, vulgar, simple, pathetic – not genteel, not poetical.”
So said Joan Littlewood, artistic director of the infamous Theatre Workshop and developer of the seminal 'Oh, What a Lovely War!', first performed in 1963. Born of a revolutionary collaborative process, this so-called ‘epic musical’ shook a nation with its visceral portrayal of the first world war. Both riotously entertaining and profoundly affecting, there is no other play which combines the same level of cultural significance and timeless appeal. Come to be enraged, come to be entertained – come and be part of 'Oh, What a Lovely War!'
4.5 stars from Varsity: https://www.varsity.co.uk/theatre/16259
5 stars from The Tab: https://thetab.com/uk/cambridge/2018/10/15/review-oh-what-a-lovely-war-114512
Listed in The Tab's top five shows of Michaelmas 2018: https://thetab.com/uk/cambridge/2018/12/03/tab-roundup-michaelmas-theatre-highlights-118438
- October 2018
Three short(ish) plays about family - and food. From the writer of 'The Arm in the Cat Flap' ("trod the lines of silliness, sharp wit and poignancy with nothing less than brilliance and flare", ★★★★★ - TCS; "Geelan is an abundantly talented writer. He has an innate skill in finding the right balance of the bizarre without ever tipping it over the edge", ★★★★½ - Varsity).
HAM: Flo has made her stage debut as Mr Smee in a community centre production of 'Peter Pan'. She hopes for a civilised post-show family meal at a nice restaurant, hopes that her three narcissistic siblings might get along, and that for this one night at least, just a sliver of the attention might fall on her.
EGG: Jennifer and Georgia’s brunch party take an unexpected turn, as the dark details of their guests’ marriage are laid bare over scrambled eggs. (‘Highly Commended’ by the panel of professional judges at the Downing Festival of New Writing; “A sparklingly witty farce” - TCS)
CHIPS: When Liam’s dad dies, his career-driven mum now faces the mammoth task of making him dinner each night. They eat frozen chips, watch TV, and try to get to know each other.
★★★★½ - The Tab
"As a collection, Ham, Egg and Chips fits together like a dream. With abundant laughs and a big heart, this is joyous familial theatre at its finest."
https://thetab.com/uk/cambridge/2018/10/03/review-ham-egg-and-chips-114152
- June 2018
Cambridge, 1980. Psychedelic colours, flared trousers and disco music.
Truffles is a big personality with an even bigger stomach. Having arrived in town with one master, he is so confident in his abilities (and so desperate for his next meal) that he gets a job with a second. Unfortunately for him, his two masters' lives are far more intertwined than he realises. Trying to juggle two demanding jobs, it all becomes too much like hard work for our lovable fool...
Goldoni's classic farce returns to Cambridge for May Week! Set in 1980s Cambridge, The Servant to Two Masters is sure to resonate with audiences. Staged under the June sun in the peaceful Master's Lodge Garden of Corpus Christi College, it is the perfect way to spend a May Week afternoon!
- June 2018
“I dreamt about this last night. I dreamt that I was packing boxes in boxes in boxes.”
Dean is housebound, compelled by his severe obsessive compulsive disorder to repeat meticulous rituals and reach self-set targets. His sister, Tamsin, has her own unrealistic quotas to meet: working on a zero-hour contract in a warehouse, packing boxes for hours on end to provide for them both. When Dean is wrongly declared fit for work, the pressure increases as their benefits are cut. Suddenly their strength and relationships are tested to the absolute limit, as the demands put on them to keep their heads above water go from being almost unreachable to completely impossible.
Winner of the 2015 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting, Katherine Soper's Wish List is ‘a quietly essential and moving play' that tenderly enforces the essentiality of love when you’re trapped in a system that’s seems to be set against you.
This production will be collecting donations for Mind CPLS, a local charity that provides services which offer support for those recovering from mental health challenges, promote positive mental health and tackle mental health-related stigma and discrimination within our communities.
- June 2018
Alex can talk to ants, he got to the semi-final of season 2 of CBBC's Bamzooki, and he knows the guy who wrote 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' (shout out to you Eric). But no one knows any of these things, as Alex finds it hard to talk in social situations. Even worse, there seems to be a mysterious Narrator constantly pointing out his flaws and failures. Watch as Alex takes on surreal characters to express himself, battles The Narrator and struggles to find a voice of his own.
Join Footlight and Chortle Student Comedy Award 2018 finalist Alex Franklin in his debut one-man show for an hour of narrative comedy with a heart. Expect strange characters, sketch, dance, and Neil Buchanan from Art Attack.
“Light-hearted, gloriously silly and really very funny.” - ***** Varsity
'The second game was more one-sided than the first, with Oxford’s jungler wreaking havoc while Franklin, arguably Cambridge’s best player in the first was unable to stave off a number of two-on-one attacks early on.' - Varsity (4-1 loss)
"This prized Salmon himself is played by Alex Franklin. He excels in this role." - ****1/2 Sam Brown
- May 2018
there is an instinctive revulsion against taking a human life
and that revulsion lies in our hearts
and that revulsion can be conquered
video game designer paul has created ‘Killology’ - a game where players are rewarded if they kill their opponents in the most tortuous and creative way possible.
when teenager Davey gets brutally murdered in ways not dissimilar to those in the game, who’s to blame?
flittering between three monologues, gary owen’s “deeply troubling” ‘killology’ examines the relationship between violence, masculinity, fatherhood, representation, and blame in the 21st century, and poses deeply challenging questions about desensitisation and technology
first performed at the royal court in 2017 to rave reviews, killology is a visceral and harrowing piece of new writing
- April–May 2018
Winner of the Lent Shorts/Fletcher Players New Screenwriting Prize
A funeral?... Suppose it makes sense to bury her. Couldn’t just leave her lying in the front garden. It’d scare off the postman.
Mother is dead. That is, Mother the Tortoise. Killed in a freak accident this morning, her funeral will be held at the bottom of the garden this afternoon. All it takes for our narrator to make her pet’s burial is to hop on a train and cross town. There is one small problem. She has not left her room in three weeks. Going home may prove difficult.
A comment on anxiety, loneliness and the distance we will go for our reptilian friends, “The Tortoise” tracks a day in the life of a narrator whose battle with the world outside is almost as terrifying as the battle with the voice inside her.
- April 2018
'The Arm in the Cat Flap' is a new farce by Noah Geelan.
A group of students take a weekend trip to the Suffolk countryside. But when events don’t go entirely to plan, relationships start to unravel and things are not always entirely as they seem. Where is Mel’s other shoe? Is the mysterious latecomer really who he says he is? And where on earth is Jackson Buckley?
This story contains: board games, alcohol, Suffolk local radio, fallouts, mistaken identity, an industrial amount of pasta and more than one late arrival.
★★★★★ - TCS
"trod the lines of silliness, sharp wit and poignancy with nothing less than brilliance and flare"
"Noah Geelan’s superb script is so well-crafted, it would be easy to believe it was the latest piece of a seasoned playwright. "
★★★★½ - Varsity
"Geelan is an abundantly talented writer. He has an innate skill in finding the right balance of the bizarre without ever tipping it over the edge"
- March 2018
Singapore, 2007: a city growing faster than its history can contain. Even the dead aren’t spared, as sprawling cemeteries make way for shiny skyscrapers. Amidst this, a reformed-gangster-turned-property-agent dreams of a better life while his ageing mother clings onto their family home as it is slated for redevelopment. As they face their past being swept away, it comes back to haunt them when Jeremiah, an idealistic civil servant with a gift for talking to corpses, unearths some memories…. Welcome to the surreal world of “Boom”.
In this quirky and poignant tale, Jean Tay skilfully conveys the sense of dislocation and loss felt in many Asian cities in the unrelenting march of development. A city dreams of progress, but what memories are lost on the way?
- March 2018
"Listen, Juliet.
Come here. Come close.
Press your ear to the earth
So I know you’re listening."
Verona. The heat simmering.
Sharman Macdonald’s blend of light lyricism and staccato colloquialism imagines a drama in the wake of Romeo and Juliet’s suicides.
Prince Escalus has ordered lasting peace, but the lives of the remaining young Capulets and Montagues are still governed by the same forces of love, fear, and hatred. Rosaline - once the object of Romeo’s swiftly forgotten passion - arrives on stage with venom. In the absence of Romeo, she must attempt to establish control within the Capulet family, reconciling her jealous resentment towards Juliet with the familial duty which is all that remains to her.
- February–March 2018
‘What is the city but the people?’
In the midst of battle a Roman soldier of great renown defends his city from invasion by his sworn enemy. Yet as the dust settles on his herculean victory, Caius Martius Coriolanus must face the demands of a potential famine, a divided senate, and a restless citizenry.
In this electrified atmosphere, wounds speak like tongues, mothers quell battles like soldiers, and an entire populace is sucked into the psychological struggle of one strange, remarkable warrior.
Join us as six performers build one of Shakespeare’s biggest and most restless worlds.
- February 2018
Join ex Smorgasbord hosts Bella and Alex for an evening of comedy from one of the most underrepresented groups in the Cambridge comedy scene, with a stunning line up of BME performers. There'll be laughs, and friendship, and also more laughs. And also free wine!! Who could resist!?! Not you!
[ Tickets only £3! ]
If you want to take part then just send an email to Alex (af608@cam.ac.uk) or Bella (ah914@cam.ac.uk) for a slot!
https://thefletcherplayerssoc.tessera.info/tickets/bme-open-mic-night
Did we mention free wine?
Bella & Alex x
- February 2018
Society’s winners and losers will be crowned once and for all at the biggest awards night of Lent term. Contribution to science? Best dressed in the office? Most likely to still be ID’d at 30? Food photographer of the year? Best newcomer? Worst pirate? Prize marrow? Most promising double act? Fastest runner? America’s next Miss American teen top model of the year? Best original riddle?
The results are in for all these and more - you voted for them and now they’re here! Join Footlights regulars Noah and Will for an hour of character comedy - in Cambridge's HOTTEST new venue !!
[ and tickets are just £3! ]
Previous praise:
“light-hearted, gloriously silly and really very funny”, “a mischievous delight in the absurd”, “I challenge anyone not to giggle” ★★★★★ - Varsity
“My theatregoing companion in particular almost fell out of her seat during the brilliant monologue by Noah Geelan” - TCS
“I was particularly impressed by Will Bicknell-Found and the energy he brought to the stage” - Varsity
- February 2018
Mad Padraic is hard at work torturing a drug pusher up North when the news comes through that his beloved cat, Wee Thomas, is poorly. So instead of slicing off some nipples, as planned, he heads back to the island of Inishmore. But when he arrives home, he discovers shenanigans involving shoe polish, an assassination plot, and a teenaged gun-toting admirer. Soon the bodies start piling up...
- February 2018
Join us for this evening of new writing! The Fletcher Players bring you Smorgasbord: a festival showcasing some of the most exciting and original extracts from emerging student playwrights.
Hosted at the Corpus Playroom, this is a casual opportunity for writers to have their work performed on-stage, with the chance for the pieces to be discussed and critiqued afterwards by the audience.
Unlike many other writing festivals, there are no limits to the works being presented – they can be complete plays, extracts from a larger piece, or rough first drafts – as long as they are between 5 and 10 minutes in length.
- January 2018
''Do you think gnomes are mammals or amphibians?''
Warden Adam McDonald has been a warden for three weeks. It's alright. He does his job, it occupies him, it pays his bills. Although part of his job is being forced to interact with the prisoners, which is tiresome to say the least; especially Dember with her dumbass questions.
In this brand new comic play which tackles the relationships we make and break, and asks why we befriend the people we do, Adam questions if it matters who he helps, and whether it's worth helping people at all.
Moreover, in the back of his mind, the question still lingers; should he try and scavenge from the life he had before, or leave everything behind and start life anew?
- November–December 2017
An exploration of the history of lesbianism, through the use of historical and literary sources. Using a combination of oral histories, written narratives and videos, ‘The Cambridge Companion to Lesbianism’ seeks to make visible the often invisible narratives of queer women in modern British history. This abstract, physical production will provide a starting point, a mood board, for the consideration of love, sex and gender identity in modern Britain. The piece is a kind of collage: a collection of overlapping, related, yet differing experiences.
- November–December 2017
It is one of the oldest stories on Earth: a tale of shame, of delusion, and of one man whose crimes finally catch up with him.
This November, the Corpus Playroom introduces a radical restaging of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King set in a contemporary prison.
Trapped inside the walls of a cell, there is no escaping the past. Oedipus is about to discover who he really is.
- October–November 2017
“Out. Out. What does it mean? In the closet. Out of the closet” Into the ghetto”
It is 1992, Section 28 prohibits the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools, and the age of consent for gay men is twenty-one. Sixteen-year old Steven is suffering the horrors of being a desire-filled gay teen, while his only role models are anguished, closeted men who depend on furtive sex in public bathrooms.
His teacher, Simon Hutton, the one person who could help him and a teacher at his all-boys Catholic school, is determined not to let the same reticence that limited him force Steven to succumb to the paralysis of victimhood.
Yet, the love Steven dreams of seems as far off in Hutton’s world as in his own.
TCS: 10/10
https://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/theatre/0037867-review-what-s-wrong-with-angry.html
The Tab: ★★★★
https://thetab.com/uk/cambridge/2017/11/01/review-whats-wrong-with-angry-2-101538
- October 2017
Join us for this evening of new writing! The Fletcher Players bring you Smorgasbord: a festival showcasing some of the most exciting and original extracts from emerging student playwrights.
Hosted at the Corpus Playroom, this is a casual opportunity for writers to have their work performed on-stage, with the chance for the pieces to be discussed and critiqued afterwards by the audience.
Unlike many other writing festivals, there are no limits to the works being presented – they can be complete plays, extracts from a larger piece, or rough first drafts – as long as they are between 5 and 10 minutes in length.
- October 2017
CN: sexual and physical violence, homophobia and racism
Miremba, a Ugandan woman forced to leave her girlfriend and marry. Izzuddin, a Malay man who’s scholarship is removed when his sexuality is revealed. Hamed, an Iranian man who is told by the British Home Office that he is not gay. In their countries they are defined and oppressed based on their sexuality, in England their identity is denied without evidence. They are all asylum seekers, they are all LGBT+, and their stories are all true.
In Oxcam’s first venture in to Cambridge theatre, we bring you real stories from real asylum seekers. With much of the dialogue transcribed from interviews, ‘Rights of Passage’ provides an authentic and heart-breaking insight into the lives of refugees and the struggles they face. Persecuted in their countries, their oppression doesn’t end when they come to England. Their voices are taken away from them. Come, hear their stories.
- June 2017
"City dweller, successful fella
Thought to himself oops I've got a lot of money
I'm caught in a rat race terminally..." (Blur, 'Country House')
Come and see Oscar Wilde's sumptuously funny comedy staged in the decadent setting of the Corpus Master's Lodge Garden. The hedonism of the 1890s will be matched by the limitless optimism of the 1990s, as this drawing room set-piece is transposed through britpop tunes and rad fashion to the late 20th century.
- May 2017
‘Remember Steve Irwin? Steve Irwin didn’t do any of that pussying around Attenborough shit. He just shoved his hand right in the crocodile’s mouth like he couldn’t give a fuck. That’s how I’d do it.’
Harry is homeless, reckless and overly invested in the documentaries of David Attenborough. Mia has everything he doesn’t, yet still feels like she’s suffocating. Claiming she wants to taste ‘real’ life, she runs away from home, and the play begins two weeks into their experiment of living together in a squat.
Described by Tim Price (The Radicalization of Bradley Manning, National Theatre Wales, Teh Internet is Serious Business, Royal Court) as a ‘fantastic… gripping, economical two-hander,’ Spiders was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2015. It is a witty and touching piece of new writing, and asks if your suffering is still valid, if another’s suffering is greater.
- May 2017
“Petersburg is not half what I expected – it is an amazingly quiet place; the people there seem more dead than alive…”
Three great authors. Three tall tales. Join us on this tour through an exhibition of apparitions, madness and ghosts, a gallery of human absurdity. This is a city of graveyards and asylums, where the dead hold court and where noses roam around unsupervised.
See a play that aims to thrill and entertain. See the works of Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Gogol brought to life as you’ve never seen them before.
- May 2017
The night after their grandfather's funeral, three cousins engage in a verbal (and sometimes physical) battle. In one corner is Daphna Feygenbam, a "Real Jew" who is volatile, self-assure and unbending. In the other is her equally stubborn cousin Liam, a secular and entitled young man, who has his shiska girlfriend, Melody, in tow. Stuck in the middle is Liam's brother, Jonah, who tries to stay out of the fray. When Liam stakes claim to their grandfather's Chai necklace, a vicious and hilarious brawl over family, faith and legacy ensues.
- April 2017
What happens to the women that men can’t write? In this showcase of Strong Female Characters, a group of Cambridge’s finest lady and non-binary comics will endeavour to find out. Fresh from every screen and stage ever, the cast-offs, the sidekicks, the non-specific love interests and the straight-up plot-devices come together to stick it to The Man. Specifically, one man in particular. Their writer.
With multiple women actually allowed on stage at once, who knows what might happen? We wager it will be something very, very funny.
This is Good Girls, Written Bad(ly).
- February–March 2017
“Most people's lives—what are they but trails of debris, each day more debris, more debris, long, long trails of debris with nothing to clean it all up but, finally, death.” Mrs. Venable’s son, Sebastian, died last summer while on holiday with his cousin Catherine. Who was he really, and what actually happened? Mrs. Venable’s illusory idea of Sebastian must be shattered in what has come to be appreciated as one of Tennessee Williams’s most poetic pieces. Sexuality, shame, family: come and be totally immersed in the stifling atmosphere of one of Williams’ best one-act plays.
