- May 2009
The dead are back, and angry, and they can’t get back to where they came from. The living are fed up, and wish the dead would just give up and go quietly back to where they came from. The comedy mounts as Elvira begins plotting to get her husband back – once and for all – and to put an entirely new meaning on the phrase, ‘Til death do us part…’
Charles Condomine, a successful novelist, wishes to learn about the occult for a novel he is writing, and he arranges for an eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to hold a séance at his house. At the séance, she inadvertently summons Charles's first wife, Elvira, who has been dead for seven years. Only Charles can see or hear Elvira, and his second wife, Ruth, does not believe that Elvira exists until a floating vase is handed to her out of thin air. The ghostly Elvira makes continued, and increasingly desperate, efforts to disrupt Charles's current marriage. She finally sabotages his car in the hope of killing him so that he will join her in the spirit world, but it is Ruth rather than Charles who drives off and is killed. This sets off a hilarious chain of events involving ectoplasm, incredulity and much laughter.
Set in the late 30s, the plays embodies the quintessence of the English summer: elegance, sophistication, and just a hint of something nasty…
- March 2009
Stoppard does Love.
Henry is a successful playwright trying to write a play about the true nature of love. Does he even know what that is? What if joy and love in art is best reflected in pop music?
Henry and his wife Charlotte, their friends Max and Annie, and a jailed political activist named Brodie collide and their lives will never be the same.
Stoppard’s crackling and hilarious dialogue frames this deep exploration of love, fidelity, art and joy. When does motivation matter? Does form affect the content’s impact? And most of all, what is real?
- February 2009
This year's Fletcher Players Freshers' show is a brand new comedy by Corpus' own Footlights star Mark Fiddaman.
- November 2008
Frank is an English professor with the Open University. He has taken the job for the money, drinks, and is a terrible teacher. Rita is a loud, Liverpudlian hairdresser- and she wants to learn ‘everything’. When Rita tumbles- literally- into Frank’s office, an unlikely relationship develops between the two. Comic, yet at times deeply poignant, Willy Russell’s “Educating Rita” follows the developing friendship between the couple, highlighting the issues of class divide, human relationships, and the value of education. Whilst Frank may be the educated one, it is clear that Rita has a thing or two to teach him.
- November 2008
The Corpus Christi drama society The Fletcher Players present “Dead Woman Walking” a new comedy by Jack Green. Unlikely topic for a comedy: death. You die and nobody mourns for you, nobody misses you... What an opportunity! Instead of the eternal afterlife, you find yourself a ghost on a mission. An adventurous romp through haunted houses, motels and car chases. A dead woman walking, let loose to torment her hapless victims; beginning a journey that leads all to strange, new places. And did I mention? It’s very funny
- June 2008
"But I remember you. I remember you dead. I remember you lying dead." "Old Times" exemplifies Pinter's sober skills in alienation, breakdown and silence. The intimate reunion of Kate and Anna after twenty years becomes a nightmarish revelation of all things past, in which then and now, love and power, and memory and fact become entangled and destructive. Anna engages in a vicious combat with Kate's husband Deeley for the control of Kate's mind. For them, the house becomes hell; for the audience, the theatre becomes threatening. Things fall apart until a terrible conclusion, which captures the tragic futility of their existence. After the horror created by old times, the characters can only enact Wittgenstein's maxim: "that of which we cannot speak, must be passed over in silence."
- May 2008
"Things are improving - less rocks are thrown - less cars completely overturned - less shots fired - there are fewer emergencies than there used to be - but all the same, there's an emergency on right now."
A group of people sit telling stories. Who are these storytellers? Actors improvising? Executives at a script conference? It is never clear if the storylines they are narrating are real events or simply imagined, events being roughed out for an unknown purpose. Crimp presents a world where happiness is sacrificed for a nice handmade table, truth for easy lies and we lock our children up when the real horror is really within. This is not an imagined world but our world today, where we are all content in our ignorance of a lifestyle threatened by violence and unspecified ‘emergencies’.
- May 2008
'You vicious little bitch! You think you can come in here with your political correctness and destroy my life?'
'I don't want revenge. I want UNDERSTANDING!'
An avucular professor; a naive student. An older man; a younger woman. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? David Mamet's OLEANNA pulls apart the stereotypes of gender and class to reveal two people, trapped together in an office, united only by their mutual hatred... and a longing for understanding. OLEANNA explores whether the sexes can ever really understand each other - and even if they do, do they only really want revenge?
- February–March 2008
FREEDOM OR A LIFE-SENTENCE. WHERE WILL YOUR CONVICTION LEAD YOU? Richard's life went so wrong. He was a happily married man until his conviction drove his life apart. Who would have thought that a fur coat could cause so much damage? A ruined marriage, a strained relationship with his daughter and a desperate need for love and self-worth. Conviction explores the dark emotions underpinning political activism. By the end, you'll be presented with a pressing dilemma: what does conviction really mean? WHERE DOES YOUR CONVICTION REALLY LIE?
- February–March 2008
‘I’m burning your child. I’m burning the baby…’ Returning from honeymoon with her dull academic husband, aristocratic Hedda finds herself trapped by bourgeois domesticity. This is a world she cannot tolerate but lacks the courage to escape. She is driven only by her own deadly talent for boredom and destruction. Hedda fantasises about setting blonde hair on fire. She plays with loaded pistols but aims at the sky. Over the next thirty six hours she will learn to use her weapons. HATS and the Fletcher Players present a new, pared down, visceral interpretation of Ibsen’s drawing room tragedy of frustration, moral cowardice and casual cruelty. There is blood on the writing desk and someone’s child in the grate. Will Hedda do the unspeakable?
- February 2008
Everyone knows the Cindarella story. But what actually happens next? Can true love really be based on a shoe fetish? Our tale follows the farcical disintegration of the not-so-happy couple's marriage, helped by an homicidal fairy godmother, a desperate divorce lawyer, a stereotypically camp male personal assistant, and of course, the ugly sisters. With the paparazzi frantic for a scoop, it will take drastic measures for anyone to make it to Happily Ever After. Happily Ever After could be considered a deeply satirical take on love in today's celebrity obsessed culture, which seeks to challenge dramatical conventions. But that would be stretching it. It is, however, full of jokes and less than an hour long. So go on, dare a trip away from your TV and let us take you to a land not so far away!
- May 2007
In a production that features four new short plays, a group of eclectic characters are assembled to offer us glimpses into their lives. Their stories are, by turns, tragic, farcical and truly bizarre. One woman resists the desperate attempts of her former partner to stake a claim on their unborn child; elsewhere a jealous ex pursues his beloved in an art gallery that has a life of its own; in a dressers shop two couples swap stories and clothes and on higher ground, a deceased priest finds heaven hijacked by the mafia; another. Corpus Christi’s finest new student writers present ‘Making Space’.
- May 2007
“And why does it always have to be the people like me who have to sacrifice, why are we always the one ones who have to make concessions when something has to be conceded, why always be who has to bite her tongue, why?”
Torture, confession and Schubert’s symphony.
“Oh, Paulina – isn’t it time we stopped?”
- March 2007
Join the Fletcher Players as they welcome the Owlets Theatre Group from their sister college of Corpus Christi, Oxford. This will be a unique one night only showcase of the best talent and new writing from two Oxbridge colleges who enjoy a strong, yet competitive relationship. Don't miss this unusual chance of seeing combined Oxbridge drama and comedy at its best!
- March 2007
This year sees the 10th annual production of Smorgasbord, THE festival celebrating the best of Cambridge's new writing and drama scene! Four original and varied plays by student writers will be performed, showcasing the best new writing talent that Cambridge has to offer!
- March 2007
A rainy Monday morning in London. Awkward chance meetings, instant attractions and casual betrayals characterise the crammed Tube trains and busy streets of the capital. Men and women follow their regular routines on a day that they can only assume will be dull and humdrum. Yet as grave news about the most powerful symbol of national unity breaks, the normal rules governing English reservation and reticence cease to apply, and six different people are offered a fleeting chance to embrace a life just a little less ordinary.
- March 2007
'If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly.'
One of Shakespeare's darkest works, Macbeth is also one of his most popular and has fascinated and disturbed audiences for centuries. This new fast-paced, minimalist production will use the intimate atmosphere of the Corpus Playroom to explore the tragic elements at the play's heart. Through exploiting movement and live music throughout the auditorium the production aims to throw the audience into the thick of the action, so that viewers will fully experience the immediacy of the fear and paranoia which grips the protagonists as events begin to spiral out of control.
- February 2007
‘Salter’ messed-up with his first-born. He wanted a second-chance. But with the same child. A family tragedy meets futuristic fantasy, Caryl Churchill's 'A Number' confronts us with the potentially nightmarish consequences of a family experiencing the effects of reproductive cloning. Challenging us to reconsider what exactly ‘it’ is that individuates each one of us, and exploring how our senses of identity can be altered as we experience the effects of scientific advancement, ‘A Number’ is a poignant and timely play.
- November–December 2006
Music. Dance. Comedy. Drama.
The Ultimate Show.
Originally produced in the late 1970s, Side by Side by Sondheim is a tribute to the greatest musical composer of the modern age. Drawing on Stephen Sondheim's remarkable lyrics and exciting scores, featuring only seven actors but hundreds of characters, and woven together with a new and witty take on Ned Sherrin's original narration, this show promises to be an evening you will never forget and the perfect end to your Michaelmas term.
- November 2006
Beverly is bored and brash, overbearing and overly-confident; and she has decided to throw a party…
Excluded from Abigail’s party, the hostess, her husband and guests spend the evening chez Beverly, surrounded by 1970s domestic must-haves, décor and music. Over G&Ts and “cheese on sticks” a savagely funny study of pretentious middle-class manners evolves. Mike Leigh’s perceptive dialogue and eye for social mores construct a time bomb of emotional tension. At times hilarious, at others squeamishly awkward, always engrossing; don’t miss this opportunity to see one of Leigh’s best loved plays brought to life at the Corpus Playroom.
- November 2006
Two one-act comedies by the British playwright Tom Stoppard (who wrote the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love) full of marital infidelity and sweet revenge. Two lesser-known plays, they display Stoppard’s genius for visual comedy and verbal wit. 'Another Moon Called Earth', set in an alternate reality where British Astronauts have succeeded in landing on the moon first, incorporates death, mysterious illness and philosophical endeavour while 'Teeth' demonstrates that affairs with the dentist's wife are bound to lead to trouble – “All round him there are smiles like broken-down brooms.”
- May 2006
Making Space brings you the best of new writing for the Corpus Playroom. In four new short plays which take their inspiration from ideas in literature, film and music, dystopian worlds, backpackers, courtesans and a college Head Porter jostle for the audience's attention. Be prepared to laugh and to cry in a romp through the Cambridge imagination. Space is Made.
- March 2006
Life. Death. Love. Honour. War.
War has raged for nine years. Thousands have died. But there is no end in sight. The most beautiful woman in the world lies behind the great walled city of the Trojans, beyond the reach of her Greek husband. Getting her back may once have been the aim of this war, but now all sense is lost in the ongoing mass of bloodshed. Fathers, brothers, sons, husbands - war is indiscriminate in its victims. Only two men offer hope for an end - Hector and Achilles. But is a peaceful end ever an option when love and honour are at stake?
- February–March 2006
- February–March 2006
- February 2006
Set in the trenches of the First World War, Journey's End follows the lives of a group of British officers in the run up to a major offensive. Raleigh, an 18 year old fresh out of public school is full of heroric ideas and enthusiasm to join the war effort. This is met with the brutality of trench life when he confronts his former school cricketing hero, the captain of the battalion, and witnesses first hand the cold reality of the destruction of war upon human nature.
Whilst poignant, the play demonstrates the heartwarming strength of human relationships under the most testing of conditions, portraying moments of tenderness, sensitivity, anger, desperation, self destruction and humour.
"Then we all go west in the big attack - and she goes on thinking I'm a fine fellow for ever - and ever - and ever"
- February 2006
The Fletcher Players present...
'A Taste of Honey' by Shelagh Delaney, Week 3 in the Corpus Playroom
'A Taste of Honey' created a stir in 1950s British theatre and society with its frank discussion of teenage pregnancy, racial prejudice and homosexuality. Set in a bedsit in Northern England, 17 year old Jo is forced into premature adulthood by her alcoholic mother and an unwanted pregnancy. In a poignant exploration of 'the outsider', we follow Jo's search for intimacy as she turns to other, socially ostracised, individuals, who helpher to reconstruct her shattered life.
I am looking for actors who are interested in working on a challenging production, which I am updating for the modern generation. The play requires sensitive actors who are eager to explore the individual's struggles against the social prejudices of our time.
- November 2005
A 2002 Tony award winner for best play, 'The Goat' is Albee's most daring and provocative play since 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'. It tells the story of Martin, a world-famous architect whose seemingly ideal life is left in tatters following the revelation that he's having an affair....with a goat. Shocking, moving and hysterically funny, 'The Goat' makes the audience re-examine their notions of acceptable love.
'Every civilisation sets quite arbitrary limits to its tolerances... It is my hope that people will think afresh about whether or not all the values they hold are valid' Edward Albee
- October 2005
Forget all the other Shakespeare shows you’ll see this term – the Fletcher Players are proud to present his finest female character, Lady Macbeth. Well, when we say Lady Macbeth we mean Lily Morgan. Plain old Lily doesn’t just want to audition for the role in her school play, she wants to be Lady Macbeth. Will her friends and family ever see Lily as anything other than quiet and uninspiring? And what will bringing her brother’s knife to the audition lead to? After all it’s only acting – isn’t it?
- August 2005
Faced with another Sunday evening of incomprehensible boredom, two housemates take the only sane option - break out the board games! Unwittingly they embark on a game of Risk (TM) that spills over into their lives and ushers reality into the the corner until its thought about what it's done. In the days that follow, in the no-mans land between the sofa and the coffee table, they find out that war isn't just a game - unless it's been bought at Woolworths!
- March 2005
A whole host of excited freshers, a brand new piece of comic script writing and some fresh new acting talent....the Corpus freshers present a play full of drama, mystery, intrigue, thrills, espionage, comedy and romance. Set in the familiar surroundings of an un-named Oxbridge college, the story of a professor's road of discovery will be entertainingly brought to life by our band of talented and enthusiastic actors. Combine this with the expert directing and producing skills of the first years, some adventurous and entertaining costumes and sets, and the intimate setting of the Corpus Playroom, and you have a spectacle not to be missed!
- March 2005
It's THE annual festival on the Cambridge drama scene. It's showcasing the hottest, fresh talent of the winning student-writers whose short plays were selected from across the university. Each night 7 little nuggets of polished, outstanding drama and comedy will be played. 7 casts, 7 writers, 6 directors, 1 huge production team, all crammed into the sexiest little venue, performing brand-new work.
- February 2005
Faced with another Sunday evening of incomprehensible boredom, two housemates take the only sane option left open to them - Break out the boardgames! Unwittingly they embark on a game of risk that spills over into their lives and ushers reality into the corner until It's thought about what it's done. In the days that follow, in the no-man's land between the sofa and the coffee table, they found out that war isn't a game... unless it's been bought at Woolworths.
- February 2005
One night, one Corpus Playroom - what would you do?
For one week only we've given 5 groups of performers in Cambridge the change to show us exactly what they would do. The Fletcher Players introduces you to a variety week in the Corpus Playroom. It promises to be one of the grooviest weeks the Playroom has ever seen. If you want the opportunity to see some of the best and the most innovative performers in Cambridge, this will be the place to be.
- June 2004
Five acts, four grasping Jews, three thousand ducats, two gay Salads, and one pound of flesh...
The Fletcher Players is delighted to bring you one of Shakespeare's darkest and best comedies for May Week in the beautiful setting of Old Court, Corpus Christi. Come and find out just why Antonio is so sad, what Shylock wants with a pound of his flesh, and why Jessica feels the need to dress up as a boy. And for a sum considerably less extortionate than three thousand ducats.
- May 2004
Four plays - 'Despairing', 'Marcos of Belsornia', 'A Sorta Fairytale', and 'Inner Circle' - that deal with madness, isolation, wolves, and park benches, brought to you by the Fletcher Players.
