- February 2015
The magician Nathaniel Taumont is putting on a show, and everybody who’s anybody is coming to see it. Enthusiasts, wits and skeptics alike have gathered in a small city theatre, and eagerly await what they know to be a most unusual performance: Taumont, with the aid of two loyal assistants and a curious, inscrutable frame, is going to raise the dead.
Come and see the great figures of the ancient world, in all their imperial splendour, come once more to life before your eyes! Watch as the frame, with all its intricate workings, communes with spirits long departed, eager to impart their wisdom to a welcoming and sage modernity!
Pay no heed to the look of disquiet in their eyes, or to the trembling of their borrowed, bruised body. Taumont is a master of the stage, and this is all, of course, merely a performance.
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Papercuts is our new rehearsed reading programme.
We believe that the best way to help writers and their work develop is to get the script on its feet and spoken. Papercuts is produced in the Larkum Studio at the ADC Theatre, and is intended to let the writer see their work given a voice.
Come along, grab a drink from the bar, and watch new theatre in its purest form.
- February 2015
Execution is a new thriller set in a criminal syndicate. After a disastrous heist, Michael has been told he must murder Tim, the man supposedly, and perhaps deliberately, responsible. But Tim has information that complicates what should be a routine operation, and soon both men are locked in a tense power struggle, and at least one of them will not leave the room alive.
- February 2015
Welcome to a world away from the world, as George transforms an abandoned flat and grabs everything at his disposal to tell you the story of his life.
Hours of tape recordings, cupboards of costumes and boxes of props weave together a life of teaching English as a foreign language, trainspotting, and a meticulous obsession with the great grey cityscape outside.
- February 2015
"God and the Devil tread in my footsteps. I feel breath on my neck and
wings above my head"
"Great… He’s lost it"
The New Mexico Desert.
In the half-remembered borderlands of empire four Spanish soldiers wait for the captain who will bring them home.
But a century of colonial oppression has taken its toll on the land, and a stranger has come knocking who will cast long shadows on their world.
A one-night Papercuts rehearsed reading in the ADC Larkum on Friday of Week 3.
- January 2015
As part of Papercuts there will be a rehearsed reading of two scenes from a theatre adaptation of Henry James's ghost story The Turn of the Screw.
The ghost of a past governess haunts Bly Manor. Trapped in a Gothic world of secrecy and intrigue the new governess battles to maintain her sanity as the ghosts of Bly encroach further on her life.
- November 2014
Arthur seems to be a well-meaning, attentive husband. Miryanna is his wife, slowly coming to realise the truth about her husband's dealings, comes to realise the true purpose of her existence in Arthur's eyes. At Sixes and Sevens is a devastating exploration of a failed drive for individuality, subverting all idealistic considerations of the human condition.
This performance is part of the ADC's Papercuts series. Papercuts is produced in the Larkum Studio at the ADC Theatre, and is intended to let the writer see their work given a voice.
Come along, grab a drink from the bar, and watch new theatre in its purest form.
- October 2014
In amongst slates of cold metal, A. sits at their desk shuttling data files to and fro. But, in a moment of clumsiness, a cascade of drives fall and upset the delicate balance of the mess and unearths a single photograph. Who is that? Where's that come from? What does that go with? 'Clutter' is a new play that looks at information, memory, and identity. There might be yoga.
- October 2014
Emily lives a comfortable life with her high-flying boyfriend, complete with outdoor swimming pool and inflatable dolphin. But when her unstable past tries to catch up with her, will she be moved to see everything in a new light? And what about the waves?
A snapshot of intersecting lives, as they try to fit together.
This is wave.
wave is this year's first instalment in the ADC's Papercuts programme of rehearsed readings.
- June 2014
Julie Atherton is coming to the ADC for one day only to lead a Musical Theatre Masterclass - including tips on singing, audition technique and advice on how to survive in the 'the business'.
Julie has had an incredibly broad and impressive career in Musical Theatre, starring in several shows from Fame to Sister Act, Avenue Q to The Last Five Years. As well as this, she is a founder member of the Notes from New York company, and has released two of her own solo albums.
She will be instructing a few performers individually, but the event is open to the public who are welcome to participate in the Q&A session which will follow.
- May 2014
“The next stop is coming up. I am going to get up and I am going to get off. And you are not going to stop me.”
Clive’s trip home on the night bus takes a disturbing turn when nineteen year old May sits down next to him. She calls him a pervert. He misses his stop. As they travel together to the end of the route, Clive and May learn more about each other than they had bargained for. Round and Round, a new play by Hannah Greenstreet, tests whether a chance encounter can lead to a real connection, or whether it can lead to something worse.
This rehearsed reading is part of the Papercuts series.
- March 2014
Dijana Polančec knows exactly how much she is worth.
'1000 Euros because that is how much Babac paid for me. To put this in easy language, that is like two and a half iPhones.'
The Larkum Studio provides a malleable canvas for it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now by Lucy Kirkwood. As disturbing as it is radiant, it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now is an immersive journey through the landscape of Dijana’s life; a volatile terrain of optimism, bravado and the painful reality of life as a trafficked sex-worker.
Presented by Old Labs Productions and the Dryden Society
- October 2013
This new play by Marika Mckennell is an urban, gritty and darkly comic trajectory of a boy who is just trying to live, draw and smoke. A rehearsed reading of the text will be performed at the Larkum Studio for one night only as part of the ADC 'Papercuts' program. Come along, grab a drink from the bar, and watch new theatre in its purest form.
'Papercuts' the ADC's new rehearsed reading program and is intended to let the writer see their work given a voice
- October 2013
The most helpful of helplines. For when you need that little push.
I HEAR YOU is an unsettling piece of new student writing conerning attitudes towards suicide. This is a rehearsed reading in the ADC Larkum Papercuts program.
- January–February 2013
- June 2012
Are you dreading summer exams? Worried about the economy? Fed up with the collective speech impediments of the shadow cabinet? Then why not come along to an evening of musical comedy and political satire with Ed Clarke? A regular on the London circuit, Ed has performed for celebrities and a host of foreign dignitaries. Ed is in the Larkum Studio for four nights on the second stop of his 2012 'Giving Ed' tour.
- February 2012
Ava and Daniel lead separate lives in Liverpool. Both facing difficult decisions, for once they each find someone that listens.
Moments is the story of how a few chance encounters can impact on the rest of our lives. A play about the comfort of strangers, what we’re willing to share and what we keep to ourselves.
‘Do you really need to know someone to tell them your story?’
- November 2010
One actor. Two stories. Twenty characters.
Based on the public readings of Charles Dickens, 'Pickwick & Nickleby' promises a night of absolute insanity with a sound literary basis. First enter the nineteenth-century courtroom for a gripping case of thwarted marriage, scorned passion and the sordid truth about warming-pans. Pickwick stands trial, Buzfuz gets contentious and the Judge is deadly drunk. Then it's off to darkest Yorkshire for a class with Wackford Squeers. Deduce the regional spelling for 'window' or he'll take the skin off your back... As though spearheading some crazed Victorian séance, one desperate actor will resort to every trick imaginable to lure Dickens's ghost to the stage.
Come bask in the humour, horror and boundless heart of England's greatest comic writer. It's the character actor's audition from hell, and you'd be mad to miss it.
You can follow the production's progress online at www.pickwickandnickleby.blogspot.com.
- February 2010
Behold! A COMPLETELY SILENT SWASHBUCKLING PIRATICAL ADVENTURE, live! Never has such a thing been attempted by humankind! Based on the lives real pirates, and brimming (brimming!) with the deafening howl of silent gales, the tempting jingle of silent treasure, the deafening roar of silent explosions, the pitiful cries of silent maidens, the erotic singing of silent mermaids, the boom of silent canonfire, rumbunctious silent drinking songs, silent bravado, silent love, silent rivalry, silent swordplay, silent dead people, silent hats, silent weevils in silent biscuits, really cool silent facial hair and the clamour of silent battles, this unique, mighty, rollicking, almost dangerously exciting once in a lifetime piece of insane theatrical daring is coming to the Larkum Studio in real, genuine, tangible form from 10th to the 13th of February! Huzzah!
- January 2010
A tortured apprentice clockmaker, a deadly mechanical knight, and the sinister Dr Kalmenius, who some say is the devil himself. Put them all together on a cold winter’s evening and what do you get? An unstoppable story of gothic proportions.
Adapted from the novel by award-winning author Philip Pullman, this unique family show is performed in the intimate surroundings of the Larkum Studio using physical theatre and shadow puppetry to bring to life a fantastical tale of wolves, castles and forests.
But be warned: this is not a safe tale: it's twisty turny. Once you wind this story up, nothing will stop it. Tick tock, tick tock…
“This talented company is telling the story with verve and swiftness and clarity, and with the right sort of fairy-tale freshness. It’s a real pleasure to see a director trusting the story so fully and letting the events make their own impact. I hope the audience enjoys it as much as I do.” – Philip Pullman on Mutabilitie’s adaptation of ‘I Was a Rat!’
- March 2009
Churchill’s new ten-minute play, which has just finished its run at the royal court, is in Cambridge this week. Seven scenes of family life from recent Jewish and Israeli history create a powerful and human drama. PS: it’s free.
- February 2009
Martin Cranmer, self-made entrepreneur and overbearing patriarch, is dead. The family he left behind gather on the eve of his funeral. His widow Judith faces a clouded and uncertain future, his brother John must confront his true feelings for her, his three sons must find a new place within the family, and his two uncommunicative, very different daughters must face the true pain of the past they long to escape. As night stretches into morning, each one’s relationships with everyone else is questioned, and the effect the authoritarian, uncompromising father had on each of them is brutally realised. In an ambitious, intensely powerful piece of new writing, Adam Hollingworth exposes the weak foundations of supposedly unconditionally loving bonds, the damaging and reverberating effect of abuse, and the struggles which lie at the heart of family loyalty and personal liberation.
- January 1997
This show is a dummy used by Camdram for testing purposes only.
