- October–November 2025
Jumpscared by seeing your supervisor on Grindr? Being left on read on Tinder sending a shiver down your spine? Latest Queerbridge discourse making you feel dead inside? Forget your worries and fall under the spell of our drop dead gorgeous kings, queens and inbetweens as we return to the ADC for another hit Halloween show, presenting the best drag talent the city has to offer. Hold on to your seats as the ghouls and ghosts of Dragtime! take you on a thrill-inducing ride through the dark side of drag, featuring singing, lip sync, spoken word, pole dance, burlesque, live music and more!
- October–November 2025
A summoning of dead ancestors, a secret engagement and a sudden storm all converge in the life of Wednesday Addams as she pursues her love for a seemingly normal boy in the eccentric world of the morbid-loving Addams family. Matriarch Morticia attempts to impress with her apple pie, uncle Fester confesses his love for the moon and Pugsley lets loose with a truth serum to catastrophic consequences. Will the course of true love and utter darkness run smoothly? Join us in Halloween week for this uplifting, hilarious musical tale of love, family and acceptance, with a touch of the macabre!
- October 2025
The New-York Times Bestselling ‘Author’ returns with a reading of their self-help book dealing with anger management and meat. Unfortunately, this book is horrible and written terribly; most of the anecdotes are random, incongruous and barely legal. On tour, the speaker is inaudible, raucous and only on stage for half of the allotted time. It’s still worth reading and / or watching as an exercise in how to rapidly destroy your career. RRP UK £20, CAN $45, US $32. Subject to shifting exchange rates in this turbulent time.
Join Footlight Martha Alexander for their debut stand-up hour at the ADC Theatre. It will be fine.
- October 2025
1994, Grimley. Ten years after height of the Miners' Strike, talented musician Gloria returns to her hometown under orders from her higher-ups. All the while, the local brass band, struggling for funds, makes the decision to go out on a bang with one last hurrah on the competition circuit. As circumstances become increasingly bleak, and music takes an increasingly central role in the lives of the band members, will the band prevail against the odds to reach the grand final? Based on the classic 1996 film of the same name, Brassed Off, which will be performed with a live band, is a moving portrait of life during the Thatcher years and testament to the fact that music really couldn’t matter more.
- October 2025
Manhattan island. The swinging 60's. The Golden Age of Broadway.
Nina and Robert are buskers with dreams of the big stage. Singing their hearts out on the streets, they hope it's only a matter of time before a big name notices them.
On the other side of the pond, Jack and Ernie are two London lads in the marketing business. Seeing the New York boom, they take the plunge and head to the New World in search of fortune. Enticed by the city, they blow their savings on gambling booze and other unsavoury habits, leaving them bare. Penniless and somewhat talentless, they hatch a plan to con their way to the top.
The couple, entangled in this rotten scheme, are soon to find that money is the biggest speaker, and some dreams just aren’t meant to be.
Fresh off a successful Edinburgh Fringe run, 'This Side of Life' takes the ADC stage in Week 1 with toe-tapping numbers, feel-good atmosphere, and an expanded band!
"Feel-good, lively... full of 60s flair" - The Scotsman
- October 2025
- October 2025
Because in stories things usually turn out the way the author wants them to; and in real life, they don’t…always
Marrying for money often doesn’t go to plan. It certainly hasn’t for faded tennis star Tony Wendice as he believes his wife will ultimately divorce him for her on-off lover, a charming crime writer. For Tony loosing his wife would be catastrophic, not because he loves her but her fortune. He consequently orchestrates a devious plot to have her killed. On paper it’s the perfect murder.
Will the wits of a shrewd inspector and a prolific crime writer manage to unveil Tony’s malicious scheme before it’s too late?
This amateur production of “Dial ‘M’ for Murder” is presented by arrangement with Concord
Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk
- June 2025
A sketch show about falling apart.
- June 2025
We are excited to announce our touring production of Macbeth, supported by CAST and Cambridge in
America. As a company we have worked to foreground reproductive anxieties latent in the text,
contextualizing Macbeth’s ‘fruitless crown’ in the wake of a recent and painful still-birth, which in turn
sharpens Lady Macbeth’s famous reproductive language: ‘take my milk for gall’; ‘I have given suck and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me’. The detailed medieval costume against the paired back set places primacy on the actor rather than our ever changing stages, aiding in the flexibility of our production and retaining the all important ‘emotional blocking’ at the core of our affective vision.
Macbeth is the 25th CAST production to travel America, following the success of last year’s Julius Caesar. CAST aims at spreading Shakespeare far and wide, both as an educational introduction to the infamous bard, and to stretch and stimulate new discussion among those already acquainted with his works, and Macbeth specifically.
- September 2025
- September 2025
- September 2025
- July 2025
A comic quick romp through all of Jane Austen's work. Three actors are due to perform the complete works, but when it transpires that one of the actors has defected to the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival, the two remaining actresses and Austen superfans must teach an understudy who knows nothing about Austen about her work.
- July 2025
- June 2025
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."
When Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy first meet, it's dislike at first sight. Born into a lesser noble family with four sisters, with nothing to recommend them but their charms, Elizabeth is beneath the wealthy Mr Darcy's notice. Elizabeth sees Mr Darcy as a man born only of unpleasant arrogance and privilege. Their pride and prejudice blinds them to each other's true feelings, but can they overcome their flaws in spite of all obstacles, and find their way to happiness together?
Experience Jane Austen's classic tale of hate to love, revitalised in this production full of laughter, colour, and life.
- June 2025
- May 2025
The situation’s dire. It’s a catastrophe, a calamity, a really, really…bad…thing. After 20 years of being Helen, Helen has decided that enough is enough. Why be yourself, when you could be literally anyone else? At long last, Helen has found a way to transform herself into various alter egos and she’s bringing you along for the ride, because, well, she’s desperate for attention. This should be obvious by now. But will she find who she's really meant to be?
A new comedy hour from Footlight Helen Brookes, it won't be one to miss!
- May 2025
Expect laughs, laughs, and more laughs...
Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and stand up in an evening of non-stop, back-to-back fun-filled hilarity. The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly; rude and spikey; wordy and nerdy or a little surreal - whatever the style, it's always "uproariously funny" (Varsity)
- May 2025
Ten strangers are invited to a secluded island. None are safe.
When a cryptic recording accuses each guest of a terrible crime, the tension mounts. One by one, their number begins to dwindle. Trapped with no escape, they must confront their pasts as paranoia takes hold. Who can be trusted? Who will survive? And who, or what, is behind it all?
Every shadow hides a secret; every moment tightens the grip of fear. Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None will keep you guessing until the very end.
“Prisoners at the bar, have you anything to say in your defence?”
- May 2025
“I’m writing a musical. About two guys writing a musical. About two guys writing a musical!”
[title of show] follows Jeff and Hunter, two friends who hear about a musical theatre festival that could change their lives. The only catch? The deadline for its submission is 3 weeks away! Along with their actress friends Heidi and Susan (and their pianist Larry), they set off to write, compose and rehearse their musical in the space of 3 weeks.
Featuring toe tappers like Two Nobodies in New York and ballads such as A Way Back to Then, [title of show] is a clever, funny and relatable musical that demonstrates the joys and stresses of putting on a show, and shows us the importance of the friends we made along the way.
- May 2025
When Sophie lands a new job in parliament, it’s a chance to leave her past behind. Working as an assistant to a charismatic Labour MP, she climbs the ranks as he rockets from backbencher to leader of the opposition. But when scandal sweeps Westminster, Sophie is forced to choose between ambition and integrity. MESSIAH is a new play about power, corruption and what happens when the personal becomes political.
- May 2025
'Had I as many souls as there be stars, I’d give them all for Mephistopheles'
Doctor Faustus is the best academic of her generation, but she has grown frustrated with studying theology and arithmetic. As she stumbles deeper and deeper into black magic, she starts to form a strange bond with the demon under her control, Mephistopheles. The two wreak havoc across Europe, and yet Faustus is consistently reminded that in exchange for power over Mephistopheles, she has sold her own soul...
Come and watch this dark-academia tragedy, and be enveloped in chaos.
- April–May 2025
- April 2025
- April 2025
Emma Watson is nineteen and new in town. She's been cut off by her rich aunt and dumped back in the family home. Emma and her sisters must marry, fast.
If not, they face poverty, spinsterhood, or worse: an eternity with their boorish brother and his awful wife. So far so familiar.
But there's a problem: Jane Austen didn't finish the story. Who will write Emma's happy ending now? Based on her incomplete novel, this sparklingly witty play looks under the bonnet of Jane Austen and asks: what happens to characters abandoned by their author?
This amateur production of The Watsons is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. On behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk
- April 2025
Amélie is an extraordinary young woman who lives quietly in the world but loudly in her mind. She covertly improvises small but surprising acts of kindness that bring joy and mayhem. But when a chance at love comes her way, Amélie realizes that to find happiness she'll have to risk everything and say what's in her heart.
With a romantic score, colourful characters, and a world of fantastical fun, Amélie is a beautiful tale for the dreamers in everyone.
This amateur production of Amélie: The Musical is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk
- March 2025
Why do fools fall in love? And why do we sing about it so much?
From heartwarming ballads to break-up bangers, Silly Love Songs is CU Show Choir’s latest tribute to love in all its forms – romantic, platonic, and everything in between. Join us in a tribute to love in all its messy, beautiful, and sometimes downright silly forms!
- March 2025
Jamie New is Sixteen, and wants to be a drag queen. When he decides that he wants to go to Prom in a dress, he’s met with a blunt refusal. Faced with relentless bullying at school, and a turbulent home environment, there are challenges at every turn. However, supported by best friend Pritti, and a cast of vibrant characters met along the way, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is ultimately a catchy, glitzy, touching, and timely story of self-expression in the face of stigma.
- March 2025
Five so-called “comedians”. Four humiliating tasks. Three French hens. Two reputations on the line. One will be victorious. On your marks, get set, ego! Watch as our panellists try to complete challenges which will push them to their creative limits and be judged by the Master Taskers. What more could you want from a late show? With all of the format, none of the celebrity, this Cambridge show promises to win awards (or would do if the Brits weren’t rigged). Join us for an evening you won't forget - even if you try to. Come if you want. Whatever. We don’t care.
- March 2025
Hear ye, hear ye, come watch a show so funny it'll go down in history!!
Come and see the figures of history: high and low, big and small, smelly and less smelly in this night of hilarious sketches, songs and good fun. There will be giggles galore, and you can nerd out to your heart’s content!
Get ready for a truly educational night as every thing in the show, every single thing, is definitely, 100% entirely True Historical Fact! (definitely)
- March 2025
You’ve heard of Fiddler on the Roof, now hear the untold story of the fiddler himself….
Through a surrealist collage of Yiddish storytelling, comedy, music and movement, the 20th century writer Sholem Aleichem connects us to the tale of ‘Stempenyu’, set in a Ukrainian Shtetl. In a space outside of time and inside folklore, the story of romance between travelling violinist Stempenyu and Rachel the Shtetl girl, explores the seemingly timeless tradition of the Yiddish world in tension with its impermanence. This will be the first ever performance of this play in English, using Alex Kahn's translation that has been created specially for this production.
- March 2025
Say hello to the Tortured Autist. Otherwise he'll make you eat the ham.
This show concentrates the surreal, dadaesque, erratic, nonsequiturial ideas that neurodivergent brains can come up with and hydrogenates those all together into a one-off night of chaos and absurdity. But also no repetitive noises.
Welcome to the weirdest show you'll see all year.
- March 2025
The Marlowe Showcase is an opportunity for 14 of Cambridge's graduating actors to create a dynamic piece for an audience of industry professionals, including agencies seeking new clients to represent, and casting directors for upcoming projects.
There will be a preview in Cambridge leading up to a final closed showcase in London. The Cambridge show will take place at the ADC Theatre on the 5th of March and the London show will take place on Thursday the 13th of March.
This year, the Showcase will operate on an alternating format of monologues and longer duologues.
Along with the experience and exposure of creating the showcase under a professional director, graduates will be equipped with headshots to help them as they continue to seek careers in the industry.
The showcase is open to all who are entering their final year at Cambridge, regardless of past experience and engagement with the theatre scene.
- March 2025
"Vera. Vera Stark. Mmmm. She was beautiful. And a damn good actress. A lot of folks don't know that."
The Golden Age of Hollywood had many faces grace its screens. Meet Vera Stark, an African-American maid who found her way into the movies of 1930s Hollywood through her employer, Gloria Mitchell. Both employer and employee land roles in upcoming hit ‘The Belle of New Orleans’ that seems to be a promising beginning for Vera Stark but what happens to her as the years go on?
Vera’s character was inspired by Thersea Harris, one of the many faces that have faded into the background of history. This witty satire combines screwball comedy and academic scrutiny to pull together a discussion about how Hollywood's racial politics shaped not just careers, but entire lives.
- February–March 2025
CUMTS presents you with the gift of Gala.
For three nights only CUMTS brings you an evening of pure musical theatre decadence. Dressed to the nines and accompanied by a full orchestra, the finest of Cambridge’s Musical Theatre Talent will be performing all of your favourite musical theatre classics alongside the latest Broadway hits, all dazzling with glitz and glamour.
- February–March 2025
Big. Loud. Chaotic. Hilarious.
The annual showcase of the Cambridge Footlights is back. Bigger and better than ever.
