- February–March 2018
"This looks amazing, Judi! What a lovely way to celebrate your 40th! (Don't worry - I won't tell anyone you're a day older than 39 haha!) Very sorry we can't be there. Love to the kids, and I hope it's BBQ weather!! Don't drink too much Pimms hahahaha! Only joking, drink as much as you want hahahahahaha! Seriously though you embarrass yourself when you drink hahahahahahaha! Hugs and kisses, Mandy xxx”
The Footlights Spring Revue will be taking place at Judi's this year. Join "the most renowned sketch troupe of them all" (The Independent) for one of the biggest events in the Cambridge comedy calendar. The garden chairs are all a bit broken, and they've got garage cobwebs on them, but Gavin's worked out how to put up the gazebo (at last!!!!) so come along and celebrate with us! BBQ starts at 4pm, entertainment kicks off at 7:45pm and will feature sketches, songs and skits. See you there and let us know if you have trouble parking!
- February 2018
Boys Will Be Boys follows the people who must adapt to survive in an environment where toxic masculinity is held in highest esteem.
Astrid Wentworth is a well-seasoned veteran of this performance; a City trader, a ruthless player in a man’s world. If there is a special hell for women who don’t help each other, Astrid’s got the top table reserved and a Martini waiting. But when the young and ambitious Priya applies for a junior position on the trading floor, Astrid recognises something in her and decides to give her a go. After all, what’s gender got to do with it?
This play about how women navigate sex and power in a man’s world. But how can you win at a game, when the rules are rigged against you?
- February 2018
“There is a story for you. It is waiting where the snow falls.”
Faryn spends most of her days alone, recording the stories of her ancestors in books that will never be read. She is content, until the day comes when she decides to venture further away from home than ever before. It is then that she encounters a village - and a girl - whose way of living shows her that life cannot be lived like the stories she has inherited.
Wander is a story about storytelling that captures the human experience in a world just a touch beyond reality. This new and devised piece will take you on a bittersweet journey of nostalgia, tenderness and joy.
- February 2018
Cambridge's most wholesome Drag Collective are coming to the ADC to present you with a Valentine's treat.
Dragtime!: Speed Date.
Lonely hearts come one and all to meet the most beautiful Kings, Queens, and inbetweens that Cambridge has to offer! Sit back and get ready to fall in love. xo
- February 2018
Comic Sans Men is bringing a brand-new comedy hour to the ADC stage, without a script or a man in sight. Our stellar female and non-binary performers will improvise entirely new scenes before your eyes - think sketches, monologues, and your favourite improv games - all based on your suggestions.
Roman used to think that women couldn’t be funny. Roman doubted that comedy could be made up on the spot. Silly Roman. Now the time’s new, Roman.
- February 2018
"And all you have to do is squeeze your little finger.
Ease your little finger - you can change the world."
A darkly humorous blend of fiction and history, conspiracy and truth, Stephen Sondheim's Assassins depicts the disturbing lives of the nine individuals who have attempted to or successfully assassinated American Presidents.
Feeling betrayed by the broken promises of their ideal nation, they decide to strike out against its ultimate symbol: the President. From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, the rules of time and place are bent as these disillusioned misfits meet, interact and inspire each other to harrowing acts in the name of the 'American Dream'.
This funny yet bleak "revusical" combines lyrical ingenuity with multiple musical styles to explore the perverse motivations and characters behind these history-defining acts.
- February 2018
Medieval Sweden. A disaffected knight returning from the crusades encounters Death, who agrees to spare his life for the duration of a game of chess.
While they play the knight and his squire travel through a countryside ravaged by the plague, encountering a cross-section of medieval society on the way, including a group of actors, a witch condemned to burn at the stake, and plague victims.
Simultaneously an existential allegory and a social tragicomedy, the original Seventh Seal catapulted its director, Ingmar Bergman, to international fame, and is now considered one of his masterpieces. This tongue-in-cheek adaptation was inspired by Emma Rice’s work with Kneehigh.
The Seventh Seal broaches timeless questions – the prevalence of suffering, the inevitability of death – with a combination of theatrical irreverence and Bergman’s trademark, caustic wit.
- February 2018
Porterhouse College prides itself on having remained exactly the same for over 500 years. Swan is served in hall, the rowers are head of the river, and no one has achieved a first since 1956.
Disaster strikes when a liberal politician is appointed as the new master. Sir Godber plots to introduce a self-service canteen in hall, a condom machine in the toilet, and most horrendously of all… female undergraduates!
Porterhouse’s incurably traditional porter Skullion and the aging dinosaurs on the college council simply will not stand for it. This war for Porterhouse’s soul can only end one way: with three deaths, an incriminating television documentary and 2,000 inflated condoms raining down on Old Court.
Welcome to Porterhouse College, Cambridge.
- January–February 2018
Dear Pen Pal,
Got my Olly Murs bobble-head doll stolen last week which was way past cool, but my mood took a turn for the better when I saw that ‘Footlights Presents: Pen Pals’ is coming to the ADC in Lent Term! Wanna come watch it with me? It’d be so great to finally meet. I can’t think of anything better than watching a bumper hour of sketches, skits and songs from five First Class comedians (you know, like on stamps!)
Haha - it’s the thrill of going through someone else’s mail without any of the risk! A sketch show about the letters that get lost in the post. I eagerly await your reply.
Love,
Your Pen Pal x
P.S. How was chess camp? Did you win?
- January 2018
The Watersprite International Film Festival is a Cambridge based festival that receives entries from some of the very best student film-making talent from around the globe, with past winners going on to win prestigious awards from BAFTA and the Sundance Film Festival.
We've teamed up with the ADC Theatre to screen some of our previous winners ahead of our 2018 festival so come and join us for an evening of film-watching fun!
- January–February 2018
The Atreus family is in turmoil.
10 years have passed since Clytemnestra’s husband, Agamemnon, sacrificed their eldest daughter, Iphigenia, in order to stop military defeat. Clytemnestra is left to exact revenge.
Blood for blood, wound for wound, act for act: Aeschylus’ earth shattering trilogy tells the story of a family at war with each other. Husband against wife, wife against son, son against mother.
Their battlefield is an icy wound upon which terse family bonds are exposed and tightened, an empty stage on which the world’s oldest tragedy ricochets back into existence.
The Oresteia is reborn.
The cycle of blood continues…
- January 2018
"Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is elephant" - Charlie Chaplin
After a dictatorial decree, all comic speech has been banned and comedians branded in an attempt to secure power. In a ramshackle theatre, a group of intrepid performers stage a new rebellion: using their physicality, subtitles, projections, sound effects, overdub, recorded lines, audio description and the audience themselves to create laughter.
Speechless is a devised comedy sketch show about the importance of communication, the dangers of censorship and the universal appeal of comedy. It focuses on multimedia and is the first Cambridge comedy show to be BSL interpreted.
In association with the Relaxed Theatre Company.
- January 2018
..."The fantasies were easier because they helped me to avoid…all the things I couldn’t… I was hiding! Hiding from what I didn’t want to deal with. And we can’t do that. We can’t live fantasies"....
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It’s Mother’s Day and Mother is dead. Now her two sons gather into her home to argue about the truth of their childhood. But a storm is approaching...with a violent new truth all of its own.
...."BOOM! AWAKE! BOOM! AWAKE! BOOM! AWAKE! BOOM! AWAKE! ".....
- January 2018
The finest of Cambridge's musical theatre talent join forces to create an original musical... in just 24 hours! Creative teams are given a theme for a musical, and each team write, compose and rehearse a song over the 24 hour period. The result is an eclectic and brand-spanking new show, and a spectacular celebration of new writing!
- January 2018
In 2015 it was demonstrated that a neural network – a computer algorithm inspired by the brain – can be trained to generate almost syntactically correct Shakespearean language, with… uncanny results. The same process can be applied to cookbooks, political rhetoric, musical scores, and more. We present to you a showcase of mismatched computerised malapropisms, generated and performed live, on stage, at the ADC theatre.
- January 2018
Buckle up for a brand spanking new hour of stand-up comedy.
Fifty percent from Ania Magliano + fifty percent from Riss Obolensky = a one hundred percent chance you’ll have a damn good time. Maths.
We'll take you through our lives, chuckle at some anecdotes and slide into some existential states of being. Oooft. So don your finest garments and loudest laughs, as we show you just how cathartic comedy can be.
- January 2018
ARE YOU... Depressed? Struggling? A junior doctor? Great news: we’ve got a coping mechanism for all three of those afflictions.
Meet Dillon (unemployed) and Oliver (junior doctor), who together prove you can make very different life decisions and still end up miserable. When Dillon discovers he has depression, will they unite to overcome this terrible illness? Spoiler: the answer to that is what drove them to write this show.
Fresh from sell-out runs in Cambridge, London and Leicester, Fix My Brain is the double-act debut from ex-Presidents of the Cambridge Footlights Dillon (2017 Chortle Student Comedy Award Finalist) and Oliver (1.75 million YouTube hits, which, if you haven't been on the internet, seem like a lot).
‘Daring and hilarious... an astonishingly honest portrayal that will keep you in stitches from beginning to end’ ***** Varsity
Previous praise:
‘A mix of the surreal and the satirical... packed in the punchlines’ Chortle
'Unnerving yet delightful' TCS
‘Pitch-perfect’ The Tab
- December 2017
The war is over and a carnivalesque celebration emerges, with memories of fighting soon giving way to frolics and flamboyance.
‘Much Ado About Nothing’, one of Shakespeare’s most widely loved comedies, weaves wit, gossip, deception and revenge into the ultimate quest for romance.
Welcome to the Carnival: prepare yourself for an explosive feast of masquerade and spectacle.
The Cambridge University European Theatre Group is a self-sufficient, entirely student-run theatrical company, which tours a Shakespeare play around Europe for two and a half weeks every December (and is now in its 60th year!).
- January 2018
An outstanding score with some of his most memorable music and lyrics, this brilliantly smart and poignant observation of modern relationships has redefined what musical theatre can be.
- December 2017
For the first time Ballet Central present their 45-minute version of the classic Nutcracker introducing children of all ages to a new take on the iconic Tchaikovsky score.
- December 2017
- December 2017
Join a line-up of hilarious Cambridge Footlights regulars as they go entirely off-script in Panel Show: Live From the ADC!
- December 2017
For one merry night only the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society presents 12 Days of Christmas! Let your Christmas countdown begin with a cabaret night of chart-topping festive tunes, comedy and cheer, performed by Cambridge’s finest musical theatre talent. Come rock around the Christmas tree with CUMTS to celebrate the end of term and the beginning of the holidays!
- November 2017
“And then?”
“The war burst like a hurricane.”
She stared before her at unspeakable things.
On a broken-down train under London, a man crippled by the Great War meets a woman whose dreams of future cataclysm are slowly killing her. This play brings to life the short story of the same name by H. G. Wells, which explored the coldly absurd horror of global war and mutually assured destruction decades before the Cold War.
- November 2017
"To touch, to move, to inspire. This is the true gift of dance"
The finest dance talent in Cambridge comes together to bring you an eclectic mix of different styles, original choreography, and story telling within the span of just 24 hours.
- November 2017
DRAGTIME: XXXMAS Show
Cambridge's most wholesome and only Drag Collective are coming to the ADC for one night only! With dancing, singing, lipsyncing and everything inbetween, join us for our most ambitious and varied performance to date. Kings, Queens, and inbetweens!
- November 2017
Buckle up as the CU Show Choir take you on a trip to Hollywood!
Fresh from our win at Nationals, join our brand new lineup as we sing and dance our way through movie soundtracks, TV themes and award-winning songs. From classic Disney to La La Land, expect glitz, glamour and mashups on our one night journey to the City of Stars.
- November 2017
Nominated for the Footlights Harry Porter Prize 2017, “Sherlock Bungalow and the Diabolical Treasure” is a fast-paced, gag-filled, absurd parody of Holmes and Watson tales. When the Queen is murdered, our heroes, Bungalow and Watson, must solve their most fiendish case yet. Their investigation reveals a conspiracy which stretches to the top of British society. And no, we’re not talking about Ben Nevis.
Described by Porter Prize Judge John Finnemore as "Not my winner", it's going to be a cracker.
- November 2017
On the bustling streets of Paris, a revolution is brewing. And so, apparently, is the beer.
Today the world is going to be turned upside down. Today is the day of the Feast of Fools. It is the biggest, brashest, most politically radical party in town. And we have a hunch that you’re going to enjoy it.
The rich will become poor and the poor will become rich. The left will become right and the right will become left. Good will become bad. Day will become night. There’ll be lonely bell ringers with silly names, there’ll be moving gargoyles and pantomime dames. There’ll be dancing goats and drunken clowns, frightened villains and forgotten crowns. There’ll be lights, music, dance, song. Revolution, power, protest...
Ding dong!
- November 2017
‘This has everything to do with sex. This is about men and women. It’s because he’s a man and you’re a woman.’
It’s Bella’s twenty-ninth birthday. A group of her friends gather to celebrate, but tension quickly rises as the group discusses work, relationships, and sex. Overshadowing the occasion is the fact that Bella’s father is in hospital, about to die, something she has yet to tell her friends. The action is set over the course of a single evening, with Bella’s father present in the form of flashbacks and memories.
Nina Raine’s debut play is a hilarious and explosive examination of what it is to be young, free, and scared to death.
- November 2017
When the 13th Earl of Gurney dies, it falls to his son Jack to run the estate. It’s a shame, then, that Jack is a clinically insane religious fanatic who calls himself the God of Love. And with drunk butlers, scheming relatives, and German psychoanalysts all blundering around the place, it’s no wonder nothing’s getting done! But will their attempts to cure Jack go to plan? Is it possible that the God of Love has a dark side?
From auto-erotic asphyxiation to a showdown with Electric Jesus, Peter Barnes’ black comedy is a wildly funny romp through the world of the the ruling class.
- November 2017
Emerging from the silence, a voice resonates: Death warns Sāvitri that the time of her dear husband Satyavān has come. Armed with compassion, wisdom, and the sheer power of love, Sāvitri engages Death in a battle to claim her husband. But can one woman outwit even Death?
Based on an episode from the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahābhārata, this tale of human passion and spiritual devotion is given a stunning and evocative musical soundscape by the English composer Gustav Holst.
- November 2017
Katherine Murphy, Larry Carson and George Fairley served the American army in Afghanistan.
Now, Katherine Murphy is dead. George is in prison, accused of her rape but unable to face his memories of that day. Larry is decorated for heroism, but is increasingly cold to his wife and daughter.
As politicians try to manipulate the three veterans for their own purposes and their memories and mental health become tangled with lies, the facts become increasingly difficult to find – and we begin to wonder whether the truth as we know it is really the truth that we wish to believe in.
‘The Glass Cage’, an original musical from composer Noah Fram, breaks down what we think we know, forcing us to question our own belief in a concrete reality whilst challenging the assumptions and struggles of a woman in the military, the institutional wrongs exerted on both serving and ex-service men and women, the trauma of war and sexual assault, and the nature of memory.
- November 2017
“Don’t yet rejoice in his defeat, you men!
Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,
The bitch that bore him is in heat again.”
Chicago. A city of jazz and gangsters, prohibition and poverty. Amongst the murk of the Great Depression, there’s room for a small time crook like Arturo Ui to make a name for himself.
Ui and his henchmen just want to look after you, to offer protection for workers, for jobs, for businesses. Nothing to fear. But a little bribery here, some harmless corruption there, and soon something much more dangerous takes hold.
Written in exile in the 1940s, the play is a satirical allegory of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany prior to World War II.
- November 2017
In the middle of the Mojave Desert, dozens of miles from the nearest pavement, a lone phone booth stands on a dirt road. One evening, in the mid 1990's, the phone starts ringing...
MOJAVE is a devised piece of multimedia theatre which incorporates a live DJ score, physical theatre and projection to tell this incredible story. Based entirely on real transcripts and audio recordings, we follow Goddfrey ‘Doc’ Daniels as his singular obsession with calling a phone number in the back of a magazine leads to the world’s first viral cult sensation. MOJAVE tells the true story of the Mojave Desert phone booth: how it was discovered, how it rose to cult status and how it became a place where being miles away from the nearest sign of civilisation was the only way to feel connected
- October 2017
Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and standup in an hour 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 spiky, wordy and nerdy or a little surreal; whatever the style, it's always 'uproariously funny' (Varsity).
