- November 2016
It's bigger, better, and on the main stage!
Since 2014, the Newnham Smoker has encouraged women and non-binary people into stand-up in Cambridge. In the two years it’s been running, it’s become one of the friendliest springboards into performance in Cambridge. Our philosophy is never to let our comedy punch down. We have over eight of the finest acts from around Cambridge University and the town to entertain you. You're invited to sit the hell down, let it go and listen to some of the finest new voices in town.
- November 2016
Teams of writers, directors and actors must write, rehearse and put on plays on a theme in the space of just 24 hours. This is theatrical collaboration on a scale not seen anywhere else, pushing the whole team to the limit and creating unforgettable performances.
- November 2016
The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler: a series of pieces about individuals' relationships with their vaginas. Each is written with fire and beauty. This genuine, open, honest exploration of people's relationships with their bodies and sexuality is profoundly moving in its simplicity. These personal stories form a powerful political message, giving voice to a silenced but essential discussion.
- November 2016
Welcome to the sleepy alpine village of Alpenberg; there’s beer, snow, semi-constructed gold castles, and the Christmas tree market is in full swing.
But when a careless offhand comment by the local landlord gets his daughter into trouble, it sparks a chain of events that resurrects Alpenberg’s darkest secret.
Meet our heroine Frieda, our lumberjacking Dame, and mad King Bruno for a snow-capped, gold-plated, schnitzel-covered tale of revenge, greed and love.
Cambridge’s finest offering of comedians, actors, technicians and musical talents present this year’s CUADC/Footlights Pantomime 2016: Rumpelstiltskin.
Come down to the ADC this Christmas and join us for a bit of rumpy pumpy.
- November 2016
Seven friends in their twilight years share a vast bed. Through an exhilarating sequence of abstracted monologues, expressive movement and spectacle, they dream, remember and reflect together on a long past. Acclaimed at the Royal National Theatre, Jim Cartwright’s Bed is a surreal exploration of life and dreams, of old age and death, an “odd, harrowing and hilarious piece, entirely without sentimentality, sturdy but moving”.
- November 2016
The comedy sketch show is a genre that has grown incredibly popular in Cambridge over time as we all love to see our favourite student comedians combine to act out the absurd and the hilarious for our entertainment. However, with such a diverse field of talent we're always left asking for more...
So, for the first time, more is exactly what you're going to get. Under the frantic time limit of 23 hours, 30 of the finest student comedians in Cambridge will group together to produce not just one but FIVE sketch shows for your entertainment. Stand-up and song, improvisation and mime, come and see comedians of all genres combine to produce and perform jokes fresh from a frantic day of writing.
30 comedians, 23 hours and at the end of it all 60 minutes of brand-spanking-new comedy sketch show for you all to enjoy.
Sound like something you want to miss?
I think not.
- November 2016
Everyone creates their own coping strategies or rules for living. But what happens when an extended family gathers in the kitchen for a traditional Christmas and they each follow those rules, rigidly?
In Sam Holcroft's theatrically playful dark comedy a family does just that. And when the instructions are there for all to see, audience included, there's really no place to hide. As long-held mechanisms for survival are laid bare, even Mum, who's been preparing this lunch since last January, becomes embroiled. Long-held rivalries and resentments will out.
Accusations fly, relationships deconstruct, the rules take over.
- November 2016
“Comedy Weekly” is Britain’s best loved televised topical panel show, but now it’s coming to an end. It's one hour before the final live performance, and all that needs to happen is for the panellists to arrive, know what they’re doing, and stay alive for the duration of the show. Except that’s harder than it might be when they are chronically disorganised and forgetful, mostly hate each other, and in one case are Britain’s rather controversial retiring Prime Minister. Still, at least they’ve got a spare panellist in reserve.
"Comedy Weakly" is a new comedy by Colin Rothwell, who wrote "Politics!" ('A happy combination of slapstick and wordplay' - Varsity), co-wrote "Spilt Milk" ('An evening of hi-jinks and absurdity' - Varsity), and learnt from the experience.
- November 2016
“Revenge for the Duchess of Malfi, murdered,
For lovely Julia, and for myself,
That was an actor in the main of all…”
In the court of Malfi, the jealous, incestuous obsession of one man sets into motion a series of events that will end in tragedy and redemption…
There will be sheets, soot, shadows, blinking red lights, and those shoes...
That pair of hanging shoes.
- November 2016
“We’re not dorks. I think Herbert could quite comfortably be classified as a dweeb, however. And I’m more of a posh effete.”
After getting kicked out of Cambridge for spending too much time writing student comedy, best friends Piers and Herbert must learn to function in the real world. Join them as they embark on an outrageous and farcical romp outside of the Cambridge bubble!
Watch in amazement as they enrol at a university that isn’t even in the Russell Group, fall in love (not with each other), get on the wrong side of a crazed drug lord, join the wakeboarding society and drink beer for the first time. But things go awry when dark forces cause the pair to grow further apart; can their friendship survive the ultimate test? Will their old college tutor stop stalking them? And what on earth does the janitor know that they don't?
Dropouts! is a new fish-out-of-water comedy from the people who brought you Judge Judy’s Buzz World (Footlights Harry Porter Prize Winner 2016), Quinoa: A Middle-Class Sketch Show, Quinoa II: No Pain No Grain, The Country Wife, Tristram Shandy: Live At Scotland!, Comedy 4 Calais, Kenneth Watton's Bedtime Chat Show 3: The Benign Comedy, Crow, Tristram Shandy 2: A Sentimental Journey, Rubber, Tate Postmodern, Picasso Stole the Mona, the sold-out Fresher's Week Smoker and numerous other college and Footlights smokers.
Past praise for the team;
“quickly had the room in stitches” (Varsity) ★★★★ ½
"vastly enjoyable" (The Tab) ★★★★
"gems of sarcastic satire" (TCS)
"kept the audience engaged and with a laugh on their lips throughout" (Varsity)
Darkchat Edinburgh Fringe Awards 2016- Best Comedy Performance- NOMINATED
- November 2016
Cambridge Footlights Haydn Jenkins, Mark Bittlestone, Ruby Keane and Luisa Callander present a brand new sketch show where two established double acts (vowels) combine to create…. DIPHTHONG. If you have ever seen the word Diphthong, or heard the word Diphthong, or even if you have never seen it or heard it, you are guaranteed to enjoy this hour of comedy from these experienced chuckle monsters.
- November 2016
Down on Skid Row, where everything is drag and dreary, Seymour toils away in Mr. Mushnik’s flower shop, dreaming of one day achieving greatness, as he pines away for the sweet shop assistant, Audrey. Through mysterious circumstances, he comes upon a unique plant. Little does he know that this strange and unusual plant will develop a soulful R&B voice, a potty mouth, and an unquenchable thirst for human blood- all the while giving him all he’s dreamed of: a chance at fame and fortune, and a plan to win the heart of Audrey. To what lengths will Seymour go to satisfy his own thirst for success, and the plant’s thirst for blood?
- October 2016
Bohemian Lights, a comedy about darkness and enlightenment.
Max is a blind poet, an authentic bohemian, and he is also going to die in less than 24 hours. Bohemian Lights is the tale of his last adventure through the streets of Madrid. Come and experience the world reflected into an esperpento mirror.
- October 2016
“Show Political Restraint”
We invite you to come and traverse the turbulent history of early twentieth-century China in the first ever English performance of China's most famous play.
Teahouse is the revolutionary tale of the Chinese revolution: the fall of a dynasty, the establishment of the republic, and bloody civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists.
Follow history as told from within the iconic Beijing 'Yu Tai' teahouse between 1898 and 1948 as it struggles to survive in turbulent times. In its lifetime China transforms: it is a dying Qing empire overrun by foreign aggressors and rampant with human trafficking; a republic devastated by anarchy; a state saturated with oppression and corruption.
Is the hope of a new tomorrow real, or is it only an illusion crushed again and again under the wheels of history? Teahouse showcases Lao She's brilliant social and cultural commentary through a three dimensional depiction of the common and the grotesque, an international classic that remains eerily relevant today.
- October 2016
THE HOME OF WITTY BANTER IS BACK!
Join two teams of assorted comedians as they play an eclectic mix of games from your favourite panel shows, including ‘Would I Lie to You?’, ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ and ‘Just a Minute.’
Completely improvised, there will be different audience suggestions, games, and even different mixture of panellists every night.
This isn’t just another repeat on Dave.
Will anyone actually have some news for you? Where are the missing 2 out of 10 cats? Why buzzcock? All these questions and more might be answered in Cambridge’s semi-fresh alternative comedy night.
PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS SHOW:
‘With a completely brilliant host and excellent panelists, this show (...) more than takes its place alongside its televisual cousins.’ - TCS **
‘the quality of their improv beat out a good deal of scripted comedy (...) a great way to appreciate how genuinely talented Cambridge’s student comedians are’ - THE TAB ***
- October 2016
'If I woke you up because I wanted you to read something, you definitely wouldn't like it. You’d tell me to fuck off.'
The break-up has been a long time coming. It’s planned, clean, mutual, and unavoidable – but not easy. Of course it’s not easy.
https://vimeo.com/189320600
- October 2016
Following the success of last term’s Cambridge Shorts, the ADC’s first ever film screening event is back!
A selection of the best student short films will be screened in one unforgettable night, hosted by Joe Shalom, as part of a unique collaboration with the Cambridge Film Association.
A great way to experience more of the rapidly expanding film scene in Cambridge.
- October 2016
‘One family, one ‘ouse, one caravan’
In a Caravan park in a Welsh seaside town lives fifteen year old Kim. One rainy afternoon in October 1994 a mint-choc-chip ice cream and an encounter with twenty year old Mick changes her life forever.
Kim’s older sister Kelly falls for the same man, thus beginning a complex web of entanglement which threatens the very foundations of their family.
Set over the course of two years ‘Caravan’ follows the quiet chaos and collapse of this increasingly clashing family. As the claustrophobic caravan becomes more and more cramped, the secret of what happened on that Autumn afternoon in 1994 threatens to pull apart the fragile hinges upon which the Caravan and the family are built.
Winner of the 1998 George Devine Award, ‘Caravan’ is harrowing and hilarious in equal measure. Blakeman offers a pinhole look into an ordinary life, marred by hardship.
- October 2016
The Last Five Years explores a five-year relationship between Jamie Wellerstein, a young, up-and-coming novelist, and Cathy Hiatt, a struggling actress. Its unique storytelling device shows Cathy singing about their relationship from breakup to meeting, and Jamie from meeting to breakup, their songs alternating. A hilarious and moving insight into the love and tragedy of two people, this is a show that leaves you to make the decision about which of the flawed characters is in the right.
- October 2016
A group of actors rehearse a play in a disused rehearsal room at The National - under the hawkish eye of their stage manager and the irascible influence of the playwright. Their story, composer Benjamin Britten’s first meeting in twenty years with his once friend and colleague, W. H. Auden. In Auden’s lodgings at Oxford, they come together to discuss Britten’s controversial new opera 'Death in Venice'. Their meeting is observed and interrupted by, amongst others, their future biographer and a young man from the local bus station. Yet this was a meeting which never took place, and as the actors pick their way through the script and dissect the unsettling desires of two difficult men, they struggle to keep their own stories at bay. Alan Bennett’s landmark play reflects on the thought of growing old, creativity and inspiration, of persistence when all passion is spent: ultimately on the habit of art.
- September 2016
A bittersweet but ultimately inspiring story of a diverse group of students as they commit to four years of gruelling artistic and academic work.
- September 2016
Based on the 2010 BAFTA nominated film, this rowdy, stirring, thoroughly British comedy musical centres around a group of female workers at Ford's Dagenham plant who go on strike to fight inequality of pay for women. The events portrayed in the musical ultimately led to the Equal Pay Act of 1970. Expect energy and humour by the bucketload from our talented and vibrant cast.
- August 2016
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players..."
Duke Frederick has usurped and exiled his brother Duke Ferdinand. Oliver de Boys is plotting against his brother Orlando’s life. Rosalind has disguised herself as a man, and run off into the Forest of Ardenne alongside her cousin Celia. Jacques is meta-theatrically moping around the stage. Touchstone is trying desperately to herd goats. Silvius is being shunned by everyone he meets. Amiens's throat hurts. Shakespeare’s early comedy takes us into a world of mistaken identities, murderous plots, cross-dressing, pastoral love, and wrestling.
With a modern, gender-bending, bohemian aesthetic, live music, and a lot of ribbons, CAST 2016 brings one of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies to the stage. Join us under the Greenwood tree.
The Cambridge American Stage Tour (CAST), established under the patronage of Dame Judi Dench in 2000, is one of the major international theatre tours of the University of Cambridge. It aims to bring the work of Shakespeare to as wide an audience as possible in the eastern United States. Now in its seventeenth year, Cambridge University’s largest international tour show has been performing to packed houses and critical acclaim since 2000. Each September, Cambridge’s most talented actors, directors, designers and technicians travel across the Atlantic to bring a Shakespeare play to colleges, high schools and professional theatres. CAST is increasingly renowned as a showcase of the leading dramatic talent in Cambridge, including countless actors and directors about to enter the world of professional theatre.
- July 2016
The year is 1940. The Blitz burns the heart of London while the disgraced Rev. Lawrence Shannon survives as a third-rate tour guide an ocean away in Mexico. As his latest tour group unravels amid claims of his improprieties, he purposely strands his guests at a remote bohemian jungle hotel run by an old friend. But his desperate bid to quell the fires raging in his soul is cut short by a menagerie of hotel residents who compromise and confuse his fragile state of mind. Tennessee Williams’s rarely performed, fascinating and haunting love story lays bare the secret insecurities common to us all.
- July 2016
Urinetown is a riotous musical satire of the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, municipal politics and musical theatre itself! In a city of the future that has been inflicted with a terrible drought, business tycoon Caldwell B. Cladwell has made his fortune through bribery and the monopolization of all public toilets. With a brutal police force maintaining law and order, it’s not a place to get caught short! Risk it and you will be sent off to a place no one returns from – the infamous Urinetown. Hilariously funny and touchingly honest, Urinetown is a musical not to be missed!
- July 2016
Fired from his skiffle band, Francis Henshall becomes minder to Roscoe Crabbe, a small time East End hood, now in Brighton to collect £6,000 from the dad of his fiancee. But Roscoe is really his sister Rachel posing as her own dead brother, who has been killed by her boyfriend Stanley Stubbers.
Holed up at The Cricketers Arms, the permanently ravenous Francis spots the chance of an extra meal ticket
and takes a second job with one Stanley Stubbers, who is hiding from the police and waiting to be reunited with Rachel. To prevent discovery, Francis must keep his two guvnors apart. Simple.
Based on the classic Italian comedy The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, in this new English version by prizewinning playwright Richard Bean, sex, food and money are high on the agenda. One Man, Two Guvnors opened at the National Theatre 17th May 2011 to critical acclaim, before transferring to the West End and embarking on a successful UK tour. It also won the 2011 Evening Standard Theatre Best New Play and the Best Night Out Awards.
- June–July 2016
Lovingly ripped off from the classic film comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot is a kind-of new musical with a book by Eric Idle and an entirely new score for the new production, (well, almost) created by Eric Idle and John Du Prez.
Spamalot tells the legendary tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and features a bevy (or possibly a brace) of beautiful show girls, witch burnings (cancelled due to health and safety) not to mention cows, killer rabbits and French people. The show features fantastic tunes more magical than a Camelot convention, including He Is Not Dead Yet, Knights of the Round Table, Find Your Grail and of course the Nation’s Favourite Comedy Song (Reader’s Digest Poll 2010 - before it went bust), Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
- June 2016
We all have secrets, some more than others...
We all have closets, some more than others...
What happens when you put the two together? You get Sketchletons In The Closet, a hilariously secretive show from the people behind Hyper-History, Murder On The Disorient Express and various college and footlights smokers. For one night only at the ADC!
Shh........
- June 2016
Tired of watching middle class white males try to be funny? Come watch a middle class brown male (who grew up in a white society) try to be funny! Sameer Khan, an American living in Cambridge, provides his hilarious take on the British, race, society and little things you never noticed.
- June 2016
"I think it might be an evolved thing in a society, that if we see someone who's going to bring the whole tribe down or whatever someone who's really going to fuck up... you have the desire somewhere deep down within you to take them down."
Three people. Two jobs. Somebody has to go.
Mike Bartlett's taut and brutal comedy reminds us that we never quite escape the clutches of playground politics.
- June 2016
From the people who brought you The Freshers' Sketch Show, numerous Footlights smokers, and the five-star shows 'Switch: A Sketch Show', 'Farewell Tim', and 'Footlights Presents: Xylophone' comes a new hour of stand-up and songs.
Previous praise includes:
"Boundless energy, slick performances, and endless variety" - ★★★★★ The Tab (Footlights Presents: Xylophone)
"Superbly written and ingeniously performed, watching Xylophone probably constituted the best hour of my term so far" - ★★★★★ Cambridge Theatre Review (Footlights Presents: Xylophone)
"very rarely less than robust, often sparkling, and occasionally let-me-write-that-down-for-later-brilliant" - ★★★★★ Varsity (Switch: A Sketch Show)
"brimming with natural showmanship" - ★★★★★ Cambridge Theatre Review (Farewell Tim)
- June 2016
The Cambridge Footlights International Tour Show is the biggest show of the year. Join ‘the most renowned sketch troupe of them all’ (The Independent) as they embark on another exceptional world tour, performing to over twenty thousand people across two continents. This year's tour travels to London, Edinburgh, California, Las Vegas, New York, the Cayman Islands, Cambridge, and many more. Don’t miss your chance to see the latest on offer from the group that launched many of the greatest names in comedy, including Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Mel, John Cleese, Hugh Laurie, Mitchell and Webb, Richard Ayoade, Sue, John Oliver and David Baddiel.
A new sketch show from a team that have collectively brought you Chocolate Moose: Footlights Spring Revue 2016, Panopticon, toucan, Have I Got to Mock the Buzzcocks for You: A Panel Show, Buttnik, pelican, Cirque De L'Extraordinaire, Beluga, Grizzly, Dystopia: The Musical, Bafflesmash Presents: Back in the Cellar, STIFF! (The Footlights Harry Porter Prize Winner 2014), Amygdala Wonderland, Telly Visions, Sunset Eternal, Bafflesmash Presents: Menagerie, Kenneth Watton's Bedtime Chat Show: Take Two, The Marlowe Showcase, The Double, Laughing Fitz, numerous Footlights smokers, and many more.
Previous praise for writers/performers:
'By far the best comedic performance I have seen at the Fringe this year' EdFringe Review
‘A glorious mix of surreal, intelligent and simply hilarious sketches’ The Tab
‘I cannot recommend the show highly enough’ TCS
'Highly original and truly hilarious' Varsity
'Has half the audience dancing and the rest laughing' TCS
- May 2016
The Great Gatsby is a short film interpretation of a scene from Baz Luhrmann’s screenplay adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic.
‘When I think about it, the history of the summer really began...’
- May 2016
- May 2016
Siblings Abigail and Caroline have trodden very different paths; now married to a prince, Caroline spends her time meddling in the Church, while Abigail has joined a convent. An official visit causes their paths to cross, just as Abigail and her fellow novices resolve to escape the cloister and return to their former lives. With melodies merry and melancholy, and an all-female cast, Sister Abigail is a light-hearted comic opera, an affectionate parody of Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and just a little irreverent. If you only experience one opera about two nuns in a bath this year, let it be Sister Abigail.
- May 2016
Five new student films – one evening.
Cinecam proudly presents the ADC’s first ever film night, screening the premieres of five new and original student-made films.
In a truly unique evening, you’ll have the chance to experience the best of Cambridge’s filmmaking talent.
OUTSIDERS: Written by Nathan Miller, Directed by Nathan Miller and Patrick Brooks. A bespoke and exclusive summer camp claims a 100% record in helping socially impaired children.
Tachyon: Written and Directed by Mark Danciger. A scientist creates a machine that can send messages back in time. The consequences are beyond her worst nightmares. A tense sci-fi thriller.
Prelude: by Bekzhan Sarsenbay. A revolution is on. People are rioting in the streets. The workers and actors of a prestigious theatre are left to wonder who is going to win, and plan for a uncertain future.
Clive Benderman: Written and Directed by Tom O Mara. Clive Benderman, a 31-year-old, data-entry worker from Swindon. After forgetting to buy a leaving present for his co-worker, Clive decides to make amends.
OWL#307: Written and Directed by Johnny King. OWL#307: Written and Directed by Johnny King. "I dreamt I heard the owl hooting again...a full-bodied screech of righteousness and assurance."
Marie hasn't left her hotel room for a fortnight now. The door is locked and her mysterious acquaintance has not returned since taking her there. Accompanied only by a wooden owl, tins of fish and trapped spiders, she starts to write...
A warped examination of solitude and confusion, OWL #307 is as disorientating as it is relatable.
