- 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.
- May 2016
"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 Ian has not returned since leading her there. Accompanied only by a wooden owl, tins of fish and trapped spiders, she starts to write...
A short film examining isolation and confusion, Owl #307 premiered at the first Cambridge Shorts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYZCtz74m1Y
- May 2016
Alice travels across Europe with a battered Russian watch trying to track down her estranged father. On the mountains of the Italian-Austrian border, hikers descending a 3000 metre peak stumble on Otzi the Iceman, preserved there for 5000 years. In London, Virgil is piecing together memories of a fractured relationship, and waiting for Alice’s call.
First devised by pioneering theatre company Complicite, Mnemonic catches and entangles the memories it finds as it criss-crosses characters, places, and history. In its web of fragmented stories, the past blurs with the imagined as it is remembered and retold. It is beguiling, hallucinogenic, and hilarious.
An intimate and epic examination of memory, the original storyteller.
- May 2016
“So his buddy whips a flail out, and starts swinging it round at me, like this is fucking Dungeons and Dragons or something.” - Judge Judy, superhero superstar.
Meet Judge Judy. No, not that one. Crime fighting, misleadingly-named vigilante Judge Judy. She’s been keeping Middle America safe since way back before Chickie McQuickie became the top supplier of frozen chicken breasts in the tristate area. Join her as she takes you through her greatest hits.
Winner of the Footlight’s Harry Porter Prize 2016.
- May 2016
"Isn't it rich? Are we a pair? Me here at last on the ground, you in mid-air. Send in the clowns"
Desiree Armfeldt, the renowned actress, finds herself caught once more in a tangled set of affairs - sleeping with the Count Carl-Magnus (in full knowledge of his wife) while falling in love once more with her old flame, Fredrik Egerman (despite the fact that he is also newly married). How better to solve this problem than a weekend in the country together?
Sondheim's classic musical, adapting an Ingmar Bergman film, brings together love in all its tragicomic forms in this nostalgic and farcical story. Reset in contemporary times, with the ghosts of the past watching on, this production of 'A Little Night Music' will demonstrate just why Sondheim is one of the revered greats of musical theatre.
- May 2016
A brand new comedy musical:
The year is 2030, and Donald Trump has just entered the fourteenth year of his four-year term as President of the United States. Now, he prepares to complete his masterpiece, The Great Border Wall of Mexico, which the Mexican People will pay for.
But something is stirring in the South, the North grows restless, and the other directions feature too.
As a unified resistance grows, a devastating showdown at the Trump House (formerly know as the White House) becomes inevitable. Will the Mexican Resistance find their way home? Will the last remnants of ISIS finally have their revenge? Is Arnold Schwarzenegger really a robot, or just that good an actor?
Find out on an all-singing, all-dancing parody-musical journey through the desolate wasteland of future America.
- May 2016
When King Leontes suspects his wife of being unfaithful, he seeks his revenge, unaware of the consequences of such dramatic action. As the kingdom of Sicilia falls into chaos, Leontes laments his choice, and spends the next 16 years of his life in mourning. Meanwhile, far away in the distant land of Bohemia, a young shepherdess by the name of Perdita falls in love with a young Prince, and the two make plans to elope. Little do they know of their connection to the grieving King…
Shakespeare’s tale of grief and redemption stands as the most human of his works, deftly blending psychological tragedy with charming comedy. Bear witness to a host of colourful characters, several foot-stomping folk ballads, and the most surprising story The Bard ever told.
[Exit, pursued by a bear.]
- April 2016
One relationship. Infinite possibilities.
An explosive new play about the boundless potential of a first encounter, free will, and friendship; it's about quantum multiverse theory, love, and honey.
Constellations premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in January 2012, before going on to West End and Broadway transfers, and UK tour in 2015, making this its ADC Theatre premiere.
'An astonishingly fine new play' Independent
'A singular astonishment' New Yorker
- April 2016
A spectacular and devastating portrait of love and loss in a family home wounded by war.
In a quiet slice of 1950s suburban life, war widow Dorothy lives with her daughter Victoria and older brother Edwin.
More and more isolated from her married friends with their successful children, Dorothy tries to cope with Victoria's increasingly hostile behaviour. But is she doing her best, as she thinks, or is she responsible for what threatens to become an unbearable situation?
From the writer of ‘Abigail’s Party’, Mike Leigh combines brilliantly observed humour with stunning sadness to create something truly unforgettable.
- April 2016
Coventry, November 1940. Katie Stanley is a head-strong young woman training to be a teacher.
While awaiting the All Clear signal from an air raid warning, she encounters the stranded Michael, an Oxford tutor of Romantic Literature, at a railway station. It could be the beginning of a straightforward love story, but nothing is straightforward in wartime. Unknown to Katie, Michael has been forced to turn his linguistic skills to deciphering German codes at Bletchley Park. Katie lives with her family in Coventry, a city living under the threat of war. The Stanleys have no idea how terrible that threat is ... but Michael does.
Following the story of one family's harrowing experience of the Coventry Blitz, One Night in November examines the idea that Winston Churchill had advance warning of the attack.
Was Coventry sacrificed for the greater good? Or to provoke and hasten America's entry into the war?
- April 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
"You should be wiser than mortals, being Gods’
In a world at the whim of jealous gods, relentless passions and tongues too quick to fall on mortal curses, Phaedra, wife of Theseus, stands alone and tormented. Mad with love for her chaste stepson and sickened by her own desires, Phaedra struggles to preserve her integrity and resist the fate doled out to her by deities who scorn the humans they deign over, and who are never far away. All the while, her suffering is watched at a distance by mortals drawn instinctively to her distress who, despite themselves, cannot turn their eyes away from the unfolding spectacle.
Euripides’ problematic drama was first performed cf. 428 B.C. The play screams across the space of 2000 years, continuing to unsettle and intrigue modern audiences. What is seen cannot be unseen; what is heard cannot be soon forgotten.
- March 2016
CU Show Choir are back, and better than ever!
Join us as we journey from Motown to Imagine Dragons, covering four (and a half) decades of music. Armed with our signature mix of mashups, harmonies, and cheesy dance moves - we're ready to bring it.
One night only.
- March 2016
This year's Lent Term Musical needs no introduction. West Side Story has enthralled audiences worldwide since it opened on Broadway over 50 years ago. The timeless appeal of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is carried into 1950s New York City, as star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria begin their narrative against the background of the rivalry of their respective gangs, the Jets and the Sharks.
This collaboration between three of musical theatre’s most iconic figures, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins, features some of the most well known musical numbers of all time, including ‘I Feel Pretty’ and ‘America’.
- March 2016
"I’m just the crazy, unreliable narrator of my own story."
Haworth parish hall welcomes you to their weekly ‘Womens Aid’ meetings, held every Wednesday, six ‘til seven.
Featuring: Jane, the woefully under-qualified group leader; Tony, who finds sexual gratification in Channel 4 documentaries; Grace, her warden, who sings karaoke every Friday night; Isabel, whose growing baby bump is struggling to fit behind the Tesco till and Helen, who lives in the hall on the hill and always arrives with paint on her fingers.
See these classic Brontë figures strip off their corsets, break down the attic door and elbow their way in to the twenty-first century.
A dark comedy.
Byronic heroes not invited.
- March 2016
“Oh God, let me not give in to hope.”
The second instalment in David Hare's critically acclaimed trilogy of British institutions, 'Murmuring Judges' takes a look at the inner workings of a bleak justice system. Our prisons are full. Our police don't care. And our judges don't listen.
Gerard McKinnon, a young and struggling father of two, is sentenced to 5 years in prison and left to rot. As the rest of the world keeps turning, only junior barrister Irina Platt dares to question the judge’s decision. As alibis unravel and tensions rise, Gerard and Irina find themselves confronting the true nature of the law: distanced, disillusioned and disinterested. ‘Murmuring Judges’ still resonates today as a brutal portrayal of privilege, patriarchal society and punishment without purpose.
“It seems obvious to an outsider. All this behaviour, the honours, the huge sums of money, the buildings, the absurd dressing up. They do have a purpose. It’s anaesthetic. It’s to render you incapable of imagining life the other way around.”
- February 2016
An evening of new writing, whether that be monologues, scenes or songs, all in aid of raising awareness and money for MIND charity.
- February 2016
Chocolate Moose is the Footlights Spring Revue 2016.
Come on down to the ADC Theatre to see the Footlights throw a series of little comedy stand-up-plays your way. There’ll be sketches, an interval, and more sketches. In the interval you can ask your friends what they think of the show, lament the subjective nature of comedy and buy an ice cream.
Chocolate Moose will be a comedy show like no otter. It promises to be at 7.45pm on Tues 23 – Sat 27 February, with matinees on Thursday 25th and Saturday 27th at 2.30pm. Expect sketches! The Footlights are an internationally renowned sketch troop whose alumni include: Mel, Stephen Fly, Huge Laurie, Prince Charles (of Wales), Hugh Latimer (Toymaker), Norman Hartnell (Dressmaker to the Queen Mother), Thurston Dart (Prominent Musicologist), Jonathan Baker (Eton Mathematics Teacher) Brian Barder (British Diplomat), John Cleese and Sue.
- February 2016
The Cambridge University University Musical Theatre Society presents its annual Gala night - a one night extravaganza, complete with solos, chorus numbers, choreography, a full band and a good sprinkling of glitz and glamour. The Gala is guaranteed to be an evening of outrageous fun!
- February 2016
Finally, you can get your comforting dose of late-ish night comedy LIVE, and next to other real human beings. You might even get to participate.
Join two teams of jolly funny people in this eclectic homage to panel games. Mix a dollop of intrigue from ‘QI’, a dash of satire from ‘Have I Got News for You’, some Mochrie from ‘Whose Line is it Anway’, and some ironic minding of ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’, and you’ll have something that has a really long title.
Will anyone actually have some news for you? Where are the missing 2 out of 10 cats? What exactly is a buzzcock? All these questions and more might be answered in Cambridge’s improvised answer to panel shows.
- February 2016
“I hear those voices that will not be drowned.”
It is 1912 in Walberswick and a young boy has died at sea. Peter Grimes is to blame, or so his fishing village thinks. Sentenced to isolation, Peter rebels against his community and takes a new apprentice, the sixteen-year-old son of his fiancée. Rumour spreads quickly on the wind and gossip rules the waves. A storm is coming for Peter Grimes…
Based on the beloved poem by George Crabbe, then made famous by Benjamin Britten’s opera, this new telling of the Grimes myth uses the death of a child to explore the dark and primal side of humanity, focused through an individual whose vicious isolation has troubled generations of writers.
- February 2016
Dee has not seen Mary for years. Dee has little to nothing in common with Mary. Dee is bailing Mary out of jail. Dee is Mary's daughter.
No matter how hard we try, and how far we go, our families always manage to pull us back in. Dee realises this whilst trying to unravel the mystery of her puritanical mother's jail time at the same time as confronting her beloved father’s recent death.
Over the course of three days – being forced to share the same house again after years of distance – Dee and Mary rediscover what they have always loved, and hated, about one another.
