- February 2016
'Haydn's Symfunny' is the debut hour of stand up from Haydn Jenkins.
Haydn's shy, outgoing, complicated and simple. Come and let him talk at you. You've probably seen him before in shops like Sainsbury's, Ryman's and Boots.
Previous praise for Haydn:
“Outstanding comedic timing...a master of dry observational comedy” - The Tab
“Has a talent for fairly effortlessly turning the ordinary into the absurd” - Varsity
“Slim-line Michael Mcintyre” - The Tab
- February 2016
Flamineo is a ruthlessly aspirational malcontent. His sister, Vittoria, is a strong willed woman with questionable morals. Her lover, Bracciano, is shamelessly self-centered, and stops at little to attain what he desires. These characters are the basis of what is one of the very darkest and bloodiest of revenge tragedies.
Set in contemporary Russia, this production of Webster's ‘The White Devil’ entertains the clashes of political ambition. Infidelity, murder, corruption and above all revenge within the atmospheric confines of the Russian Orthodox Church and the cold streets of an oligarchy’s Machiavellian Moscow.
- February 2016
‘Xylophone’ is a brand new sketch show in alphabetical order.
A) Nobody knows why our alphabet is arranged in the way it is. It is a question that has baffled archaeologists, linguists, and scientists alike. And yet that odd order of disconnected squiggles has been with us for centuries. Let us take you now on an epic journey through its twenty-six letters. In a world where antelopes have to come before zebras and happiness has to come before profit, anything is possible.
B) From the team that brought you the sell-out show ‘Switch’ comes an hour of fast-paced sketch comedy. It's finally time to ABC at the ADC.
C) "guarantees screams of laughter" ★★★★★ – Varsity
- February 2016
“Thought is suspect, and money is their idol, and nothing is okay unless, it's scripted in their Bible. But I know there's so much more to find just in lookin' through myself, and not at them”.
Wendla longs to be a grown up, to be taken seriously. Moritz is terrified- of dropping out of school, of his erotic dreams, of disappointing his parents. Melchior, headstrong and cocky, wants to change the status quo.
In this groundbreaking musical, 19th century Germany envelops these young characters in an oppressive, inherently conservative society, in which adults hold all the cards and make all the rules. There is no room for change, and no courage to change it- until Melchior steps forth, whipping them all into a youth revolution and the chaos of sexual awakening. But even in these bold steps, his ideals shatter against the concrete norms and constraints of the regime of the adults.
Winning Best Musical and Best Original Score in 2006, this show is one that is not to be missed!
- January 2016
"‘We’re all Mad Here’, the cat said to Alice as he dangled from a trapeze with that mischievous grin on his face..."
"Alice" is an exciting devised exploration of Lewis Carroll’s influential story told through the magical medium of circus. Be transported through a surreal world and encounter a wheel artist rolling by, late for an important date, two strange twins balance impossibly upon each other, and a dormouse falls from a Chinese pole, fast asleep, into a teacup. A caterpillar emerges cocooned in aerial silks, and a tea party takes an unexpected turn. Prepare to be mesmerised by the acrobatic ability, the linguistic beauty, and the artistic excellency that is "Alice". The story you know and love so well, turned upside down and hung up in the air.
"Alice" promises to be completely absurd, baffling beautiful, and absolutely bonkers, but as Alice so rightly said, ‘All the best people are’.
- January 2016
This is a stand-up comedy show from Ken Cheng, a Cambridge University ex-mathematician dropout and professional poker player. He has also reached Diamond 2 in ranked League of Legends.
He is a BBC: a British-born Chinese, not to be confused with the more common usage of that acronym. Speaking of which, he is also a finalist in the BBC Radio New Comedy Award.
Come see this solo show from the director of Love Handles: The 2015 Footlights Tour Show, where he will make you literally wet yourself.
Previous praise includes:
"brilliant quips" - TCS
"master of metacomedy" - Tab
"most original material of the night" - Tab
"a perfect end to a bizarre evening" - Varsity
- January 2016
‘They never asked about the women.’
When a city falls, its people must bear the wreckage. A live news crew will film the destruction but not the aftermath. It does not capture a mother looking for her lost boys, a fallen woman trying to keep up appearances, a young girl’s duty to pay off a bargain she’d never been participant to. They are merely numbers, tallied up figures for the television reports. They are not human. They are mere dolls.
Darkly humorous and epically tragic, Trojan Barbie is an exhilarating play. Placing characters of antiquity within the very real world of a military occupied refugee camp, the play explores how, after over two millennia, we are still no closer to solving the consequences of war and the people it leaves behind. Hecuba, Polyxena, Cassandra, Andromache, Helen of Troy and Lotte of Reading all hurtle towards their fate in this electric modern spectacle about war, its reverberations, and its women. Whether it's ancient myth or a vivid reality...
‘They never asked about the women.’
- January 2016
‘The worlds’s going to be a different place in ten years, everything’s that’s stopping us, what we’re told to do, what we’re told is the way to live, it’ll all be different, you can feel it.’
Sandra and Kenneth know the world is changing. Through the dope haze they grasp at the promised new tomorrow. As idealistic teens are hurtled into mid-life parenthood, it feels as though something has gone terribly wrong. The change has escaped somewhere with the smoke and empty wine bottles. Divorce, old age and retirement creep up just as quick and the 21st century offers our pair the rewards of the baby boom generation. Their children look on, bitter and angry. Generation X rails at the laissez-faire attitude of their parents that has condemned them. Olivier award winning playwright Mike Bartlett draws us into the generational debate and leaves us to make our minds up.
- January 2016
Cambridge University Dance Society invites you to join us for a spectacular visual feast of movement and colour, featuring styles such as contemporary, ballet, hip-hop, breakdance, belly-dancing, Rock’n’Roll, Indian folk dance and more! Don’t miss the ADC’s biggest dance show of the year, as CUDS returns to the stage for their annual variety show which offers a performance platform for diverse groups across Cambridge to showcase their dazzling talent.
Praise for previous CUDS shows:
“Vibrant, eye-catching and enthusiastically performed” – Varsity, 2015
“Original and innovative choreography” – TCS, 2015
“A sensory buffet and an absolute delight… an uplifting night of quality entertainment” – The Tab, 2014
- January 2016
Murder! Murder in the ADC! Just before going on to perform, a sketch comic is killed. Over the course of an hour, the remaining performers will interrogate suspects in the audience, whilst keeping the remainder at ease with a series of hilarious sketches. Will the crime be solved? Will the sketches be funny? Come and see Murder On The Disorient Express: A Murder Mystery Sketch Show.
- January 2016
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!
- December 2015
Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night, or What You Will’ takes us to the heart of the festive season, full of music, trickery, deception and disguise. This year’s European Theatre Tour’s production will be set against a backdrop of 1950s Europe in an era of post war opulence, where appearance is everything, yet nothing is quite what it seems to be. With identical twins separated by a shipwreck, a cross-dressing heroine and everyone in search of love, Twelfth Night is one of the most famous and tangled love stories in literature.
In the fantastical, wacky and slightly surreal Kingdom of Illyria, the peace of the grieving Olivia and heartsick Duke is disturbed by the arrival of Viola and Sebastian with a lazy drunk, a vain pedant, a cowardly fool and a cunning maid who indulge in the madness of the festive season against a backdrop of 1950s Europe, with a mixture of original compositions and fifties music.
Using music, movement, physical theatre and slapstick comedy to show just how “the course of true love never did run smooth” in this, the most loved of Shakespeare’s comic plays, Twelfth Night hurls us into the madness of Illyria as the twins try to make their way through.
Join ETG this winter as we tour European schools and theatres on the university’s oldest theatre tour.
The Cambridge University European Theatre Group (ETG) tours a Shakespeare play around Europe for two and a half weeks every December. It is an ambitious coach-bound operation; a company of 24 tour with professional lighting and sound equipment, costumes and an experimental set, enabling us to put on a show in a wide variety of venues around Europe.
The European Theatre Group is a self-sufficient theatre tour, that has travelled by coach to schools, universities and professional venues across Europe each December for the last 58 years. Whilst Switzerland remains a central part of the itinerary, tours have also included dates in Belgium, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy. In recent years the company have enjoyed performing for a London audience, before a home run in January at the ADC Theatre, Cambridge.
An integral part of the tour is the educational enrichment we provide. Our plays are designed to engage with modern audiences, from children to expatriates; alongside this we offer both artistic and technical workshops, and work with schools to support students studying the text in class.
- January 2016
The Addams Family features an original story, and it's every father's nightmare. Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family - a man her parents have never met. And if that weren't upsetting enough, Wednesday confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he's never done before - keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday's 'normal' boyfriend and his parents.
- December 2015
Fly away, fly away to the Neverland! Join Peter Pan as he flies into the ADC Theatre this December with KD Theatre’s fantastic musical adaption of the classic J. M. Barrie novel everyone has grown to know and love. Peter Pan is a boy who didn’t want to grow up and so spent his life in Neverland battling the pirates and Indians. When he brings the Darling children to Neverland with him, he is finally able to fight his biggest enemy, the elegant Captain Hook. Featuring great music, spectacular effects and real flying, this show is not to be missed.
- December 2015
- December 2015
“The problem with girls like that is they ruin it for everyone. The problem with girls like that is they give all girls a bad name.”
When Scarlet’s naked photo goes viral around school, the ferocity of smartphones and tweets are unleashed and her reputation is torn to shreds. The enemy however is not the boys; this is girls against girls.
"Sket, skank, slapper, you deserve everything coming to you"
A twisted fusion of 'Mean Girls' and 'Black Mirror', this explosive play captures our increasingly distorted sense of reality and the pressures on today's digital generation. While it is viciously funny, it speaks with brutal honesty and shockingly reveals not only the messed up standards that are imposed on young women by men, but more importantly by women themselves. Be prepared to leave asking yourself uncomfortable questions and rethinking how many friends you actually have on Facebook.
- December 2015
Don't miss the Show Choir's first performance with its brand new company - jazz hands and harmonies as you've never seen them before.
One night only.
- November 2015
Creativity. Determination. Caffeine. These are just a few of the elements that go into a 24 Hour Play festival. 24 Hour Plays is a fast-paced, mad, and extremely fun gallop through the theatrical process, for both the participants and the spectators! 5 teams have 24 hours to write, rehearse, and perform short plays, which will be voted on by the audience. The results are completely unpredictable, but predictably fantastic. To the winner goes the glory -- and a good night's rest!
- November 2015
Something is rotten in the state of Lichtenstein.
A shady businessman has been manipulating milk prices, plunging the world into a state of brittle-boned chaos and it’s up to Britain’s top agent, Macy Johnson, to sort things out. Along the way she’ll be helped and hindered by an array of shady businessmen, corrupt ministers, pompous diplomats and gun-toting Americans, all played by a cast of just three actors.
This hilarious farce is sure to be udder chaos.
- November 2015
In medieval times, life was very different to now. There were huge divides between rich people and poor people.
There were also snazzy musical numbers, talking trees and a live audience watching the every move of a medium-sized town in the East Midlands. Welcome to Nottingham!
Here, the Sheriff’s long-term economic plan is in full swing, and everything is rosy; the caviar flows like water and the water flows if you pay your taxes. Yet all this is about to change. When Maid Marian has a chance encounter with Robin Hood, she sets in motion a tree-topping tale of love, lies and Marxist liberation that promises to blow the glass ceiling, and your minds.
Will the Sheriff’s iron rule be broken? Will Marian find what she is looking for? Will Scarlet is also there. Join us for this year’s glitziest, jazziest, sparkliest, socialist-est show of all, starring the cream of Cambridge’s comedy and musical worlds in the all-singing, all-dancing, CUADC/Footlights Pantomime: Robin Hood!
- November 2015
The Marlowe Showcase will be a chance for graduating actors to perform a series of monologues and duologues to an audience of industry professionals including casting directors and agents.
- November 2015
Sculptor Brindsley Miller has pulled out all the stops to impress his flighty new fiancée’s hard-nosed father and a millionaire art collector, including embellishing his humble apartment with furniture ‘borrowed’ from an absentee neighbour. Then, the lights go out!
Brindsley blindly struggles to salvage the evening, but the unexpected return of the neighbour, not to mention a surprise visit from a jealous ex-girlfriend, mean that he might be better off keeping everyone in the dark...
Watch what really happens when the lights go out in this uproarious comedy from Peter Shaffer.
- November 2015
Based on Jamila Gavin’s novel and first staged at the National Theatre in 2005, Coram Boy is an emotionally overwhelming play set against the backdrop of adolescent love, abandoned babies, cruelty, murder, social prejudice, friendship and the music of 18th century England.
At the heart of this play is the story of two boys from very different backgrounds. Alexander, the son of Lord Ashbrook and a musical prodigy, runs away from a life of duty as heir to the family estate in pursuit of personal and creative freedom. Meshak Gardiner is the impoverished, mentally-damaged son of the sinister Otis – a man who promises a better life for abandoned children. During their troubled adolescence these very different life journeys become intrinsically bound, particularly through Aaron, the illegitimate son Alexander unwittingly leaves behind.
Though Aaron starts his life in the Coram Hospital for Foundlings, as he grows into a young man it becomes clear that he has inherited his father’s musical ability, a gift that could ultimately reunite his family.
- November 2015
Cinderella with less pumpkin, more picketing? The classic tale of Ali Baba told with one more X chromosome? The greed, ignorance and vanity of The Red Shoes translated into dance? They’re all destinations on the journey and you are invited.
Yearwalk brings to life the stories you thought you knew in a setting you could only dream of. Traditional folklore and fables are reinvigorated with music and dance, puppetry and shadows, magic and spectacle. The often vague and mysterious nature of story-telling is explored as ancient stories from around the world are brought to stage after being passed down the generations. The atmosphere will entrance you as we embrace the history and mystery of different cultures…
- November 2015
Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd, the story of the notorious demon barber of Fleet Street.
When Sweeney Todd returns to London after 15 years of unjust incarceration, his mind is bent on black revenge. He longs to kill the sadistic Judge Turpin who had stolen and abused Todd’s wife and wrongfully banished him to Australia. With the help of a young idealistic sailor, Antony, and the loveable but immoral Mrs Lovett, Todd sets his mind to avenging his beloved wife Lucy and being reunited with his daughter Johanna, now locked away by the lecherous Turpin.
This delightfully macabre tale descends into a cut-throat world of cannibalism, caged birds, meat pies, mad beggars and deceit as Todd restarts his career as a barber, declaring war on all mankind.
Join the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society in an industrial world of smoke and steampunk as they try a little priest. It’s an acquired taste.
- November 2015
"Okay we get it, there's no binbags. So what do we do now?"
Four twenty-somethings wake up after a night out with killer hangovers and no memory of what happened the night before. Two are flatmates, one is a family friend, and the other is a stranger from their night out. They wake up, make breakfast and try to put the previous night behind them, only to have a rude reminder of it fall in front of them.
Winner of the RSC/Marlowe Society Other Prize 2015, and shortlisted for the Footlights Harry Porter Prize, "Living Quarters" is a dark comedy that will change the way you think about kitchen gloves.
- November 2015
How do you make your voice heard in a world that wants to keep you quiet?
Inspired by the events of the London Riots in 2011, this exciting new musical follows the story of a teenage boy trying to pursue his dream of becoming a successful musician against the backdrop of a struggling London borough. When the only hope of a future rests in the security of a local gang, he must decide which path to choose. Facing the pressures of social tensions and the changing nature of community, what will he do?
With a brand new script, and a score by the composer of The CUADC/Footlights Pantomime 2014: The Emperor’s New Clothes, we present to you a concert performance of snippits from this new show.
- November 2015
“I just thought everyone’s parents spoke like that. Then I realised.”
“Just like I thought everyone’s parents walked around in the nude shouting at each other.”
“They do.”
Billy’s fiercely intelligent and proudly unconventional family are their own tribe, with their own private language, jokes and rules. You can be as rude as you like, as possessive as you like and as critical as you like. Arguments are an expression of love. After all, you’d do anything for each other, wouldn’t you?
But Billy, who is deaf, is the only one who actually listens.
Meeting Sylvia makes him finally want to be heard, but can he get a word in edgeways? She introduces him to sign-language, love and the deaf community. Some of his family aren’t keen on his new, increasingly distant, identity.
Nina Raine’s award-winning play is a fascinating dissection of belonging, family and the limitations of communication.
- October 2015
"Yes, getting away with murder must be quite easy provided that one’s motive is sufficiently inscrutable."
A mysterious gentleman, Simon Gascoyne, has just entered Muldoon Manor trying to win the heart of the ravishing young Cynthia Muldoon...
A shot is heard. Simon lies dead! Who could have murdered him?
Cut off from the world, the fear and suspense rise! Their only hope lies with the enigmatic Inspector Hound, an illustrious detective on the hunt for a killer.
Who will the murderer target next?
Will the Inspector get to get to Muldoon Manor in time?
And most importantly, who is the REAL Inspector Hound?
Stoppard's one-act play is a wickedly funny tale of love, jealousy, murder, and melodrama; complete with a live band and original score.
- October 2015
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 spikey; wordy and nerdy or a little surreal - whatever the style, it's always 'uproariously funny' (Varsity).
- October 2015
Slowly I learnt the ways of humans: how to ruin, how to hate, how to debase, how to humiliate. And at the feet of my master I learnt the highest of human skills, the skill no other creature owns: I finally learnt how to lie.
Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein's bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the friendless Creature, increasingly desperate and vengeful, determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.
Urgent concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are embedded within this thrilling and deeply disturbing classic gothic tale.
FRANKENSTEIN was first presented at the National Theatre, London on 5 February 2011, directed by Danny Boyle
- October 2015
And it was written: let there be a book tour. Tristram Shandy's sizzling autobiography, 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman', has just hit the shelves and the author is touring the country, wowing audiences with a theatrical extravaganza which captures the scandal, wit and wisdom of this instant classic. Morrissey's autobiography went straight to Penguin Classics; Tristram's got Oxford and Wordsworth as well. Although we tend not to talk about the Wordsworth edition.
Join us at the ADC, for four nights only, and revel in the sex, the scandal, the song, the dance, the love, the lies and that bit where he gets his thingy trapped in a sash window. This new adaptation of Laurence Sterne's hilarious and groundbreaking novel takes you on a poignant and compelling tour through some of the life and many of the opinions of Britain's finest Tristram.
Torquay is still reeling.
- October 2015
Getting into the boyband game can be difficult. Despite having one good singer, one with a regional accent, and one token Asian, Orlando, Haydn, and Yaseen haven't been able to crack it. So you'll have to join them for an hour of stand-up comedy instead.
The new show from the stars of "Smile", "Who Am I?", "Telly Visions", "Bafflesmash", "The Witt Club", "Picasso Stole the Mona Lisa", and countless Footlights and college smokers. No lip-synching. Guaranteed.
Previous praise for the performers:
"Simply sensational."
"Had the audience laughing from start to finish."
"A slimline Michael McIntyre."
"Thought provoking, exquisitely written, and doesn't scrimp on big laughs."
- October 2015
“What would the good do if evil did not exist? And what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it?”
The Devil arrives in Stalinist Moscow. Pontius Pilate argues with Christ over the nature of human worth. And a woman goes to hell and back to save her lover.
This adaptation of Bulgakov’s violent, poetic and sprawling masterpiece stays true to the heart of the original: part diabolical satire, exposing the hypocrisy, greed and corruption of Moscow’s citizens, and part heart-rending love story, engaging with our most basic human instincts.
- October 2015
The original 1972 Broadway production of Stephen Schwartz (best known for his work on Wicked, Godspell, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Prince of Egypt) and Roger O. Hirson's 'Pippin' won five Tony Awards, and the 2013 Broadway revival won another four.
The story is told by a troupe of actors, led by the ‘Leading Player’, a mysterious figure who breaks the fourth wall and blurs the distinction between the world of fiction and reality. The troupe stages the story of Pippin, a young prince who is searching for his place in the world. Rather than following a linear structure, the show resembles a picaresque adventure-story, consisting of a number of fantastical episodes: Pippin goes to war with the Visigoths, murders his father, becomes a tyrant, flees to the countryside and falls in love.
Pippin contains a masterful score by Stephen Schwartz, with upbeat pop-inspired numbers that propel the story along with wit and energy, and many of its memorable songs, from Pippin’s soaring ballad Corner of the Sky to Berthe’s rousing (and audience-participatory) anthem No Time at All, have become established classics.
- October 2015
"It is now one hour before dawn - when I must dismiss us both. When I return, I'll tell you about the war I fought with God through His preferred Creature - Mozart, named Amadeus. In the waging of which, of course, the Creature had to be destroyed."
It is 1823. Vienna. The famous composer Salieri is ill and dying. For him, it seems, his final hours on earth are not just for reminiscing, but confessing. Amadeus is the story of that confession - of how Salieri made a deal with God in the hope of gaining talent, and how the greater genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart turned everything upside down. Upon witnessing Mozart's extraordinary talents first-hand, Salieri starts down a course of action with dark and dangerous consequences for both men.
Peter Shaffer's play is a costume tragedy for the stage, taking the audience back into the world of the Viennese court of the 18th century and exploring the personal, and political motivations behind the facades. An ensemble of exotic and lively characters people his world, a world where music is intertwined with intrigue, sexual bargaining, and gossip. The play itself has been through multiple versions since its first run in 1979 (with Ian McKellen and Tim Curry in the leading roles), including one oscar winning film. Twice director of Amadeus Peter Hall has said that the current play has evolved massively from a melodrama into what it is today "while keeping its thrills and its intellectual edge, it has become a profoundly humanist play about forgiveness and atonement."
