- February 2008
Under the dark, dank February sky, a dazzling light will shine. She is The White Devil. And like a mine of diamonds, she refuses to break.
Atop the chequered marble of an Italian court, a game of chess will be staged; some will play dukes, others must play pawns. The key to survival is clever moves and viciousness. It’s theatre, after all.
Vittoria and Flamineo, proud but poor siblings, know this game all too well. Flamineo acts as pander between his married sister and the Duke of Brachiano - an illicit affair unfolds, breeding lust, murder and revenge in its wake.
Vittoria, the femme fatale, becomes the scapegoat – her startling wit and rebelliousness pose too great a threat to male dominance. She must be destroyed.
Webster’s tragedy is crueller, darker and more seductive than any of Shakespeare’s; it’d be a nightmare to miss.
- February 2008
"Dreams are a sweet mistake. All dreamers must awake."
Many decades have passed since the heyday of the Weissman Showgirls, and the old Weissman Theatre, now derelict and crumbling, is due to be demolished. As the showgirls and their partners return for a first and last reunion, they confront ghosts of their younger selves...
This biting satire on age and nostalgia features show-stopping songs, spectacular choreography and the accompaniment of a 30-piece orchestra.
- February 2008
"Malcolm Scrawdyke. On behalf of the party, on behalf of the nation, I address you. You are the fount of our wisdom, you are the source of our strength, you are our bastion against eunurchy. Dynamic Erection is the future!"
"Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs," follows expelled art student Malcolm Scrawdyke as he persuades his fellow students to join him in forming, The Party of Dynamic Erection. To Malcolm, the real reason for his failure at art school is that society is run by 'eunuchs' who stifle true geniuses like himself. With his friends Irwin, Wick and Nipple, he plots to conquer the world and enjoy 'power for power's sake.'
- February 2008
An artist, a scientist and a sexpot are coming to dinner. Paige, hostess extraordinaire, is celebrating the publication of her husband's best-seller about the psychological apocalypse. The arrival of Mike, marooned in the foggy lane having crashed his van, provides an unexpected addition to the evening's entertainment. A silent waiter, sourced from an obscure website, completes the picture. Primordial Soup is first on the menu - let the dinner from hell begin. In this macabre yet humorous work Buffini makes it clear revenge is the main dish on the menu, spiced with pungent allegory. The dinner party is the perfect dramatic arena: the intimate battleground of men and women, public and private, pretension and reality, passion and restraint. This production's colourful and playful design explores these tensions.
The production side is very exciting - I envisage the set design as minimalist but stylised and prominent. This will be complimented by a bold and striking lighting design. I'm taking the play, a colourful and vibrant black comedy, in a surreal direction and the design should mirror this weirdness! Lots of use of unusual and bright colours and playing with some sharp angles (in both set and lighting) are all part of the design concept. The Technical Director would face some original challenges - from dealing with huge chandaleers (which must be functional as well as being able to fly out!) to overseeing the life (and death?) of real lobsters (and their aquirium home) - both examples of how this play is very different to your usual mainshow. This play changed from 'Festen' recently and we have the challenge of finding a talented and creative production team in a very short space of time...
- January–February 2008
A minor masterpiece from Tennessee Williams' lesser known explorations into the theatre of the 'Outrageous'; featuring a giant pelican, a drunken fisherman, a Hollywood Indian, two stoned female clowns and a tragic ex-Vaudevillian soubrette, accompanied with a Chaplinesque set and an on-stage gypsy-klezmer band, THE GNADIGES FRAULEIN (The Gracious Maid) will be an unprecedented theatrical experience at the ADC theatre.
Written in the 1960's, during his self-professed 'stoned age', Tennessee Williams found himself spurned by critics for not producing another Glass Menagerie or Streetcar; the original Broadway production closed after only six days of performance. But this was more of a sign of Williams' transgressive talent than failed artistry; in his own words it was "a grotesque comedy that was incomprehensible to people" but "everyone has the tears that are expressed in this play". This is not, as narrow-minded critics have claimed, a second rate attempt at the theatre of the absurd but a logical climax of themes and emotions that are central to Williams' theatre: tragedy, comedy, black humour, pathos, the grotesque, melodrama and an underlying spirit of endurance pitted against the unrelenting cruelty of the world.
The play is set in Cocaloony Key, a non-realistic evocation of the Southern Florida Keys in which giant birds that resemble Pelicans (Cocaloonies) ominously co-inhabit with their human counterparts. In order to pay her rent for the local boarding house, run by a cruel and clownish landlady, Molly, the 'Fraulein' has to submit herself to a savage, daily contest with the Cocaloonies to catch fish from the harbour. As the two unsympathetic clowns watch her clockwork battle with the birds they wonder if she has "guts enough to fight the good fight or will she retire from the fish-docks like she did from show business?"
It is at once deeply tragic and profoundly comic. This production will be infused with a faithful spirit of play, spectacle, sensitivity and, most importantly, a commitment to entertain, move and disturb its audience.
- January–February 2008
Downing Dramatic Society, Alcock Players and GODS present.. ALL THE ORDINARY ANGELS.
Two brothers. One girl. A whole load of ice cream.
When Guiseppe Raffa decides to retire from the ice cream business, only one son can take over. It's not long before tactics get dirty.
Rocco is up to something with the garden wall. His wife, Bernie, is sick of waiting at home for the children that may never arrive. Lino is in love with Lulu, even though she says that she’ll break his heart.
And Lulu?
She has bigger ideas. She’s in love with ice cream and will let nothing stop her from reaching her goal. When Lino starts to lose the competition, she helps Rocco invent a very special ice cream, an ice cream that the people of Manchester can’t stop craving.
Will Manchester get their ‘fix’?
- January 2008
As fast as Parker, as wild as Tarka, as funny as Farquhar, this is Anthropology: a Materialist History of the World in One Hour. We take you from man standing upright to man landing on the moon, and leave you wondering why he bothered doing either. Along the way, we will answer all of the questions that have vexed historians since the year dot. If rowing went out of fashion in the 11th century, why do people still do it? Why did the Welsh not take over the world when they had the chance? What was the first camera small enough you could stick it down your pants? War (huh, yeah) what is it good for? How many Wrongs make a Wright brother? Is life better down where it's wetter, or are crabs not to be trusted on such matters? Come along and find out: ANTHROPOLOGY!
- January 2008
“Perspectives” is an exploration and expression of the themes of time and memory through contemporary dance, in an attempt to define them in a beautiful and engaging sensory spectacle.
Drawn into each “Perspective” the audience will be woven into the fabric of time with each thrilling moment and each inspiring movement of electric live dance. From the timeless aesthetic of classical ballet to the current pulsing beat of Hip-hop, “Perspectives” is a dynamic production gripping the audience in the powerful rhythm of its performance and vibrant intensity of its memory.
Let us transport you to a different time and place where you can embrace the contemporary heat of Cambridge dance glimpsing into the future and forming memories that will last a life time.
- January 2008
Alcock Improv have brought some of their friends to the ADC for a week of adrenaline-fuelled comedy! Tuesday - Alcock Improv - "The Footlights should watch their back" Varsity ** Wednesday - The Institute - Canal Cafe, London regulars Thursday - The Oxford Imps - "the best improvised comedy that I have ever had the pleasure to witness" *** - Three Weeks August 2007 Friday - Pappy's Fun Club - “Extraordinarily fresh and funny" Dominic Maxwell, The Times Saturday - Scratch Impro - “Side splittingly funny” The Guardian
- December 2007
Pompey defeated, Julius Caesar returns to Rome, flushed with triumph. But Rome has changed, and talk of assassination lurks behind every column...
Cambridge University European Theatre Group's 50th anniversary production of one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies brings the political intrigue of Ancient Rome into a modern setting in which our barbarism and ambition are revealed in the relationships with those closest to us. Morality is forgotten in the lust for power, love is cast viciously aside, and the true nature of honour is finally realised.
ETG was founded in 1957 by a group of students including Sir Derek Jacobi, who toured Europe in a fruit van. Highly acclaimed recent productions include Macbeth (2006), The Taming of the Shrew (2005), and Romeo and Juliet (2004).
This brilliant new production tours Europe in December 2007 before returning to the ADC Theatre, Cambridge, for a run from 15-19 January 2008.
- January 2008
Fledgling Productions are delighted to be returning to the ADC in January for their sixth show here. Following last year’s outstanding production of Seussical, this year you can enjoy two exciting shows for the price of one!!
A cast of talented local youngsters, aged from 6 upwards, will bring to life two of Disney’s all-time greats.
Jungle Book, with its cast of fun characters, including Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo, Shere Khan, Kaa, Colonel Hathi and the unforgettable King Louis, will tug at your heart strings with songs such as ‘The Bare Necessities’ and ‘I Wan’na Be Like You’, which have been firm favourites since the film was released 51 years ago!
Then, swap the jungles of India and for the colourful magical carpets of Arabian Agrabah where you can witness Aladdin and Jasmine, with a little help from The Genie battle the evil Jafar; a show that will send you away with a spring in your step, singing those enchanting melodies – ‘A Whole New World’, and ‘A Friend Like Me’.
- November–December 2007
Attempts to describe her? Attempts to destroy her? Or attempts to destroy herself?
Seven nameless figures. One hour. One red bag. One ashtray. One hotel. One protagonist, missing.
In 1997, Martin Crimp’s controversial scenarios for the theatre revolutionised British playwriting, challenging audiences and defying critics. The seventeen ‘attempts’ are the search for the perfect story, and the action runs the gamut of modern life – from terrorism to pornography to gap years and smoking in the blink of an eye. Our protagonist is the ultimate enigma, and the possibilities are endless.
More relevant than ever to the world and our attempts to explain it, this daring and emotionally charged production of a modern classic will leave you speechless.
Ten years on, Attempts on her Life is back with a bang.
- November 2007
Ooh err matron!
Fresh from the Edinburgh fringe, ICE are back to the ADC bringing you a fully improvised farce. All the action is under your control as expert performers spontaneously create drama, passion, intrigue and romance in front of your very eyes. Well, maybe a bit. Mostly it's just hilarious fast-paced comedy!
Who murders whom? Who falls in love with whom? What could possibly come between the happy couple? Will Lord Fotheringale ever live down the embarrassing wombat incident of last night's dinner party? You get to choose!
Jeeves and Wooster meets Carry On meets AN ADDITIONAL THIRD CONTRASTING THING! The play will be lovingly created on the spot for you by our expert improvisers, so there is only one chance to see this unique and perfect creation. It has never been seen before and will never been seen again! No Scripts, no Rehearsals, no Kenneth Williams!
- November 2007
Once Upon a Time… there was an ADC/Footlights Pantomime.
You want traditional? This is traditional. The panto is back, and back to basics.
In a land where bulbous beanstalks grow, dark forests lurk, and the monarchy teeters on the edge of survival, get ready to see your favourite characters as you’ve never seen them before. From the three little pigs to the Fairy Godmother, and a big, bad pantomime wolf. Prepare to boo and hiss as you encounter the wicked Stepmother and cheer as Prince Charming tries to save the day.
The biggest and boldest show of the theatrical calendar, this year's pantomime features a script by Footlights regular Alex Clatworthy and Footlights Harry Porter Prize winner Rory Mullarkey, a catchy-as-hell original score by Harry Winstanley and performances from Cambridge's top comic actors. Once Upon A Time… is guaranteed to be fantastic fairy-tale fun for all the family. Oh, yes it is!
- November 2007
Stop Press! Here comes a play set in a local newspaper office, which redefines the idea of NEWS: Old lady savaged to death by her own collection of cats! Abusive secretaries! The tragic tale of a man who was just too good at digging holes without a spade! Ian McKellen's furtive fancy dress hobby! Chicken wings! An aristocrat in a cardboard box! Murderous schoolchildren! Indestructible gardeners! THE END OF THE WORLD! (on a provincial scale). - Forget world news! forget Heat magazine and The Times, and come to a place where 'Botox' is how posh people say 'buttocks', where congestion charges are when the price of Kleenex goes up, where the men are men, and so - for the most part - are the women. Hot new writing from Cambridge alumnus Tom Hensby, (shortlisted for the Harry Porter Prize and the 'Other' Prize): I Scream Scoop: Terrible pun. Terribly funny play.
- November 2007
What exactly do we mean by charity? Delve into the dirty, underhand and political world of big business philanthropy where principals and ideals simply disappear. Churchill's unnerving dark humour and trademark wit coupled with the Fresher talent on display make this play this season's must see!
- November 2007
Smash! Into a thousand pieces shatters the mind of the Disciple as he seeks knowledge from the Sage of Ages. Catapulted through fast-paced comedy sketches in this high-octane revue, prepared for you by Triple Point Comedy (fresh from their Edinburgh Fringe performance), the Disciple has no choice but to learn and laugh with pain and joy.
Marvel as Triple Point's experienced alternative comedians soar through darkly comic scenes and leave you giggling for more.
Meet the man who designs your nightmares. Taste the sweet tears of laughter of those around you. Prepare for wisdom.
- November 2007
Crowds are gathering. The town is made ready. The Visit begins. The arrival in Güllen of Claire Zachanassian, billionaire and former resident of the town, sends ripples of excitement through the sleepy eastern European settlement. But after Zachanassian offers the townspeople the grant they so desperately need in return for settling her old scores, the veneer of civilised life is scraped off to reveal the darkness beneath. Alfred Ill must die. And his neighbours and friends must do it. It’s only a matter of time.
The inspiration for Lars Von Trier’s Palm d’Or winning ‘Dogville’, ‘The Visit’ has transfixed audiences around the world with its blend of broad humour and bleak drama.
The CU Amateur Dramatic Club's Freshers' mainshow: see the best of Cambridge’s new theatrical talent in this dark comedy.
- November 2007
By special permission of Edward Albee, Selwyn's Mighty Players bring his first work to the Cambridge stage. The play is a challenging two man piece, which is filled with subtle humour whilst also having a darker twist.
- November 2007
Set in the urban atmosphere of the late 1980's, 'Fame' follows the path of ten students through their time at the prestigious New York's High School for Performing Arts. Despite their diverse backgrounds and talents, they all share a dream to become famous performers. But reality kicks in, things get complicated, and although the determination remains, they learn just as much about themselves as they do about acting, music or dance.
- October–November 2007
"The tale of the impossible. A house with its own soul. A death. A resurrection. A moor’s pestilential environment. A house that outwardly manifests the crumbling nature of Roderick’s inner decay."
A hypnotizing new production of Steven Berkoff’s extraordinary adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s, “febrile fantastical story that served as an occult tale for our voices and senses, to find their expression through”. Physical theatre pushed to the limits, a deeply chilling soundtrack and haunting film images combine to create a late night gothic spectacle.
Incest, catalepsy, premature burial, and mental disorder, “no, not madness. More an ability to see beyond madness… May I tell you something, may I? One step nearer the light and you have genius. One step nearer the dark and you have madness. Between the two is an indefinable region”. May I tell you something……?
- October–November 2007
A dinner party goes badly wrong. Sarah and Ralf are a young couple failing to find happiness in clubs or cinemas. They invite Sarah’s colleague Edith and her husband Bastian for dinner. Ralf jokes in poor taste that there’s a corpse in the trunk behind him. The level of taste descends as Bastian struggles to contain his violent discomfort at the prolonged joke, while his wife wants to join in the fun. Pizza is ordered. They discuss work. A defiled corpse falls out of the cupboard.
Mr Kolpert is a strikingly original work by a young writer, premièred at the Royal Court. It manages to fuse the excesses of Sarah Kane with the black humour of Pinter’s awkward interiors. This is a provocative, but above all a fantastically funny play. Nasty violence and guffaws: this says something about the way we live now, but we'll be too shocked and amused to care.
- October–November 2007
Oli Robinson's fab new production of Roald Dahl's classic.
- October 2007
- October 2007
“To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free, when men are different from one another and do not live alone – to a time when truth exists and what is done cannot be undone:
From the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink – Greetings!”
Winston Smith opens his diary. He thinks the year is nineteen eighty-four, but he can’t be sure. In fact, in the totalitarian superstate of Oceania, one can’t be sure of anything anymore. Winston is propelled on a voyage through love and rebellion and finally into the hands of the dreaded Thought Police. He has committed the ultimate human crime; he has fallen in love.
In this exciting stage adaptation of George Orwell’s timeless novel, beauty and horror collide. Winston gradually remembers how to feel, but in doing so, he condemns himself to death. But in a world where love and sex are banned, where everything is written in pencil and can be erased in a second, in a world where two plus two no longer equal four, aren’t we dead already?
- October 2007
"All memories are false, yours in particular."
Three strangers enter a house. Sisters, in fact. One remembers a sunny childhood, another remembers abandon and rain. Shelagh Stephenson's award winning play, THE MEMORY OF WATER is a witty and brutal examination of our tendency to reappropriate the past. Follow six characters as they are forced to untangle the knotty skein of memories. Places and memories collide, stories are diluted, and obsessions recur. Amidst nervous laughter and haunting snapshots: does the past really matter?
- October 2007
Of all the names it is possible to give a man (and there are many - Watkins, Smith and so on) there is one in particular which seems to hold a strange and profound significance; a name that seems to declaim itself from the rooftops, and from the peaks of mountains, and the cry echoes through the valleys of the ages like the bellow of a frustrated hilltop gorilla, resounding from one end of the rainbow to the other and washing back in the whisper of the tide… "Lancelot Sebastian von Ludendorff…"
This is the winner of the first year of Pembroke Players' New Writing Initiative. The Initiative was set up to encourage and draw attention to new theatrical writing from Cambridge students. We will be open to new applications at the end of Lent Term 2008. For more information visit www.pembrokeplayers.org.
- October 2007
The Swan Theatre Company presents an amateur production of Simon Stephens'
MOTORTOWN
Directed by Robert Icke.
'I wanted to write a play that is dark and contradictory and violent because our culture is dark and contradictory and violent. In that sense, I wanted to write, as honestly as I possibly could, about England’ - Simon Stephens
‘The war was alright. I miss it. It’s just you come back to this.’
Danny returns home. All is not well. A play in eight scenes about the war on terror and the culture that drives it, Motortown has established itself as one of the most controversial, most impressive and most important plays of the millennium.
Following its sellout productions of The Alchemist and Much Ado About Nothing, The Swan Theatre Company returns to the ADC with this explosive new play, premiered to great acclaim last year at the Royal Court.
- October 2007
The top improv group in Cambridge for improvised comic sketches, games, songs and dances. Come and see us in our greatest show yet, fresh from a national tour and performing at the Fringe. It'll be good.
Nothing is prepared - the audience provide all of the scenarios. Want us to do a song about flan? We'll do it. Want to see David Cameron present a political cooking program? No problem. Want to see a horror movie based on squirrels? That we can do.
- October 2007
www.aslanisonthemove.co.uk
'They say Aslan is on the move - perhaps he has already landed...'
Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy have been evacuated from London during the Blitz to a big old house in the country. While exploring, Lucy comes across a wardrobe through which she reaches the magical land of Narnia. She meets a faun who tells her of the cruel White Witch, who turns innocent creatures to stone and has cast a spell of perpetual winter over the land. When Lucy returns to Narnia with her brothers and sister, however, the faun has been captured by the White Witch. Teaming up with a couple of beavers, the children set off to rescue him and to find the great lion Aslan, with whose help they must set things right.
C.S. Lewis' classic tale of good and evil is brought vividly to life in Adrian Mitchell's thrilling adaptation, originally written for the RSC. Join us for what promises to be one of the most exciting productions at this year's Edinburgh festival!
- August 2007
The Cambridge Footlights are the world-famous comedy troupe who first aired the talents of some of the foremost British comedians and actors of this century. Footlights is the only student comedy society to have a national tour show, and also the only one to have an Edinburgh Fringe show composed of entirely new material.
The Tour Show, the most prestigious show in the Footlights year, is one of the most eagerly anticipated productions in the Cambridge theatrical calendar as well as at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Tour Show attracts the best of Cambridge's infamous comedy and considerable technical talent.
Reviews for last year's Tour Show 'Niceties':
"A proper funny sketch show with great performances" - David Mitchell, 'Peep Show'.
"A breakneck round of fast-paced sketches, each one funnier than the last…ingeniously hilarious…the country’s most famous student comedy troupe is back on top form" – Cambridge Evening News
- October 2007
Leontes is a jealous man and suspects his queen, Hermione, of adultery with his brother. His persecution kills her and their son. Their infant daughter is sent into exile in Bohemia and named Perdita: she is discovered by a mad hatter who raises her as his own. Sixteen years later Perdita is the belle of Bohemia: she is loved by Florizel and adored by bumpkins. Events conspire to bring together Leontes' stagnant court and the vibrant but dangerous wonderland of Bohemia and a kind of healing is achieved. These fantastical worlds will be realised with design inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice. A cast of eight will portray upwards of twenty characters in a self-consciously theatrical production, physically building new worlds with their bodies. Exit, pursued by a teddy bear.
- July 2007
Here where drugs are quick, pagans worship on a barren landscape; infanticide, bestiality, adultery and cross-dressing are status-quo. Mercilessly ambitious nobles wait in the wings for their turn in the spotlight as ‘King’ whilst a moneylender whets his knife for his pound of flesh. Brothers battle to the death and Asps feed on Queens. Underage intimacy is all the rage; self-obsessed actors play all the parts, cannibalism thrives and fairies fly off into the night…
And who said William Shakespeare is boring?
Welcome to Shakespeare’s Bankside, both the Wooden O of Dreams and a pestilent nest of sex and insobriety. The news headlines read, “Bad is all the world, and all will come to naught”, but on Bankside our troupe perform a new comedy. Action To The Word take you on a whirlwind physical theatre voyage through The Bard’s best-bits, inviting you to his world of Love, War, Chaos and Despair.
- June 2007
Alcock Improv, fresh from their national tour, want to show everyone what they can do! Come along for an hour of improvised comic sketches, songs, dances - anything. You name it, we'll do it. And make it funny. Check out our website - www.alcockimprov.co.uk - for more info.
- June 2007
Following last year's magnificent and highly acclaimed production of Jekyll and Hyde, the award winning Festival Players are delighted to present another Cambridge Premiere.
Based on the 1987 film, and fresh from a celbrated West End Production, The Witches of Easwick is a magical mix of light hearted comedy and captivating musical numbers that will keep you spellbound.
- May 2007
Crash! Meet ICE, Cambridge's most popular improvised comedy group, as they liven up a weary Sunday evening with an hour of explosive comedy in the ADC bar.
In a lethal cocktail of classic games, new games and mysterious narratives - all based on suggestions by you, the audience, they will get to know you in ways you cannot possibly imagine.
