- 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.
- May 2007
Alex is bored of life. Alex is boxed in. Alex doesn't live in a box per se but feels boxed in. You know, metaphorically. If only there was some way to change things. If only there was some way to make life better. Maybe there is. Well, actually, there is. Yeah. There definitely is.
Explore the unhinged, thrilling possibilities of life as Alex reaches boiling point and breaks out of the box (again, it's a metaphorical one) into the enchanting, misshapen world outside.
An unashamedly merry and uplifting sketch show from Footlights regulars Helen Cripps and Anna O'Grady, Boxed In will make you laugh, cry (with laughter - it's not sad) and exclaim with delight when you realise how brilliant life is.
Does any of it really happen? Does it really matter? Who cares for God's sake? If you're not enraptured by the sight of two sombreros and a kazoo, you shouldn't be going to the theatre anyway.
- May 2007
DDS and HATS present... WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
"There were old ladies in the audience not merely tearing up their programmes but jumping up and down on them out of sheer hatred…" Stanley Baxter [Dr Prentice] remembers the original West End run.
Dr. Prentice, the chief psychiatrist at a private clinic, wants to have an affair with his secretary. His wife, Mrs. Prentice, has invited a hotel porter to her husband’s clinic in an attempt to seduce him. This leads to inevitable problems as both husband and wife lie and deceive each other as they hide their lovers in a bizarre variety of disguises. From this outrageous situation, chaos ensues when the Chief Government Health Inspector turns up on the scene and, relying heavily on his Freudian training, decides to section them as clinically insane …
Add in a leopard print dress, far too many doors and a scandalously damaged statue of Sir Winston Churchill and you have a recipe for disaster.
- May 2007
Join Cambridge's most popular improvisational talent as they once again take the ADC stage by storm. Are you tired? Stressed? Unable to understand the deconstructive argumentation section on Lenin? Then Revise This! as ICE lead you through a fast-paced night of unprepared comedy sketches, songs and narratives which will enlighten you in ways you can't understand but pretended you did in supervisions all term.
- May 2007
"You kidnap the Captain and bind him in chains; jump ship and start again."
A desperate band of songsters, poets and low-lifes in waiting will pour out their little blood orange hearts for your entertainment. We'll pretend to be friends and do away with your loved ones in a song. We'll all put on a brave face. Expect bust-up guitars and ill-fitting hats. Expect violins. Expect to be thrilled and disappointed in fairly equal measure by whatever snapshots we offer. Feather-light folk will melt into stomp-hollering blues. Pirates will roar and lovers will fall; whorehouses will burn to the ground and a backwards smile will catch us off guard, all in front of your eyes. In essence, our raggle-taggle band of waistrels and brow-beaters will do everything in their power to make you love the bottom of the barrel.
- May 2007
Portia’s father has died leaving a bevy of suitors trying to solve the riddles on three caskets to win her hand * and her large fortune. Bassanio must raise a sum to travel to Belmont and try his suit. His friend Antonio leverages his credit to secure money from the Jewish money lender Shylock for Bassanio’s quest. All seems to go well for Portia and Bassanio when Antonio’s ships miscarry and Shylock demands the collateral for his loan: a pound of Antonio’s flesh. On their wedding night, Bassanio flees to Venice to be at his friend’s side. Things look ill for Antonio when Portia arrives disguised as a Doctor of Laws (with her waiting woman Narissa disguised as her Clerk) to save Antonio’s life and her marriage. After winning the case, Portia tests Bassanio’s commitment and he is found wanting.
- May 2007
“I’ve caught a cold. A germ. In my eyes. It was this morning. In my eyes. My eyes. Not that I had any difficulty in seeing you, no, no, it was not so much my sight, my sight is excellent – in winter I run about with nothing on but a pair of polo shorts – no, it was so much any deficiency in my sight as the airs between me and my object, the shades they make, the shapes they take, the quivering, the eternal quivering – please stop crying – nothing to do with heat-haze.”
Edward and Flora enjoy a happy country-side life. Goose for lunch, a garden flowering with clematis and convolvulus, and a plentiful supply of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Nothing could be more splendid. But who’s that shady figure lurking at the back gate? Is he really just a match seller? There’s a slight ache in Edward’s eye, niggling away at his very core, and nothing will make it go away until he’s found out…
- May 2007
A bloody, bawdy comedy set in the Elizabethan theatre-world.
The once successful writer Robert Greene is struggling with the failure of his comedy Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay. Meanwhile Brummie upstart Will Shakespeare's new 'docu-drama' Henry VI is wowing them at the Rose. Kit Marlowe steps in to help alleviate his friend's financial burden with a little 'creative opinion shaping' against the Flemings. However, in a world of literary rivalry, plague and spying...someone's bound to get hurt...
Presented by The Marlowe Society on its 100th anniversary.
- March 2007
http://www.forbiddenplanet.org.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/forbiddenplanetcambridge
‘Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire!’
5...4...3...2…1…BLAST OFF!!
Join us on board the mother ship ADC for a journey into deepest space. Robots, mad scientists, and aliens all welcome. BEWARE, our journey may be treacherous. There may be asteroid showers and there may be monsters but that’s just what we’ve come to expect from space travel these days.
What is set to be the theatrical highlight of the Lent term, Return to the Forbidden Planet is a joyous mix of fun. This is Shakespeare's forgotten rock and roll masterpiece. The Tempest as a 1950s B-movie, bursting with 60s and 70s pop numbers including classics such as ‘Good Vibrations,’ ‘Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire,’ ‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’ and ‘Born to be wild’ . There is something for everyone aged 2 to 200 - human, cyborg or robot…
VISIT OUR BLOG - Regular posts from productionland and from Outer Space
http://blog.myspace.com/forbiddenplanetcambridge
Education
Space Cadets on a Mission of Discovery to the Forbidden Planet!
Saturday Week 8&9 Fun workshops based on The Return to the Forbidden Planet and The Tempest will be run on Saturday mornings before the matinee performances of the show.
10-11am – discovery into space- exploring the key elements of the show, set, costume, make-up, lighting and sound throughout the theatre while touring the theatre at your own pace
11am -12 noon- workshop on stage for Primary age children including singing, dancing and movement based on the show
12 noon-1pm- workshop on stage for Secondary age children including singing, dancing and movement based work on the show
ADVANCED BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL – book your place by calling the theatre on 01223 300085 or going online to www.adctheatre.com
Education packs focused on inter-textual links between Return to the Forbidden Planet and The Tempest are available for Primary and Secondary age children. To request an education pack and/or a free practical workshop in your school alongside your school booking please contact Hazel Sheard at hjs38@cam.ac.uk
http://www.forbiddenplanet.org.uk/
- March 2007
So there's this man in Russia and he's not happy with his coat. So he gets a new one. And he loves it. And there's this man and woman in England and they're not happy with each other but they probably don't want new ones because they already quite love each other. Or maybe just like each other a lot. Partly based on the humour and tales of Nikolai Gogol, Coat flicks between nineteenth century St Petersburg and the here and now. It's sort of a romantic comedy but it's also about other things for instance eg. apple and blackcurrant squash for example. So if you like love and you love like, this is the play for you.
The Harry Porter Prize was established four years ago to celebrate the contribution to Footlights of the Club’s Senior Archivist, Harry Porter. In past years the award has been judged by Stephen Fry, Bill Oddie and Michael Frayn, and we are pleased to announce that the prize this year will be judged by Declan Donnellan, the multi-award-winning director and playwright, co-founder of Cheek by Jowl, and author of 'The Actor and the Target.'
- March 2007
- March 2007
In 1941, the fathers of quantum mechanics and, consequently, the atomic bomb, met in Copenhagen.
Niels Bohr and his wife, Margrethe, in Nazi-occupied Denmark, entertain their old friend and colleague Werner Heisenberg, who is heading the Nazi nuclear program.
Now they are "dead and gone", they attempt to piece together that fateful evening, to make history certain, and to work out exactly why that meeting ended the two scientists' friendship - the friendship that discovered quantum mechanics and put human subjectivity back at the centre of the universe – the friendship that raised the awful spectre of nuclear annihilation.
Humanity was "Preserved, just possibly, by that one short moment in Copenhagen. By some event that will never quite be located or defined. By that final core of uncertainty at the heart of things."
Michael Frayn’s enthralling drama portrays the human faces behind quantum theory and the development of the nuclear bomb. History, ethics and science fuse and ask: can anything ever be certain?
- February–March 2007
The year is the future, and celebrity Richard O'Dave has fallen upon hard times following public scandal. In a desperate bid to salvage his career he resurrects a gameshow from his childhood - but it's the first episode, and the contestants are not as random as they seem ...
Join Cambridge's renowned improvised comedy society, ICE, as they construct and perform a gameshow of epic proportions – entirely from your suggestions. Watch the hapless contestants as they battle their way through a series of improvised games to reach the mysterious Crystal Hexagon. And discover exactly what sequence of bizarre coincidences brought each one of them to: The ICE-Crystal Maze.
- February–March 2007
This world is a big place. This show is a big show. As the planet spins on its axis the sun shines on every inch of the globe. THIS IS SCIENCE. Like the sun, ‘Interconti-mental’ burns as a gigantic LUMP of comedy gases - illuminating people, places and stuff from every nook of our wonderful world.
There are 6 BILLION people in the world There are 6 PEOPLE in this amazing show That means they are representing 1 BILLION people EACH! But don’t worry, they’re no bigger than the average person, it is just their comedy talent that is of colossal proportions
See the world like you’ve never seen it before… Visit places you’ve only ever dreamed of… And meet people so different from you, they might even be different people!
You’re a world dweller, we all are. So come with us, let’s all join hands and experience the joys that can be squeezed from going INTERCONTIMENTAL!
Come see it, it will rock YOUR little world.
- February 2007
Luke and Nadia used to go out and then stopped. Now they're not, but they have started touching a bit. Luke wants to discuss it, Nadia doesn't. Her avoidance and playful distractions take over, creating worlds perhaps no better than the ones she's trying to leave behind. An extremely funny and reasonably moving two-hander, which will make you nearly cry. Staggered Spaces explodes and exposes a relationship, teetering somewhere in the twilight between theatre and real life.
The word-of-mouth hit of the 2006 Edinburgh Festival comes to the ADC.
"It's my favourite thing I've seen this year. Stumbling across it in the midst of a thousand more heralded lesser things it just felt brilliant." Daniel Kitson
"A small, shiny gem of a show. It was definitely my favourite thing in Edinburgh this year, and I normally hate plays." if.comeddie nominee, David O'Doherty
"A truly beautiful and brilliant thing." if.comeddie winner, Josie Long
"Charming and clever and funny." Richard Herring
- February 2007
NEW WRITING!
The residents of Perdido believe the guagua will appear any minute to rescue them from the banality of their provincial existence. But this soon becomes a farce of confused clocks and helpless men. The only thing to materialize is the white heat of the afternoon. The village square becomes a fly infested inferno. The enthusiasm of morning is replaced by the afternoon fever of frustrated dreams. The plot thickens. Track of time is lost. How long have these people really been waiting? How long have they left to wait? And what happens if they wait that long? An irresistible tragicomedy of a single day and a whole lifetime.
- February 2007
"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxslip and nodding violet grows, There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight…"
Lovers, fairies and the worst actors in Athens find themselves roaming an enchanted forest, “ill-met by moonlight” in Shakespeare’s most magical comedy. Between the Mechanicals’ hilarious rehearsals of Pyramus and Thisbee and the prima-donna antics of Bottom the Weaver, we see young lovers chase eachother through the trees and fairies dupe one another with spells and enchantments. Fusing the magic of Shakespeare with ballet and an original score, this production will leave you laughing, tingling, and wondering what’s lurking in the shadows...
- February 2007
A terrifying comedy with a rubbish title.
For the first time ever, there's a thriller at the ADC Theatre. And it starts on Valentine's Day.
This critically acclaimed and much-loved American thriller is jump-out-of-your-seat scary and laugh-out-of-your-face hilarious.
From most of the people who brought you the blockbusting Footlights shows CIRCUS, GROW UP and FAUST THE PANTO comes a pant-crappingly enjoyable smasher of a show. With 80's dance music.
WATCH THE TRAILER -
http://www.SCARYplay.com
- February 2007
Consistently "fast and hilariously enrelenting" (TCS), the world-famous Cambridge Footlights presents a jam-packed hour of stand-up, sketches, songs and more. Sometimes quirky, sometimes edgy, some trad, some silly, some sad - the one thing a Smoker never fails to be is "uproariously funny" (Varsity). Over the past fifty years, Footlights has been producing some of the UK's most exciting and innovative comic writer-performers. The Smokers are where it's all learned and all honed, all tried and all tested. Come watch the finest in Cambridge comedy talent perform brand new material in a massive range of styles, from the absurdto the natural, with everything between and beyond. They've sold out for four years running, so book early to avoid disappointment. These really are not to be missed.
- February 2007
A NEW PLAY by FOOTLIGHTS President Tom Sharpe.
After a string of successful comic ventures (FAUST, GROW UP, CIRCUS, OUR DARKER PURPOSE) it's time for something a little more worthy. Funny, sure, but not just funny.
A spirit makes mad old Peter find some imaginary people, seemingly just so they can be slaughtered. Despite protesting its pointlessness, he finds it hard to stop himself complying. Skewed versions of old friends and relatives are summoned, all proving to be highly troublesome house guests. Things get totally out of hand, but we don't know which bits are genuine memories from real life, which Peter has changed in his mind for comfort and which have changed, of their own accord, to become far worse.
http://www.hangonmrbugson.co.uk
- February 2007
Helen's boss, the powerful property tycoon L.K. Halpin, has taken the day off work. He has never done this before. For one day, Helen must fight to keep his company running successfully in the pressure-cooker environment of big business. Her dying mother and neglected boyfriend become secondary concerns when she is confronted with the potential loss of millions of pounds. Will she be able to keep the company afloat? Will it matter when she finds out that Halpin is dead? Post Mortem is a dynamic work about the nature of ambition, and whether the sacrifices we make can be justified.
- February 2007
www.the-seagull.com
Young girl lives on shore of lake since childhood like you. Loves the lake like the seagull. Is happy and free like the seagull. Then one day a man turns up, sees her, and mindlessly destroys her.
This production of The Seagull by Chekhov will provide all involved with an incredible and challenging acting experience. Working on a production of a classic text is by no means easy and the large cast who take part will be expected to treat the entire process professionally. Crimp's version sees the text wholly renovated; it is shorter, leaner and more angular stripping away all the creaky 19th century theatrical conventions, such as monologues and asides. It requires a real depth of understanding from all involved as to create an engaging and emotive piece of theatre. This pared-down version of Chekhov's first great play reveals the full force of its comedy and cruelty. The Seagull should never allow an audience to relax what should underlie the production is a fluttering neurosis and ill-supported hysteria. It shows the tragicomic anatomy of unrequited longing.
Chekhov's setting provides extreme provincial dullness and creates a sense of extreme isolation. Isolated from culture, an alternative is never realised. The characters have no escape and are therefore pressed back on themselves and each other. The overall design of the production will reflect Chekhov's relationship with Beckett � restricted circumstances for the artistic purpose of confinement. The stark emptiness of the world will rely on fascinating the characters bringing the production to life. Out of the stillness, the environment of nothing, the characters create something; ideas, the artist, love they talk.
- January–February 2007
‘He is a genius, Like you and me; but genius and evil Are incompatible. Surely that’s true?’
‘You think so? Then drink up.’
The tragedy which gave birth to a myth of artistic envy and murder and inspired Amadeus 150 years later, Mozart and Salieri is the greatest play by Aleksandr Pushkin – the father of Russian literature.
The famous composer Salieri has become a tortured shadow, driven to desperation by the divine genius which should have been his yet belongs instead to his idle, childlike friend Mozart. Poisoned by envy and despair, tormented by visions of great composers mocking his mediocrity, Salieri is torn between his love for the innocent Mozart and his festering impulse for revenge.
Pushkin’s tragedy is stunningly brought to life in a dark spectacle which will bombard the senses, incorporating live classical music, grotesque physicality and healthy doses of humour and pain. Find your inner Salieri…
