- 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…
- January–February 2007
1 day. Eight people. Things fall apart.
Violent Acts is a new play from the bright young theatre company, Close Knit Productions, charting the lives of eight people as their lives interweave and diverge on one ordinary day. Two lovers seek to destroy each other in the bathroom of a dingy squat, a stranger is assaulted on a late night tube train, a marriage lies in tatters, and one act by the side of a lake may well seal all their fates.
Based on the work undertaken by the Close Knit Writer’s Project, 2006, Violent Acts has been written by two ex-Cambridge graduates, James Topham (RSC/Marlowe Other Prize Winner 2004) and Dave Hall (currently writing for the London stage) in collaboration with a group of eight actors. Out of improvisation, verbatim material and close collaboration has arisen a work of real power, dissecting the role that violence plays in our lives and in our society.
In turns funny, shocking and fierce, Violent Acts is a dramatic triumph not to be missed.
www.closeknit.co.uk
- January 2007
Get ready...to Improvise That! Following last term's Improvise This! Improvised Comedy Ents are back to take the ADC by storm once more on the 23rd of January, at 11.00pm next Tuesday. Described by TCS as 'a force to be reckoned with' and Varsity as 'Gut-wrenchingly funny', ICE combine audience participation and genuine humour with a reckless disregard for scripts, rehearsals and other nonsense like that.
Cambridge's renowned improvised comedy society, ICE, are ready and eager to bring you the best in hard-hitting, script-spurning, expectation-defying and logic-twisting comedy at the ADC: An hour of fast-paced improvised games, directed entirely by audience suggestion.
- January 2007
'Elemental,' this year's innovative contemporary dance show. Diverse styles of dance and music, from flamenco to hiphop, mix and blend together in one cohesive show, invoking the spirit of each of the four elements through the drama of dance, colours and lights.
- January 2007
The times are bad in Chicago. Arturo Ui, a small-time gangster with big-time ambition, is on the prowl. His prey? Vegetables. Cauliflowers, to be exact. The moral bastion of the city is bribed, the witnesses are silenced, one way or another, and the moral line blurred - this isn't just about eating your greens.
Brecht wrote The Resistible Rise in 1941 as a parable of Adolf Hitler's rise to power; Ui (Hitler) is joined by a company of hardened gangsters, including a florist (Givola/Goebbels) and 'super-clown' (Giri/Goring). A down-and-out actor gives Ui lessons in public speaking. Chopin's Funeral March plays in dance time. Slapstick is fused with hard-hitting political comment. The stage is heaped with corpses, and Chicago's cauliflower is covered in blood.
In an explosive and slick production, this important text will be given a new lease of life. Think a silent movie of Alice in Wonderland. The company will create a flower shop, a coffin and a court room using nothing but their bare hands (and a dozen umbrellas).
- December 2006
How does a man get to murder a king? Is it because he is ambitious? Or because he has met three strangely entrancing sisters on a heath whose enigmatical sing-song prophecies included an address to himself as the future king? Or is he irresistibly ensnared by his undaunted wife who knows him better than anyone else and can in turn tempt and taunt him exactly at the right moment? Macbeth kills the king and has to become a master of hypocrisy. But his conscience surrounds him with horrifying dreams and maddening visions, and the crown on his head becomes a torturing device.
Murder follows upon murder as Macbeth tries to secure his bloody throne, until, abandoned by all allies, he holds his tyrannical sceptre over a country paralysed with fear and terror. This production will draw you into a cinematically paced ghostride of eerie shapes, smiling courtiers, stylish costumes and distorted sounds, a world made out of thunder and lighting, crowded by witches, apparitions, murderers, and sleepwalkers, in which you can see some of Shakespeare's most memorable characters come to life and experience his poetic language at its most powerful.
Since 1957, ETG has toured Europe each winter performing a Shakespeare play. Founded by Sir Derek Jacobi, we have developed a reputation both at home and abroad for producing exciting and innovative interpretations of classic texts. We traditionally visit a wide variety of venues across the whole of Western Europe travelling complete with set, lights and costumes; this enables us to produce a first class performance in any location. ETG is not only Cambridge's premier touring theatre group, but also the oldest and most respected touring group of any university.
- January 2007
Fledgling Productions return to the ADC with Seussical, a fantastical, magical musical, bringing to life some of the popular Dr Seuss characters, including the Cat in the Hat, Horton the Elephant, Gertrude McFuzz, Lazy Mazy and the Whos of Whoville.
The famous Dr Seuss tales are woven together by a young boy, Jojo, who is a 'thinker of wonderful things'. Seussical is a lively, fun show for all the family to enjoy, with a musical score that ranges from Latin to Pop to Swing and Gospel.
A refreshing introduction to the New Year provided by this energetic company of local talent.
- December 2006
Dodgy deals with devils and dames.
The big fat Footlights pantomime is back: and this year it's going to be Hot as Hell.
What are your deepest desires? What are your wildest dreams? What are they worth? Three Wham bars? ALL your pogs? How about your EVERLASTING SOUL?
Come join us on the Faust-track to the Underworld and barter with temptress Mrs Topheles, fall in love with history's hottest tottie Helen of Troy, and quake before Satan himself.
It's big (it's massive) and it's clever (it's pretty clever), but above all FAUST will be full of thigh-slapping hell-arity for all the family.
Book now before it sells out. Come on, everyone: Go to Hell.
EXTRA PERFORMANCE ADDED THURSDAY 2.30pm !!
www.faustthepanto.com
- November–December 2006
Christmas! The Queen's Speech and family-friendly films -- wasn't TV much better this time last year? Improvised Comedy Ents, Cambridge University's improv society, will reverse the trend for once. By blending your favourite Christmas TV memories with spontaneous comic sketches and games -- all inspired by the audience -- ICE will make this Christmas one to remember. Described by TCS as "the future faces of Britain's comedy elite", ICE has built up a reputation for fast-paced, hilarious improvised comedy. From Bond films to the Queen's Speech, all you need this Christmas is ICE.
- November 2006
‘Morning Glory’ merges the visuals of black-light theatre with the macabre and burlesque humour of the Parisian ‘ Grand Guignol,’ The play offers a tangible feast for the senses –combining its lyrical dialogue with filmic imagery and characterization. Through dark comedy the play dissects the psyche of its protagonist – a lone woman. This deconstruction is undertaken by sinister and cruel gargoyles, who offer a poetic chorus on the proceedings. By cutting away the unnecessary flesh ‘Morning Glory’ heralds the existence of a voyeurs paradise, a new level of unwelcome intrusion.
- November 2006
"We took six songs and we made a play about them..."
Six young people are moving into a shared house on a rainy autumn night. They explore each others ideas and feelings. Topics as diverse as leaving your parents to the number of kisses on a text message are discussed. “Something about life and music...” is a beautifully honest portrayal of life on stage.
“Something about life and music…” is a daring new piece of theatre exploring what it means to be here and now. You are unlikely to have seen anything like it before – it draws more from naturalistic films from the likes of Richard Linklater and Andrew Bujalski than from any theatrical tradition. Melancholic, empathetic and uplifting, this is theatre to enthral and inspire anyone who's ever felt anything at all.
Soundtrack includes; Ben Folds, Bloc party, Regina Spektor, Dashboard Confessional, Counting Crows, The Shins, Devandra Bernhardt, The Arcade Fire, Eels, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly., Lambchop and many, many more...
www.myspace.com/aboutlifeandmusic
- November 2006
A group of students get together to perform a play, something called "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare. You won't know it, and they certainly don’t. The actors speak in a strange language called Dogg, but in their public school surroundings have worked at understanding the play; the extent of their understanding, however, is questionable.
The audience witnesses the effects of two worlds colliding; communicating in what the inhabitants think is the same lingo, but which quite clearly isn’t. Dogg's Hamlet is an experiment in theatrical language, an investigation of meaning, a comedy of confusion and a very silly play.
- November 2006
In one of Samuel Beckett's greatest plays, the ancient Krapp tries to make sense of his life, past and present, by recording all of his memories and experiences. He listens back to old tapes, astounded by how far he has progressed. We see that he has barely changed at all. The younger Krapp learnt that love does not work out uncomplicatedly or without loss; the older Krapp is just relieved that his sex life is better than a kick in the crutch. By turns both hilarious and moving, Beckett shows his understanding of the weight experience can bear on a man as Krapp is reduced to nothing more than a commentator on his earlier life. "Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn't want them back."
- November 2006
Who is responsible when a train crashes, killing or injuring hundreds of ordinary and innocent commuters? David Hare's shocking parable of British mismanagement tells the various 'true stories' of the most devastating rail disasters of the past two decades, providing a platform for the testimonies of politicians, rail companies and the many bereaved.
In this tragic and compelling tale, witty and acute observations mingle with dramatic graphic effects to create the ultimate emotional rollercoaster. When everybody is blaming each other, how can we tell where the truth really lies?
- November 2006
Winner of the Royal Shakespeare Company / Marlowe Society Other Prize for new writing.
Family tensions are exposed and explored by five actors with four chairs. A collection of broken pieces, alarming dramatic fragments peaking through their respective lives. Fathers, mothers, daughters, sons and lovers treat each other oddly and badly. Relationships collapse or stagger on, love turns to manipulation and comfort becomes an irritant.
Luke Roberts, writer of the 2005 Harry Porter Prize winning comic play Evelyn Budden: Auctioneer, retains his eye for the absurd in 1, 2, 3, 4, (5), his first full length serious play.
As one of Cambridge’s oldest student drama societies, the Marlowe prides itself on being welcoming and innovative, linking the thriving world of Cambridge drama to the professional theatrical scene through collaborations such as the RSC / Marlowe Other Prize.
“A truly mind-blowing piece of theatre” – TCS, 9/11/06
“Book your ticket now. Luke Roberts’ writing doesn’t just take your breath away, it winds you, and it is goose-pimplingly well performed by a sickeningly talented cast. 5 stars” – Varsity, 10/11/06
- November 2006
A park. A thief. A priest. A psychic. A miracle. A lie.
The truth.
CUMTS are proud to present the European Premier of "See What I Wanna See" by the esteemed American composer and lyricist Michael John LaChiusa. Following on from a sell-out run Off-Braodway Last year.
Based on the short stories of Japanese author Ryu Akutagawa the show asks whether we can ever really know what the truth is and questions whether we can have faith in a world that is slowly running out of answers.
A pulsating, resonant score merges with three beautfiully interwoven stories.
Innovative, Uplifting and thought-provoking.
Are you seeing clearly?
- November 2006
Liberdad! is a story of asylum seekers and their battle, of tolerance and loathing, of respect for respect, and above all, of belief in the capacity to build Jerusalem on London's grey and war-torn streets. It is an edgy, exciting spin on history and Jewish culture, representing Jewish ethics and in an accessible and electrifying format. Centred around the paintings of Rembrandt, the show communicates raw emotion in a visual spectacle. Witness the lost stories of one of the world's most abused cultures brought to the stage in an unforgettable performance.
- October 2006
Join Improvised Comedy Ents for a one-night only show packed full of your favourite improv games, sketches and jokes. See fresh talent and old hands join forces to bring you a hilarious evening's entertainment.
- October–November 2006
This play is the story of Hester, Hester la Negrita, the mother, the worker, the oppressed black woman with a sense of humour the size of the States and no money to feed her children. The music is straining through the theatre, the set is banging and the people are shouting to the beat that jumps through everything, every seat, every head, every complacent conservative mindless mind. Hester la Negrita will jump through your head like a hip-hop migraine.
- October 2006
" - superb"– ThreeWeeks
"Splendid ideas… genuine comedy" – The List
"Brilliant… genius… very very funny" - Varsity
"Visually inventive, pleasantly mental" - David Mitchell, Peep Show
"Utter c**p" – One4review.com
"Clever… talented… an absolute treasure" – National Student
Four Footlights stars bring an hour of sketches back to the ADC Theatre after a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe. A hectic two years of revues, stand-up, music, doodles, websites and films has condensed itself and given rise to this friendly explosion of colourful, imaginative comedy and kitsch-cool creativity.
Watch the trailer, see the short films, hear the music at:
http://www.pleaseGROWup.com
- October 2006
Lovewit has fled plague-ridden London, leaving his city house in the charge of Face, a confidence trickster. Pretending that they have found the secret of the legendary philosopher's stone, and can transform metal into gold, the disguised Face and Subtle (the 'Alchemist') rapidly improvise trick after trick to filch riches from the pockets of the gullible.
The Swan Theatre Company returns to the ADC, following last term's critically acclaimed sell-out Much Ado About Nothing, with Ben Jonson's greatest comedy, a lightning-paced farce with a dark underbelly. By turns sick, sad, and hilarious and set in door-banging, flea-bitten, mud-covered London, this sparkling new production is guaranteed solid theatrical gold.
'a company worth looking out for in the crowded Cambridge drama world.' Rachel Fentern, localsecrets.com
- October 2006
Imagine a canvas about five foot by four…with a white background…completely white in fact…with fine white diagonal stripes. Serge has bought a painting. White and expensive. Serge thinks it's a masterpiece, Marc thinks it's a joke, Yvan wonders how you can see the stripes.
In Yasmina Reza's prize-winning play, art and friendship are yoked together in a knot of humour, pathos and aggression: a joke becomes a declaration of war, a throwaway comment becomes a personal attack; will a painting become the ruination of a fifteen-year relationship? At once hilarious, touching and disturbing, 'Art' tackles a topical debate while presenting characters and situations that are dangerously real. Are you who you think you are or who your friends think you are? What happens when your friend breaks a tacit agreement? How much would you pay for a white painting?
'You're supposed to be my friend. What kind of a friend are you, Serge, if you don't think your friends are special?'
- October 2006
'Communities without fathers are vicious places to live and people who have money choose not to live there.' Charles Murray, The Sunday Times 2000.
'We sat and cuddled and cried. I sat rocking her like when she was a little baby. I sat rocking her for ages' Natalie, 'A State Affair'.
In 2000, Robin Soans and director Max Stafford-Clarke travelled to the Bradford Estate where groundbreaking playwright Andrea Dunbar had died tragically a decade before as a result of years of wife-beating.
'A State Affair' is the record of what they found...
Exploring abuse and misery driven by massively low expectations, 'A State Affair' is an example of the 'Verbatim' Theatre which Soans demonstrated to such effect in his recent play 'Talking to Terrorists'.
Its words are taken from real conversations, giving for one night only, honest and raw emotion, coupled with a rarely seen truth through theatre.
- October 2006
'I think that what happens in war is that suddenly, violently, without any warning whatsoever, people's lives are completely ripped to pieces. So I literally just picked up a moment in the play, I thought I'll plant a bomb and blow the whole fucking thing up.'
Sarah Kane
Slaughtered by the press when it first opened, Blasted, is the most controversial and talked about play of the last 20 years. You can't beat Sarah Kane's 'sustained onslaught on the sensibilities for sheer, unadulterated brutalism'. Not a play for the faint hearted, Blasted, is sure to provoke a searing debate between audiences at the ADC. Imagine an expensive hotel room, imagine it being blown up. Blasted pushes the medium of theatre to its furthest limitations. It is an essay on extremity, on desire, fear and barbarity, it defies any definite situation which prevents us from neatly defining it as something alien to us. The play's horror is inescapable, it avoids attribution to any single scenario or character type, the brutality that will unfold on the ADC stage will be both recognisable and applicable to you, as much as you attest otherwise. Let your morbid fascination manifest. Blasted's violence is a reality, a reality this production will force us to accept.
- October 2006
For one night only, the ADC Bar will be filled with the voices of the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society.
Fast becoming one of the most important student musical theatre societies in the country, CUMTS has consistently wowed audiences with productions at the ADC Theatre, at the Cambridge Arts Theatre and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Recent successes include Hair (2005), Singin' in the Rain (2006) and Bat Boy! (2006)
Accompanied by a live band, members will be performing numbers from hit West End and Broadway shows right across the musical theatre spectrum: from Sondheim to Cole Porter, and from Rodgers and Hammerstein to Jason Robert Brown. Join Cambridge's finest performers in the relaxed and friendly atmosphere of the ADC Bar for a perfect evening's entertainment.
- October 2006
A brand new comedy show raging straight from the belly of the beast showing you newness and making you better.
The Behemoth is helmed by Footlights Vice-President Luke Roberts, who won the Harry Porter Prize in 2005, reached the final of the prestigious BBC New Comedy Awards for stand-up the same year and has had his comedy on the London circuit praised for its invention and intelligence. He is supported in this show by a revolving cast of Cambridge's finest, with words Luke thinks are funny spilling from their mouths.
'I haven't seen anything of this ilk before,' you will say, 'I must say, I find it quite charming'. On expressing such views you will be promptly agreed with and fondled by your companion.
- October 2006
“Pleasure and self-destruction: the perfect poison.”
In a bustling and blinding metropolis, four strangers meet and fall in love. Dan writes obituaries. Anna is a recently divorced photographer. Larry is a lustful dermatologist. Alice is a self-described waif, working as a stripper.
A brutal anatomy of modern love, 'Closer' follows these characters through four years of romantic turmoil and charts their restless hunt and constant failure to find intimacy. Patrick Marber’s devastatingly sharp dialogue creates an emotional minefield, in which truth and illusion are interchangeable; and in which love can hurt and scar, as much as it can console and heal.
Come and recognise yourselves in these strikingly real relationships as they are injected into an oppressive cityscape of neon, couture and projection.
Sexual conflicts, fluid identities, distilled memories: all laid bare on the ADC stage, in this stylish and seductive update of one of the most provocative plays of the 1990s: a 'candid, scathing, very modern view of the sex war' (Guardian).
www.closeknit.co.uk
- August 2006
If music be the food of love, play on...
Viola is dressed as a boy and is in love with Duke Orsino, but Duke Orsino is in love with Olivia. Olivia's servant Malvoilio thinks Olivia is in love wth him, but Olivia is really in love with Viola...or is that Viola's twin brother Sebastian? Only the fool Feste knows the truth!
Beneath the surface of this sparkling and hilarious comedy lie life's darkest and most terrible truths. Under their laughter the inhabitants of Illyria are plagued by loneliness, grief, revenge, humiliation, alcoholism, and madness. This greatest and darkest of Shakespeare's comedies reminds us that in the tragi-comedy of life we must capture whatever fleeting happiness we can...
- July 2006
Anna has come to visit her old flatmate Kate and relive their carefree youth of twenty years before. But nostalgia turns to conflict and she is soon at war with Kate's filmmaker husband Deeley over his wife's affections. As Anna and Deeley battle using vintage songs and films as ammunition it becomes clear that no amount of duelling will win Kate over - it only serves to demonstrate the fragility of their happy memories and expose the rottenness of their present lives.
Nobel prizewinner Harold Pinter is at the height of his powers here. By turns lyrical and menacing, this play explores both the light and the dark side of looking back to Old Times.
- July 2006
Rape, murder, revenge and honour in the wars of 15th Century Spain. The village of Fuente Ovejuna is being used as a base for a military expedition. The commander abuses his power and position, especially with the peasant women. Eventually he abducts and assaults the mayor's daughter on her wedding night. The villagers are outraged and take action, but their methods and results are far from predictable... The 2006 Town and Gown production, supported by the Amatuer Dramatic Club, will see Steven Siddall, director of 15 Arts Theatre productions, working with actors and technicians drawn both from the University and the local talent. A fantastic opportunity for students to collaborate with older and more experienced practioners, 'Fuente Ovejuna' will be a powerful and visually exciting production.
- June 2006
No scripts. No rehearsals. No Michael Aspel. Imagine your whole life flashing before you. Now rewind, and imagine it again, only improvised on the spot by Cambridge's freshest comedy talent. Taking inspiration from members of the audience, Improvised Comedy Ents, described by TCS as "the future faces of Britain's comedy elite", will re-imagine the life of one character through the medium of television. Prepare to relive your childhood TV nostalgia and experience a trip through pop-culture like you've never seen before. We may not have Michael Aspel, but for one lucky person, This Is Your ICE.
- June 2006
Prometheus is a rebel from the Gods, scorned by the new King Zeus and sent to the outer ends of the earth to be wracked by pain for eternity. His only sin, that he loved mankind too much. Daring to stealing from the Gods' own hearth, Prometheus takes a single flame of holy fire and flees with it to earth. From that single light human civilisation as we know it began. Prometheus Bound is the story of his rebellion, his imprisonment, and the future saviour who will set him free.
Returning to the beginning of time, Close Knit Productions present their dynamic, artistically ambitious and exciting take on Aeschylus's tragic masterpiece. www.closeknit.co.uk
