- January 2004
A bird-catcher, an investment banker, a captured princess, three sassy ladies, two lions and the Queen of the Night all come together for Mozart’s masterpiece, which mixes inspired silliness with a passionate plea for the importance of music and love. It’s zany, fast, funny, tuneful, silly, profound and extremely moving.
Prince Tamino, bogged down with work and worries, is experiencing a mid-life crises. He is rescued by the Three Ladies and finds himself in a surreal world of fairy-tales, dancing and beauty. And… he finds himself in love. However, as always, it’s not quite that simple and Tamino is forced to embark on a quest for his Lady in a world where nothing is certain and everything is possible…
Young professionals join the best of Cambridge’s singers, dancers, actors and instrumentalists, bringing to life some of Mozart’s most popular music. This fully staged production, sung in modern English, promises to be visually stunning and appeal to opera-buffs and opera-phobics alike.
- January 2004
- January 2004
- January 2004
Prometheus Unbound in association with the ADC return to Cambridge this Edinburgh Fringe success about the quartet of free-thinking radicals: Byron, Shelley, Mary Shelley and Claire Clairemont. "An amazing play...witty, acerbic and accurate" – Three Weeks "Strong ... moving ... genuinely affecting... speckled with humour... a production of which the ADC should be proud" – Varsity. Proceeds will be donated to the ADC Theatre Appeal.
- December 2003
Ten years have passed and the inhabitants of Wonderland have called Alice back through the looking glass one last time to save their world from destruction. Join Alice, the Mad Hatter, the much maligned Jabberwock and the little known Furious Bandersnatch for a lively evening of song, dance, comedy and extremely cross dressing.
- December 2003
- November 2003
Have you ever tried to protest and become frustrated when nobody listens to your voice? Have you ever wondered what would happen if you just gave up trying to be heard and stopped speaking altogether? Would anyone notice?
When Gemma, a young lady living in London, decides to give up speaking and to lose herself in Bach’s St Matthew Passion, her partner and friends are completely thrown. In this unique play Anthony Minghella parodies the superfluous conversations and the triviality of cosmopolitan social life through the voices of Gemma’s friends.
- November 2003
Albert paints the bridge. Hampered by the cost-cutting policies of the Chairman and his team of adept bureaucrats, Albert is engaged in a constant battle to defend the beauty of his beloved bridge. But he doesn’t really mind the struggle: life up on the bridge gives him time to think. Until it all goes wrong, that is, and Albert’s bridge and his life begin to fall apart.
- November 2003
The young and ambitious Charles Lang has designed and built an engine that uses only distilled water as its fuel – and tries to obtain a patent for his groundbreaking invention. But in the dog-eat-dog world of 1930s America, the lawyers from whom he seeks advice quickly turn on him, desperately seeking to steal his designs.
- November 2003
In the months since Whose Iceberg Is It Anyway?, the Comedy Iceberg has made a lot of enemies. Pirates, barmen, local radio DJs, government ministries, televangelists, the makers of MacGyver and the entire Amish community - they're all out for blood. But none of our foes are as implacable, or as inventive, as Cambridge's other improvised comedy groups. In May we took on the Amazing Spectacles for a one-night Town vs Gown improv showdown. But now we've staked out the ADC stage for a week of lateshows, and the heavy artillery's coming out...
Join us on a mission into unknown territory as we encounter old foes and new, and be prepared for sniping, guerrilla tactics and the occasional pitched battle as improv goes to war. This time, even the games are unknown in advance. This time, anything could happen.
- November 2003
CUMTS returns to the ADC stage, after the sell-out successes of West Side Story (Cambridge Arts Theatre) Into the Woods and Company (ADC Theatre) with Broadway's outrageously entertaining jazz, rock and swing version of the G&S favourite.
The Japanese town of Titi-pu is transported to a smoky jazz club, where the establishment comes up against the wrath of torch-song diva Katisha, executioner Koko, and the powerful zoot-suited Mikado. As the Three Little Maids pay close-harmony homage to the Andrews Sisters, heads are about to roll when the club's delectable doo-wah singer Yum-Yum decides she wants to marry Nanki-Poo, a trumpet player in a travelling swing band - or so he seems...
Rocking the rafters with joyful harmony, flashy kimonos and a song about a depressed bluetit, Hot Mikado is a glamorous and jazzy Japanese feel-good feast of all that is swinging, sequined and sizzling hot.
- November 2003
Under Milk Wood is the extraordinary story of apparently ordinary people. As we are drawn into the world of the inhabitants of Llareggub Hill, we discover a dream-like landscape of characters who are by turns hilarious, quirky, dark and brooding.
This production is about the madness of everyday people, how dreams and reality fade into one another and the creation of a unique world by one imagination.
- November 2003
Pygmalion remains today a classic of the English stage. Having had audiences in fits of laughter since its premier in 1914, the play charts how Eliza Doolittle, the common flower-girl of Covent Garden, is transformed by Henry Higgins into a consort fit for a king.
Yet it is more than a modern fairy-tale. It is part of Shaw’s greatness that he can make us laugh while also making us think.
The inspiration for Lerner and Lowe's magical My Fair Lady, this production is a chance to re-discover afresh the myth that has fascinated generations, in all its Shavian complexity, vitality and comic ingenuity.
- October–November 2003
Cross Road Blues retells the story of legendary Delta Blues guitarist Robert Johnson. In a stark and poignant dialogue with a stranger one night, Robert must confront his fate. ‘The blues’ he pleads, ‘is almost everything.’ God, the devil and the desperate calls of a soul displaced by the pain of living fall together in one life changing crash. ‘And then what?’ replies the stranger, ‘and then what?’
Cross Road Blues has been written and directed by David Hall and stars Calvin Smith and James Purdon.
Calvin Smith is a professional actor who has appeared many times on Broadway and has toured shows nationally in America. This is his first appearance at the ADC. James Purdon is studying at Emmanuel College, and last appeared at the ADC in Oedipus.
- October 2003
For the fourth year running, the ADC presents an improvised night of hilarity from its sharpest comedic minds. Audience participation encouraged...
- October–November 2003
When Teddy, a professor in an American university, brings his wife Ruth to visit his old home in London, he finds his family still living in the house. In the conflict that follows, it is Ruth who becomes the focus of the family’s struggle for supremacy. Bringing prostitution, pimping and Pinter to the ADC stage, The Homecoming is an immensely successful work from one of the most accomplished playwrights of the twentieth century.
- October 2003
A man falls asleep. He wakes up in the sea. It looks like magic. But it’s not magic, it’s comedy! One hour of concentrated, non-biological humour, this show will take you to places you never knew existed without resorting to time travel.
- October 2003
Andorra is the story of Andri, the adopted child of an Andorran school-teacher, whom everybody including himself believes is a Jew. Andri's life begins to fall apart when the Andorrans are invaded by their fiercely anti-Semitic neighbours, the Blacks; his countrymen, seeking a scapegoat, turn on him. In the conflict that follows, Andri is forced into confronting his own identity in a struggle with hatred, despair and love which is doomed to fail.
As Max Frisch insisted, Andorra is nothing to do with the state of the same name, nor with any country, but a vision of violence, bigotry and tragedy that could occur anywhere. This production stays faithful to his ideals, refusing to moralise and exposing the brutality that can lie so easily under a thin veneer of bourgeois respectability.
- October 2003
Top Draw Productions in association with the ADC return The Edinburgh Fringe hit to Cambridge. A rapid, revolutionary romp through 30 years of action-packed Commie history, featuring smash hits such as The Gulag Rag and Mrs Stalin Regrets.
"As post-pub entertainment goes, this is about as good as it gets" - Edinburgh Evening News.
"Witty and entertaining" - The Observer
Promises to be a sell out run – book now!
- October 2003
Vladimir and Estragon are waiting for someone. Fairly convinced that his name is Godot, they’re not entirely sure what they want from him or whether they’re even in the right place. Their wait is interrupted by the enigmatic whip-wielding Pozzo, and Lucky, his dancing slave. All of them are searching for comfort in the increasing absurdity of their situation. A black comedy which oscillates between the dark and the hilarious.
- October 2003
The 2003 Footlights tour show returns to the place where it all began, at the end of a nationwide tour visiting centres of culture from the Isle of Wight to Glasgow.
After sell-outs at the ADC and a month at the Edinburgh Festival, this really is your last chance to see the understated, dark and maliciously funny story of a lover cuckolded by his next-door neighbour, a girl who's celebrating losing her virginity to a farmhand, a man nearing the end of his days with a Pot Noodle and a kid bullied into conducting lightning for an experiment - and a lot more besides.
Directed by award-winning stand-up Mark Watson and BBC4 writer Tim Key and featuring the final Cambridge appearances of five of its most celebrated comedians, this is something you shouldn't miss.
- October 2003
Strange things are happening on the shortest night of the year. When a pair of young lovers flee from their parents and an arranged marriage, they stumble into a woodland world of moonlight and enchantment. A civil war has broken out in fairyland and, followed by rival suitors, these mortals find themselves trapped under the orchestrations of Oberon, King of the Fairies, and his mischievous sprite Puck. With the powers of a magic love juice, a midsummer madness befalls the lovers. The order of the woods is further shattered by the disastrous play rehearsals of a troupe of mechanics and when wild protestations of love spring from the Queen of the Fairies towards a donkey, it seems that only magical powers can end this, the longest night.
The acclaimed Cambridge University American Stage Tour(CAST) returns with Shakespeare’s sparkling comedy, set in a carnivalesque world where our dreams and reality meet. Let CAST transport you to the enchanted woods, as we present Shakespeare’s masterpiece in a production as funny, sexy, magical and scary as the course of true love itself.
All information for this Camdram Entry (excluding the description above) was added by the CAST 2018 Tour Managers and is based on archived documents provided by Beast. However, this actual Camdram entry was created at the time of the original show.
If you have any more information regarding this show or would like to know more, please get in touch.
- June 2003
- May 2003
Lance meets Percy on a train hurtling accross Europe. Percy is on a journey of discovery having realised his expensive university education has taught him pretty much nothing. Lance doesn't want to discover anything, he wants to live in his memories. Together the two men try to make sense of why they are there, aided by impromtu visits from Elvis and Richard Nixon among others. An original and thought-provoking piece of writing from one of Cambridge's finest new writers, the rehearsed reading of No Problems promises to be well worth seeing.
- May 2003
- May 2003
Only Ten Minutes to Buffalo tells the striking story of two friends on theiway to the place where all their dreams will be fulfilled. But does ‘Buffalo’ reallexist, and if so, can they be there in only ten minutesTaking you on a turbulent voyage into the realm of the absurd, this play is must for all those wishing to escape the stress of deadlines and the mundanrealism of exams. This production plays with the boundaries between the reaand the fantastical and touches upon questions of technological progress, throle of art and the meaning of life. One hour of charged chaotic calamity.
- May 2003
One of well-loved Yorkshire playwright Alan Bennett’s most hilarious plays, this riotous farce is the perfect antidote to Cambridge exam term The play, set in the 1960s, is a witty and fast-paced period piece revolving around the lives and loves of the Wicksteed family, pillars of the Hove community. Dr Arthur Wicksteed, GP, intrepidly pushes at the frontiers of the accepted doctor-patient relationship, occasionally crashing through them to the displeasure of his long-suffering wife. Their hypochondriac son Dennis (or is it Trevor? Arthur seems entirely unsure) has just three months to live, and is suffering from Brett’s Palsy, a rare and incurable disease complicated by a nasty case of lockjaw. His tragic plight attracts the attentions of Felicity Rumpers, only daughter of one Lady Rumpers, recently widowed and about to be confronted by her own less than pristine past. Then there’s Arthur’s sister Connie, whose ambition in life is to achieve a big bust, and who is emphatically not a spinster, just unmarried. Besides, there’s always Canon Throbbing, the local vicar, ever ardent in his 10-year pursuit of Connie and that’s before she orders a pneumatic breast-enhancing appliance. Still, at least one day his attentions may be rewarded – and it will all make a cracking piece on Anglican Sexuality for the ‘Church Times’As assignations go awry, wires get well and truly crossed and the pneumatic breastrun amok, chaos reigns in Hove.
- April–May 2003
- March 2003
Think sparkling; think shimmering; think splendour, and we're in the world of the burlesque dancer....welcome to Gypsy! Mama Rose, the eternal stage mother, is determined to achieve her daughters the fame she never managed. She abandons her home to push her daughters to live the lives of roaming vaudeville performers, driving them forward to further and greater fame and acclaim. But when Herbie, their agent, mistakenly books them into a strip joint, the fame one daughter achieves goes far beyond Rose's original intentions... Gypsy is based on the memoirs of the burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee, and provides a fascinating cocktail of glitz, dance, surprise and intimacy that will make the Amateur Dramatic Club's Lent Term Musical a treat to behold. Featuring songs such as 'You Gotta Get a Gimmick', 'Let Me Entertain You' and 'Everything's Coming Up Roses', Gypsy promises to dazzle and stun. Following on from the hugely successful Cabaret, 42nd Street, and Copacabana, once again, welcome to the world of showbiz and glamour!
- March 2003
Copenhagen. 1941. A meeting between a man working for the German Government and his old friend who just happens to be half-Jewish. Complicated enough, but what if the men are Werner Heisenberg, head of the Nazi atomic fission program, and Niels Bohr, his former mentor and supervisor living in occupied Denmark? Then the very course of history lies in the balance.
Michael Frayn's play examines the consequences - both real and potential - of this critical meeting. After the war, neither could agree what had occurred, or even why the meeting had happened at all. They reunite on the stage for one more attempt at understanding. In the hands of a master playwright, the physics they created, with the principle of uncertainty at its heart, is a powerful metaphor for what happens when human beings are placed under the extreme pressures of war.
- February–March 2003
Salome is one of Wilde’s most neglected plays; a masterpiece of language and a poetic journey that is rich in imagery. It presents us with a focal point of the deep rooted desire of humans. The play’evocative language seduces the audience, plays with them and ultimately raisetheir repressed desires as the characters on stage bring forth their own. Only in mirrors is it well to look, for mirrors do but show us masks" We use masks, not to hide behind, but rather to show the real character we, as humans, are afraid to portray.
- February 2003
The ADC brings you an evening of extracts from a style of theatrical performance which truly has something for everyone. Featuring a sneak preview of the Lent Term Musical, Gypsy, this promises to be a night of great Musical Theatre.
- February 2003
Stoppard’s masterpiece, Arcadia, is set in a large country house, anmoves between 1809 and the present day. Characters discuss Byron, love, thhistory of gardens, even chance theory in relation to grouse. The play is humorouand exuberant, an intellectual roller-coaster, ‘a drama of ideas’ that takes you captive from the first joke, and puts you down exhilarated and moved. It raises questions about whether we should live according to our heart or head, how history realties to the present, how people relate to each other, how scientifically can love (‘the attraction that Newton left out’be understood. Join us for an evening of flamboyant theatricality that promises to combine the wit of Wilde, the excitement of a literary whodunit and a heartfelt ache for time that can never be regained. A brilliant, brilliant play" Sunday Times "A masterpiece" DailTelegraph
- February 2003
What happens when you take an answer-phone message, a neurotic sister with a therapist and her Italian boyfriend from Swindon; mixed with the new office boss, a Chinese take-away, a dusting of old friends, and a can opener? Dinner at Marguerite's! An occasion to expect the unexpected and laugh heartily at the absurd but cherished intricacies of everyday life. A sparkling brand new piece of comedy writing, capturing an evening of gossip, revelations and delightfully witty banter between friends, washed down with fine red wine and tinned tomato soup. What's left to say, except "Bon Appetit"!
- February 2003
A blind man who sees only his garden, his power enduring even when his healtand seniority are lost. A son’s development profoundly affected by his fatherhis expectations, limitations and intractability. The figure of the patriarcdominates A Voyage Round My Father as it explores the emotional tensions of a complex family relationship, set against the backdrop of the traumatic first half of the twentieth century. Emotion is intense as each character attempts to deal with their inability to show love: so much remains unsaid. The acutely observed humour, intensely human characters and flawless dialogue make this play both amusing and profoundly moving. Original, often funny, but always deeply thought provoking; this challenging and compelling play is an insight into a world of shades of grey we can all relate to, but have probably never known how to express.
- January 2003
The ADC continues with its One Night Stands this term; tasters of different styles of theatre and themed selections of extracts. Ireland has been the source and inspiration of some of the best drama the world has ever seen. This evening, we take a journey over the sea to glimpse a rich literary culture at its dramatic best.
