- October 2004
In the degenerate opulence of eighteenth century France, the magnetic and
manipulative Vicomte de Valmont and his former lover La Marquise de
Merteuil are locked in a convoluted and calculating game of sexual conquest
and emotional sadism.
Seeking diversion from the ennui that even their customary sexual intrigues
and emotional perversions cannot alleviate, the two conspire to corrupt and
destroy the fifteen-year-old Cecile, who is barely out of her convent.
Meanwhile, Valmont also seeks prey more worthy of his talent and
reputation; Madame de Tourvel, happily married and famous for her strict
morals and religious fervour, would be his greatest coup.
Thus, the two masterful chess-players manipulate their pawns for their own
sadistic pleasure. But as the stakes rise ever higher, there emerges from
beneath a veneer of frivolity, an intense emotional power struggle and the
ultimate tragedy.
- October 2004
I remember once going with my father to meet one of his old schoolfriends. They shared memories of driving tanks with the CCF, and I remember very clearly how alive they seemed, talking about their youth, and yet how very old and grown up. Slightly intimidating, Bob had been on the Krypton Factor and had an early personal computer that drew fractals for me. When we had dinner, I was left with a feeling of an immense candlelit banquet, with merriment and witty discourse.
This show will be like that, only with a drink: choose yours from our menu. Best enjoyed with ice.
The Uncertainty Division was resident at the C cabaret bar during the 2004 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and can be seen again at the ADC Theatre, Cambridge, at 7.45pm on Sunday 17th October, bringing a quirky view on the world through songs, stand-up and sketches.
- August 2004
A unique mix of comedy, music, puppets and actors doomed to die.
Worried about your mortgage? Stressed about your report due in tomorrow? Well it doesn't matter, because by tomorrow you'll be dead - the world is going to end, and there's nothing we can do to stop it.
Trapped in a theatre with an audience they've barely met, five actors face their impending demise by sharing memories. A half-remembered childhood incident combines with a fear of heights - and suddenly a story is born. Taking ideas from the audience and blending them with puppetry, music - and imminent doom - this is a unique experience for your final minutes.
Fully improvised and completely unpredictable, the latest show from The Uncertainty Division will capture your imagination for a few brief moments before it stops making any difference at all.
- October 2004
"Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life!"
Muriel Sparks' classic novel about "a miss Jean Brodie in her prime" is bound to be among the "creme de la creme" of ADC productions this term. In Edinburgh in the 1930s, Miss Brodie dedicates herself to the business of putting old heads on young shoulders, with consequences both hilarious and tragic.
- June 2004
Across Britain snow falls. In this altered landscape, banal situations
escalate to horrific and hilarious extremes. 'Beyond A Joke' promises to
showcase the cream of Cambridge's current comedy talent, in a show that
will be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in August and tour the country in
September.
- October 2004
'Come woo me, woo me, for now I am in holiday humour and like enough to consent.'
Following a 3 week tour of the United States, CAST returns to Cambridge with Shakespeare's comedy, 'As You Like It'. A colourful feast of music, clowning, cross-dressing and country wenches this promises to be a fantastic start to the new year at Cambridge and a great way to see the newly refurbished ADC.
All information for this Camdram Entry (excluding the description above) was added by the CAST 2018 Tour Managers and is based on an archived programme. However, this actual Camdram entry was created at the time of the original show. It is also worth noting that the exact dates/times of the performances listed are not known. However, the venue order is correct.
If you have any more information regarding this show or would like to know more, please get in touch.
- March 2004
'In failure... all are equal.'
"Grandiloquence chronicles one long night in the lives of four city-dwelling twenty-somethings: the prophetic Cigar-man, the relentless and beautiful Washing-man, the desperate Other-man and the star-crossed Girl. Everyone has ideals but it is a lucky man that does not, at some point in his life, realise that his ideals are impossible to live up to. He can then either abandon them or render them useless by living in denial. Grandiloquence is set as its characters are forced to make this decision and live with their acceptance or rejection of imperfection. Grandiloquence is not a depressing play, it is a frank statement of what means to call yourself 'mature'.
- March 2004
Annie Oakley is a poor country girl. Her sharp-shooting skills see her join Buffalo Bill’s traveling Wild West Show. There she soon falls hopelessly in love with Frank Butler, the big star. But Annie soon eclipses Frank, and they look destined to fall apart. She soon realises she'll have to make some difficult choices if she wants to win her man...
With numbers like Anything You Can Do (I can do better) and There’s no Business like Show Business, this is classic feel-good musical theatre at its best. A thrilling, romantic, vibrant production, with everything from tribal dance to gunslingin’ stunts which will amaze... not to be missed!
More information is available at the show website: anniegetyourgun.co.uk
- March 2004
- March 2004
- March 2004
Featuring some of the more unusual numbers from the Broadway and West End stages, the Amateur Dramatic Club is delighted to be bringing a touch of the musical wonderland to the ADC Theatre stage. Featuring numbers from 'The Last Five Years', 'Sweeny Todd', 'Rent', 'Me and My Girl', as well as the Lent Term Musical, 'Annie Get Your Gun', the evening promises to be an hour packed with some of the show stopping hits from the past few years.
- March 2004
Ambition, murder and treachery come to the ADC. “Now is the winter of our discontent” to “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”; from end to end a classic. Watch as English drama’s original and most magnetic villain takes over the stage and the world around him in his path to the crown by blood and by deceit. An imaginatively staged and powerful new interpretation of Shakespeare’s astonishing play.
- February 2004
Predatory, violent, immoral, angry, frustrated and comic lads Mike and Les want some easy cash, and a quick leg-over. Their target, Sylv, is an unhappy, unconscious collaborator in her own sexual exploitation; their Dad is a filthy slob; then there is poor put-upon Mum. This savage, witty and repellent play presents 1950s London: Berkoff described it simply as ‘frontal assault’.
- February 2004
- February 2004
The Challenge: to write, rehearse and perform a play in 24 hours. The Venue: the ADC Bar.
The last time 24-hour plays were undertaken, the audience were left wondering why weeks of rehearsal are ever necessary
- February 2004
"So I try to tell them about Richard Branson’s evil plans, but he won’t listen, so instead my good-looking boyfriend decides to serenade me with 'When A Man Loves A Woman'. The police block also consisted of a grand piano, which a rather butch-looking policewoman proceeded to play with extreme skill"
Do you ever lose the connection between reality and imagination? It’s not difficult, given the right catalyst. Become lost in your imagination. But Kitty’s bored with her own imagination, so she takes it upon herself to invade the lives of former school friend James and his womanising flatmate Colin. What unfolds is an exploration of Kitty’s eccentric, often drug-induced, thoughts and their impact on those around her.
- February 2004
Millions of pounds, nine husbands, two eunuchs, a butler, two thugs and one ex-boyfriend – you could be forgiven for thinking that Claire Zachanassian has it all. But she wants one more thing: revenge. Just how far will the people of the small town of Gullen go for the reward that she has to offer? By the author of The Physicists, this is a tragi-comedy revolving around money, power, revenge and greed.
- February 2004
"Out Of Order" is a modern farce which matches witty dialogue with fast paced action.
- February 2004
Facing moments of crisis and finding the courage to go on – hitting a wall and having to make a choice: Jason Robert Brown delivers in ‘Songs for a New World’ a freewheeling exploration of the human soul, addressing the fundamental issues of faith, love, regret and devotion.
In sixteen songs ranging from broad comedy and full-voiced anthem to touching love song, and from a single mother's hymn of praise for the gift of her child-to-be, to a bored and sexually frustrated Mrs Santa Claus, Brown has created a piece of musical drama that above all deals with the struggle for personal fulfilment.
- February 2004
He is named Gwarra. The Lost One. And the Owl cries for him. And he will not listen.
A mother's search for a son. A man's search for identity, born to one world, brought up in another - and alien to both. A boy's question - why am I different? A poignant story of intertwined lives, crushed in the aftermath of the clash of Australian Aboriginal and European cultures.
Based on a true story, this intense piece of new writing comes to the ADC for a one-night rehearsed reading, following a highly successful performance at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
- February 2004
‘Cripple Billy’ lives with his two aunts on the island of Inishmaan. The pattern of life on Inishmaan is disrupted when local gossip Jonnypateenmike brings word that a Hollywood movie is to be filmed on the neighbouring island. Martin McDonagh’s meteoric rise to fame on both sides of the Atlantic is fully justified in this superbly funny, dark, and moving tale. McDonagh is unrelenting, unafraid, irreverent, politically incorrect and, most disturbingly, horribly astute.
- January 2004
Chritie in Love is based on the story of John Reginald Christie, one of the most notorious and disturbing serial killers of the past century. Seen as one of Brenton’s masterpieces, it is a gritty play with an intimate cast that retells a timeless story of sexuality and criminality set against the role of the media. Christie’s tale is a corrupted love story, one of intense honesty and utter atrocity.
- 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.
