- March 2024
California, 1973. Rick, a musician and dancer, is shot dead.
Was it Gideon, his drug-happy co-performer? Maggie, his older lover, and actress herself? Roberta, Rick's bodyguard? Or one of the other oddball guests? As Rick's friends investigate, one murder follows another, and as it turns out, no-one is safe. With a host of hilarious, way-out characters, outspoken dialogue and a mystery that keeps the audience guessing until the last minute, Cracks will entertain you in dark and unexpected ways.
- December 2023
Following the success of last year's Hamlet, ETG is back for 2023 with a production of The Tempest.
A tale of power, magic, betrayal, love, and redemption, The Tempest is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and bewitching comedies. This enchanting story follows Prospero, a powerful sorcerer who was wrongfully stripped of her title and exiled to a remote island. With the help of spirits and monsters, Prospero conjures a tempest that brings her enemies to the island’s shores. As the storms of revenge fasten their grip, lovers embrace, fools plot murder, and Prospero holds the fate of all in her hands.
Our interpretation of this classic text invites the audience to re-imagine Prospero as a tortured artist, painting a tale of romance, political intrigue, and revenge through her magic. We see the world through Prospero’s eyes as she distorts reality to manipulate both the audience and the characters in the story. This production evokes expressionist art in both costume and set, reflecting how Prospero has subjectively moulded the spectacle, full of colour, music, and dance, that unfolds before us.
Founded in 1957 by a group of students including Derek Jacobi and Trevor Nunn, ETG is an all-student theatre company that tours Europe with a Shakespeare play at the start of the Christmas holidays every year. Last year’s tour went to Antwerp, Leuven, Tübingen, Konstanz, Bern, and London, before coming to Cambridge for a run at the ADC Theatre in January.
If you have any questions about ETG 2023, please get in touch with the Tour Manager, Jacob Gaskell, at manager@cuetg.co.uk.
- November 2023
It’s A Christmas Carol, but Scrooge’s greatest crime, over being tight-fisted money hungry boss, is that he forgets his northern heritage and chooses to spend his Christmas in… London! Filled with smash hits like ‘Let it Sludge’ and ‘Away in a Pret-a-Manger’, A Christ’s-mas Carol is the best, silliest and most over-the-top way to celebrate bridgemas
- March 2023
Do you love the limelight? Do you envision a blue plaque on your childhood home and your underwear selling for 50 quid on ebay? Do you want to be famous (even if it is just for fifteen minutes)?
Well, these guys sure do...they're in Cambridge comedy, what did you expect? Join our sketch comedians as they wrestle with their own egos, tackle celebrity culture to the ground and punch Andy Warhol in the face. We ask what it means to be famous in past lives, present lives and afterlives, and you ask how you can fill an hour's sketch show with such a narrow concept. From multi-millionaire movie stars to anonymous fanfic writers, this show casts its satirical eye on fame in all its forms, and if you happen to catch us by the stage door, we might just give you our autographs.
please note the recent time change of Sunday's performance: it will now begin at 9:30
- December 2022
Hamlet learns of his father's sudden death, whilst watching his mother remarry his uncle within weeks. Devastated by grief, Hamlet must grapple with relationships, family and his own unstable mind, as reality and his fantasies blur.
Our version of Hamlet invites the audience to delve into the psyche of the unstable Prince; they leave the theatre unable to distinguish the tragic events from the creations of his mind. The production will preserve an antiquity that cannot be pinned down to a particular time or age, drawing our focus to the inner psychology of Hamlet instead of the peripheral setting he finds himself in. We also hope to breathe purpose, dimension, and depth into the character of Hamlet, leaning into his youth and the difficulties that come with this.
The European Theatre Group was set up in 1957 by a group of students including Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Trevor Nunn, and has toured Europe with a Shakespeare play almost every winter since.
It is an ambitious coach-bound operation; a company of 25 or so tour with professional lighting and sound equipment, costumes and an experimental set, enabling us to put on a show absolutely anywhere.
Over time, ETG has developed a reputation at home and abroad for producing exciting, innovative, experimental and professional interpretations of classic texts, attracting the most ambitious actors, technicians and creative forces from within the university.
Sadly due to COVID, the tour has not happened since 2019, but this year IT IS BACK!
- January 2021
N.B. this show has been cancelled
Culhwch and Olwen is a pantomime adaptation of a medieval Welsh text in which Culhwch, a Welsh prince, is cursed to only love one woman: Olwen, daughter of Ysbaddaden, Chief Giant. Ysbaddaden does not want his daughter to marry Culhwch and sets the prince impossible tasks to prevent them from marrying. However, with the help of King Arthur Culhwch completes the tasks and the two lovers marry. In this updated and pantomimed version of an already hilarious text we roam Cambria-Ridge, the best university in all of Medieval Wales, alongside a host of pantomime characters including muddling knights, lovesick queens, and the true bane of any student's life: acadmic rigour. But don’t take our word for it, come along and watch!
Dates TBC
- December 2020
Join Alex as she travels through time to seminal moments in Christie College’s history to find the cure for the pandemic that ruined 2020: peroni-virus
- December 2019
Harry Spatz is a hapless man whose life is dictated by the random outbursts of song that follow him and those he loves. When his girlfriend is promised to another man, can he rewrite the lyrics?
Christ's panto is back promising a hilarious night and an unofficial drinking game
- February 2018
To kick off 2018, CADS is starting a series of new events bringing the Monologue Clash to Cambridge. An evening to see 10 great actors perform a monologue of there choosing from all of theatre-history!
A great opportunity for audiences and actors alike to get to see extracts from brilliant plays they may never have heard of before as well as stretch their skills for that next big audition.
There will be an element of competition with the audience being able to anonymously vote their favourite. The winner receiving a £15 amazon voucher - however the aim of this event is to showcase great performances and great plays, so come along for what is sure to be a great night of theatre!.
- November–December 2017
The year is 1978, and Christmas draws near. Brian Cocks, inter-dimensional twin of the physics documentarian, is about to take over the world.
Only Zavid Blowie, Princess Leah, and the inhabitants of a poorly maintained student house stand in his way. Will they manage to defy the desires of the evil Cocks, or will the world instead be plunged into decades of horrifying neo-liberalism?
The CADS Panto - the perfect antidote to the actual panto
Come for the bizarre storyline, stay for the drinking game.
- February 2017
Hell is empty
All the devils are here
- November 2016
CADS’ Christmas Panto is finally here! Prepare to be taken on yet another wild ride (this time with a plot!) as we follow the events of an industrial sales pitch gone awry.
This year’s Panto takes us up north, to Yorkshire, to visit the family mine of old-money entrepreneur Rupert Buttock. Having reached retirement age, Rupert is now making preparations to sell his mine to the extravagant Dame Ivanna Sukyoff, the daughter of an unfortunately named billionaire. Unsurprisingly, something goes rather wrong during Rupert’s sales pitch to the Dame (entirely the fault of his incompetent mine Foreman, George), which results in all three of the aforementioned humans becoming trapped deep in the Buttock mine.
Stuck with no clear exit, the trio decide to explore the shaft for some means of release – a quick spelunk never hurt anyone, right?
There will be drama. There will be magic. There will be a panto horse
- November–December 2015
The show stars Gabriella, an innocent girl following her dreams by joining the esteemed local Convent. But rather than living a quiet life of pious servitude she finds herself thrust into a maelstrom of debauchery, espionage and cheeky banter. There will be shocks. There will be scandals. There will be a panto horse.
- June 2015
CADS are back for May Week and putting on a show to celebrate the end of the year! In true CADS fashion, we’re here to entertain you and having a blast while doing so. What awaits you in this May Week Extravaganza you may ask, well: A series of brand new sketches, musical performances by our outgoing-President, Jodie Coates, King of Pantomime, Richard Kish, and more (Which may be confirmed at a later date), and magic from The Hypnotist, Kyle Fearn! It’s going to be big, it’s going to be fun, and considering most people may or may not be at least a little bit tipsy from May Week Sunday drinking, it’s bound to be a laugh! If you want a fun end to the day or something to pass the time before taking to the clubs, make sure to drop by.
- March 2015
Family Matters is a dark comedy about the Johnsons, who are, by all means, very respectable people. Donald and Barbara, the parents, their daughter Mary and their soon to be son-in-law John, visit Paul, the old grumpy grandpa, for a weekend on his request. What could possibly go wrong? After all, everybody loves family reunion…
- December 2014
A dream is a wish your heart makes…
Yet, will wishes be enough for Cinderella to escape her evil stepmother, Lady Tremaine, and her two ugly stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella?Will Buttons ever confess his love to Cinderella or will he have to let it go? Will Prince Charming ever get to do what he wants? More importantly – will Cinderella be home by the stroke of midnight?
There really is only one way to find out!
It’s time to enter into the wonderful world of CADS Pantomime where the camp factor is high, the jokes dirtier (most definitely not suitable for children) and the fun is better than ever before! With suitably cheesy good old fashioned musical numbers and a colourful cast, Cinderella is going to be the biggest and best Panto Christ’s has ever seen! If you’re looking for a hilarious, Christmassy spectacle, make sure to come on down to the Yusuf Hamied Theatre at Christ’s College to experience Cinderella: A Christ’s College Pantomime!
- June 2014
CADS presents the perfect end to May Week. Headlined by Footlights smoker regulars and accompanied by the newest sketch and musical comedy talent, pop along to Christ’s for 90 minutes of comedy gold.
- March 2014
Owen is ready for another week of parties and procrastination when he finds out that his parents are arriving that evening for dinner, under the impression that he has booked a restaurant and that they will meet his new girlfriend. Will Owen pull off the greatest deception of Lent term? Will he find love in the back room of Curry Queen? And will the whole thing be derailed by a bad French accent?
CADS present the 2014 Christ's College Freshers' Play, written by Paul Tait and Alasdair McNab
- February 2014
- December 2013
Unbelievable sights and indescribable feelings await as Aladdin attempts to get the girl of his dreams, Princess Jasmine, and save his mother's failing Laundrette business! With his brother, Wishy Washy, in tow, the two are about to be flung into a world of magical genies, evil men with talking parrots, good old fashioned musical numbers and the occasional dirty joke...
What will happen to Widow Twankey and her Laundrette? Will she have to sell her ancient carpet? Will Princess Jasmine ever be free of the palace and her father, the Emperor? Will she be able to be Part of Your World? And just what is hidden in the Cave of Wonders that the villainous Abanazzar wants so badly? The only way find the answer is to come and see Aladdin: A Christ's College Pantomime!
There's comedy, there's slapstick and there's references galore in the biggest Pantomime ever to come out of CADS! Get ready for this spectacularly cheesy, wonderfully dirty, musical extravaganza coming to the Yusuf Hamied Theatre at Christ's College, courtesy of CADS!
- March 2013
This year's Christ's College Freshers' Play is a brand new comedy written by our very own Adrian Gray (most famous for his Footlights Smokers appearances) and George Lord (a classicist- oh the inevitable puns..)
Bad Information promises to be a witty and exciting farce - written, directed and acted entirely by Christ's freshers. And as if that wasn't enough, it contains anything up to six jokes, a prat fall and some snogging. Win!
- November 2011
A new play to be performed this term, "Anderman" tells the story of Joseph Anderman. He's brilliant – a visionary – a genius. Or so people say. But what’s certain is he only has a few months to live.
He’s not alone, of course. He has loyal friends, devoted followers and a girlfriend who adores him. What he wants, though, is to create a work of art that will outlast him: that will allow him to live on in the minds of others.
He will cast away every kind word, every caring glance, and exploit his closest friends. His urge to achieve is obsessive – insatiable – and with his time running out he will do anything to succeed. He’s more than willing to destroy in order to create.
- February 2010
W. Somerset Maugham once wrote that, "There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are." Writing a sketch comedy show is a lot like writing a novel except it's quicker, easier, more reliant on jokes, and the end result is performed on a stage rather than being published in a book. James Garner and Thom Jenkins have read Maugham's entire canon, even the lurid and unpublished personal correspondence locked in his granddaughter's library (mahogany desk, third draw on the right; force the lock). This can only bode well for 'The Occasional Students', Cambridge's newest comedy sketch show.
- August 2010
A sketch show jam-packed with as much variety as we can fit into 55min. A diverse group of creative minds has been pooled and picked to create a huge range of comic settings, all aiming to tackle some of the big unanswered questions - just how good would Agatha Christie be at Cluedo? When the vet examines your beloved pet, how thorough is too thorough? And why use meerkats to sell car insurance?
The Occasional Students was originally performed at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and has been re-worked over the past 5 months in preparation for Fringe performance. The original script has been pruned, added to, and stuffed full of new lines by the team of 8 writer/performers (each with a strong pedigree from the lawless wilds of the Cambridge comedy scene) to ensure the flow of ideas never lets up.
This is a production that really aims to maximise the diversity available to the sketch show format by incorporating a range of themes and styles, combined with performers acclaimed for their versatility. Ultimately The Occasional Students are set on providing a fast-moving, dynamic, and above all hugely enjoyable night out for a wide range of audiences.
- November 2009
The Cambridge University Gilbert and Sullivan Society are proud to present the last of Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas The Grand Duke, or, The Statutory Duel. The play starts with a theatrical troupe preparing to put on Troilus and Cressida – but they are also conspiring to overthrow the detested Grand Duke Rudolph. When Ludwig, the company’s comedian, accidentally reveals all to the Grand Duke’s detective, it starts a mad chain of events involving a rigged duel, squabbling actors, two Grand Dukes and four Grand Duchesses!
With songs about sausage rolls, roulette, and duels fought with cards, The Grand Duke is undergoing a revival amongst G&S Societies; it will delight audiences with its absurd characters, witty libretto and lively score.
The G&S Society’s freshers’ show is a superb chance for new and old hands to come together for this unique show, the first fully staged production of the Grand Duke by the G&S Society since 1994. To find out about more about the show, read the libretto and hear the music, visit http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/grand_duke/html/index.html
- January 2009
William Shakespeare's darkest masterpiece, 'Macbeth' portrays a Scotland torn apart by war, greed and ambition. Duncan is weak, and trapped in an unwanted war he seems destined to lose. His court festers with false loyalty, and everywhere he turns he sees dissent and destruction. The only hope for the salvation of his kingdom lies with two generals, Macbeth and Banquo, but their victory comes at a cost. Having defeated the enemy without, they must learn to cope with the enemy within. 'Oftentimes to win us to our harms the instruments of darkness tell us truths'. Performed in the state-of-the-art Christ's College Yusuf Hamied Theatre, this production charts just how far one man may fall. Let the nightmare begin. WARNING - CONTAINS SOME SCENES OF GRAPHIC HORROR.
- October 2006
One things for certain, the first CADS sketch show of 2006 will be memorable!
Who will escape the rapier wit of CADS' crack writing squad? Certainly not Colin Farrell, Walt Disney, David Cameron and his lot, The Femidom... the list continues. There may even be a Gorilla. In a coma. Banter. So if your feeling blue, or just happen to be sleepwalking naked in the Christ's area, why not pop down to the NCT for a "good" hour of "quality" entertainment. Who knows what will happen? I'm organising it and haven't got a clue!
Lots of love and kisses,
Ben x
- November 2005
For two fateful nights in November, Christ's Amateur Dramatic Society present an hour's worth of sketches, monologues, and very obvious filler material, written and performed by CADS' very own committee and a plethora of hot young talent. Bananas. Bananas? Bananas. Yes, this sh*t truly is bananas.
- October 2005
Is he dead, or only dreaming? A.E. Housman, the poet and classicist, is on the banks of the Styx, waiting to be borne to the Underworld. Everything meaningful in his life eddies around him: the debate between the strictures of High Victorian morality and the free-spirited Aesthetic movement rages in academic circles and within Housman himself. All his life he has been in love with Moses Jackson, his closest friend, but Jackson cannot return his feelings and the morality of the day forbids Housman from even expressing them. Meanwhile, Oscar Wilde, Housman's fellow-student at Oxford, lives his life as "an artist, a secret criminal in our midst," spearheading the Aesthetic movement and paying dearly for his loves. This is Stoppard's masterpiece, a play for anyone who's ever fallen in love with someone they shouldn't.
- March 2005
Affabulazione is a modern tragedy of politics, patriarchy and psychoanalysis that charts the descent into madness of one man, known only as the Father and the events leading up to his murder of his son. Through the prism of this one father-son relationship, the play examines the whole fabric of Western culture. Our production will make use of film to explore the Father's state of mind, with thoughts and dream sequences projected behind him and all of the characters as they speak.
- March 2005
People drift across a lost world turning the stage into a dreamscape. The Street of Crocodiles fuses the stories and life of the Polish writer Bruno Schulz through physical theatre, mime and Kafka-esque metamorphoses. Joseph is tangled in the web of his memories that are reborn menacingly just beyond his grasp. A blend of the real and fantastic, these stories lead the audience down the path of Joseph’s disintegration to his final, chilling destruction. Birds eggs are hatched in attics, characters morph into cockroaches and tailor’s dummies come to life in this work of startling absurdity and extraordinary imagination.
- February 2005
CADS is proud to present its annual freshers' show after last year's storming success, 'Comic Potential'.
The year is 1797: the inhabitants of the sleepy East Anglian village of Dangling Wallop have been subject for months now to the attacks of a ferocious, man-eating beast; fear and rumour are rife amongst the townsfolk. The local landowner, Lord Oswald, a judge with an extremely large penal authority, is deeply concerned: the beast's ravages are losing him money, customarily earned from the regional industry of aubergine farming. Meanwhile, his precocious daughter Eugenia is about to gain a brand new tutor, an old friend of her father's, a French poet and libertine by the name of Zafira...
- February 2005
A remixed 'Twelfth Night' which takes place in the strange Illyria of Cesario's mind as s/he plays with poetry, sexual fluidity and fractured identities.
- November 2004
A classic comedy by Neil Simon ("The Odd Couple") about a long-since-broken-up comic duo who are persuaded to reunite for a television special, despite mutual dislike.
Really great, modest cast.
- November 2004
When Kublai Khan’s armies invaded China from the north in 1280, the arts enjoyed a newly found freedom. Released from the Confucian formalism of the Song Dynasty, the Chinese theatre of the time began to investigate, with increasing degrees of experimentation, the circumstances of its new world.
Autumn in Han Palace is an early Yuan work, overtly political in its focus with romantic meditations.
The Soul of Chi’en Nu is a Taoist whodunit investigating identity, love and duty.
Both plays are part of a distinctly Chinese tradition that forms the heritage of contemporary Beijing Opera.
- November 2004
"Don't leave your kids alone to play with fire."
January 16th 1969. A Czech student named Jan Palach sets fire to himself in Wenceslas Square, in protest against the Russian invasion. On January 17th 1969, he was headline news - but the evening edition of any decent newspaper carries a new headline. Was his sacrifice doomed to failure? How can any of us make a difference? Can we express ourselves better through advertising slogans than we can through Shakespeare? Palach is a patchwork of texts, sound and images that dissects the nature of theatre, communication and protest. Performed simultaneously on four mini-stages, you are invited to choose what to watch - and what to think.
Picture c/o: http://archiv.radio.cz/palach99/images/okraj2.jpg
