- February 2018
" When the white man sees you walk down the street and calls out, 'Hey John ! Come here'...to you, Sizwe Bansi...isn't that a ghost ? Or when his little child calls you 'Boy'... you a man, circumcised with a wife and four children ... isn't that a ghost ? All I'm saying is be a real ghost, if that is what they want.
Spook them into hell, man ! "
Written and set in apartheid era South Africa, Athol Fugard’s Sizwe Bansi Is Dead obliquely references several of the struggles faced by people of colour during the time and tethers them to broader questions of identity and human worth. Set in a photography studio, the plot follows a man who comes in to have his photograph taken. He enters as Sizwe Bansi, but due to a series of circumstances beyond his control, leaves as Robert Zwelinzima.
- February 2018
Join us for this evening of new writing! The Fletcher Players bring you Smorgasbord: a festival showcasing some of the most exciting and original extracts from emerging student playwrights.
Hosted at the Corpus Playroom, this is a casual opportunity for writers to have their work performed on-stage, with the chance for the pieces to be discussed and critiqued afterwards by the audience.
Unlike many other writing festivals, there are no limits to the works being presented – they can be complete plays, extracts from a larger piece, or rough first drafts – as long as they are between 5 and 10 minutes in length.
- January–February 2018
Bromley Bedlam Bethlehem is drama exploring the effects of mental illness on three
generations of an immigrant family, in a society that is unforgiving of those who do not
‘fit’. The story is told over three timelines, with the weight of each generation bearing on
the next: Eamonn, an Irish immigrant, struggling with dementia and alcoholism and
trying to make amends with his estranged daughter Sara; Ben, Sara’s son, suffering
from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia and his mother’s unrealistic expectations for
him; and finally Sara, as she copes with the suicides of both her father and son.
- January–February 2018
Dear Lupin is the stage adaptation of the comic, caustic, and charming collection of letters sent by racing journalist Roger Mortimer to his wayward son, Charlie - nicknamed Lupin - spanning two and a half decades of their lives.
The play follows both their stories as Charlie, an Eton dropout, embarks on an array of jobs and years of “drunken hedonism” whilst Roger, a renowned horse racing correspondent, tries to keep his son on the straight-and-narrow.
This is a touching portrait of nostalgia, joy, and regret that delves into addiction, bereavement, and the time-worn yet unbreakable bond between a father and his son.
- January 2018
''Do you think gnomes are mammals or amphibians?''
Warden Adam McDonald has been a warden for three weeks. It's alright. He does his job, it occupies him, it pays his bills. Although part of his job is being forced to interact with the prisoners, which is tiresome to say the least; especially Dember with her dumbass questions.
In this brand new comic play which tackles the relationships we make and break, and asks why we befriend the people we do, Adam questions if it matters who he helps, and whether it's worth helping people at all.
Moreover, in the back of his mind, the question still lingers; should he try and scavenge from the life he had before, or leave everything behind and start life anew?
- January 2018
Tom Basden’s There is a War is a bleakly comic play about the absurdity of war.
As soldiers, priests and scavengers roam a battle-scorched landscape, young medical officer Anne, desperately trying to reach a front-line hospital, finds herself abandoned and useless. The war is raging between the almost indistinguishable Blues and Grays, with no end in sight. On her journey Anne encounters, amongst others, an angry priest, some blasé gravediggers, a clown, a group of campaigners and a recently promoted General. But no one seems to know what exactly it is they’re mean to be fighting for.
- January 2018
Footlight Rhiannon Shaw has [lost] it all. Her father's dead, her brother's left home, her boyfriend is on the other side of the country. And where the flip is her mooncup?
So she's filling her life with characters -- weird and sad, lovely and Scottish.
- January 2018
Cambridge character comic Henry Wilkinson bestows upon thee 'Peacock', a debut hour of hilarious characters and personalities.
Much like the esteemed Peacock, Henry Wilkinson fans out his comic tail feathers for an hour of silliness and absurdity as he explores the lengths and breadths of character comedy.
Those to be found among the colourful plumage of ‘Peacock’ include the fabulous and illustrious likes of the infamous silent movie star Brigitte Binoche, the acclaimed gothic horror author Finnian Finley, the notorious Victorian mystic Madame Bah-Bah-Rah, the entire cast of the James Bond franchise, a riled up schoolmaster, and Kelly.
Previous Praise:
★★★★★- Broadway Baby
★★★★★ - CTR
★★★★★ – The Tab
- January 2018
Christian and Eve are going on a date. Christian's done all this date stuff before. He's just looking for someone to settle down with. Eve's been getting ripped for the last six weeks and has been going on practice dates with her close family and friends. A lot of comedies see things going horribly wrong, but what about when they go cataclysmically right?
- January 2018
‘Your group. Your women. What do you tell them you do?’
‘I say I’m an estate agent.’
Charlotte never intended to work for Doghouse for more than a few months, but when Miss Local Lovely 2018 turns out to be less than legal it’s all hands on deck to stop the magazine from going under. As Aidan and Rupert work tirelessly to charm the girl’s legally minded father, it looks like long-suffering intern Sam may take the blame – but when his only other option is glossy Electra and its tips for making cotton wool more appetising, is he stuck between a rock and a hard place?
A tale of two offices, Lucy Kirkwood’s NSFW is a biting black satire of manscaping, misogyny and media manipulation – a co-worker cocktail that’s definitely Not Safe For Work.
- January 2018
An improvised comedy about the things that get lost...and found. What happens to the sock in the washing machine, the keys dropped down the sofa, or the thoughts we lose track of?
- December 2017
Join Santa and his assistant, Ellie the Elf, as they try to get everything ready for Christmas in time. Combined with spectacular magical tricks, and sing-a-long Christmas songs for all the family, this show is the perfect Christmas treat!
- December 2017
'For God's sake! This protest of yours – is it really worth losing your lives over?'
January 1916: Bert Brocklesby is a young schoolteacher, and preacher at his local Methodist chapel. Bertrand Russell is one of the greatest philosophers of his time. With the advent of military conscription their worlds are about to be turned upside down. Russell could lose his lectureship at Trinity College; Brocklesby could lose his life.
This Evil Thing, acclaimed at last years’ Edinburgh Festival, is the compelling, shocking and inspiring story of the men who said no to war, told by award-winning actor Michael Mears in a breath-taking display of vocal and physical dexterity.
Longlisted for the Freedom of Expression award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
A moving and dynamic retelling of a hidden story.
THE LIST
Magnificent storytelling.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
As well as two previous acclaimed solo plays (SOUP, about homelessness, Fringe First Award winner at the Edinburgh Festival - and TOMORROW WE DO THE SKY, about factory canteen workers) Michael Mears has written and performed five specially commissioned solo plays for BBC Radio 4. Onstage, he has performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Peter Hall Company on numerous occasions, as well as in London’s West End, most notably for nine months as Arthur Kipps in THE WOMAN IN BLACK.
‘Michael Mears is that rare combination of fine writer and formidable actor.’ - Time Out ‘One exceptional man' - The Observer
- November–December 2017
An exploration of the history of lesbianism, through the use of historical and literary sources. Using a combination of oral histories, written narratives and videos, ‘The Cambridge Companion to Lesbianism’ seeks to make visible the often invisible narratives of queer women in modern British history. This abstract, physical production will provide a starting point, a mood board, for the consideration of love, sex and gender identity in modern Britain. The piece is a kind of collage: a collection of overlapping, related, yet differing experiences.
- November–December 2017
It is one of the oldest stories on Earth: a tale of shame, of delusion, and of one man whose crimes finally catch up with him.
This November, the Corpus Playroom introduces a radical restaging of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King set in a contemporary prison.
Trapped inside the walls of a cell, there is no escaping the past. Oedipus is about to discover who he really is.
- November 2017
This dark but witty comedy sketch show tells the story of Simon Hall - national treasure and comedy legend. Allegations have been made that back in the 1970s he was not actually funny at all. Sketches are memories and form evidence in a show that culminates in a comedy trial!
- November 2017
'Killing my enemies is easy. The challenge is to control their minds. And I think I controlled yours pretty well. In years to come, I'll be able to say: 'Bulgakov? Yeah, we even trained him. He gave up. He saw the light. We broke him, we can break anybody'. It's man versus monster, Mikhail. And the monster always wins.'
Moscow, 1938.
A dangerous place to have a sense of humour; even more so a sense of freedom. Dissident playwright Mikhail Bulgakov has both, despite being stalked by the secret police. Inspired by historical fact, Collaborators embarks on a surreal journey into the fevered imagination of the writer after he’s offered a poisoned chalice in exchange for freedom: write a play glorifying Stalin to celebrate his sixtieth birthday. Help is at hand, however, when the dictator himself decides to help out in the writing of the play – and Bulgakov takes over the running of the Soviet Union!
‘Collaborators’ is both hilarious and surreal, charting an artist’s slow erosion of principle and certainty involved in collaboration as he is confronted with the steamroller of absolute power.
- November 2017
Is there life beyond Cambridge? What is the point in an education? Should you bother getting a job? All these questions and more will be answered in a rampaging, rambunctious and raucous hour of stand-up comedy from ex-Footlight Mark Bittlestone, ex-Cantab Will Dalrymple, and ex-human Will Penswick.
- November 2017
‘To improvise or not to improvise? That is the question; whether ‘tis funnier on the stage to witness the jokes and slapstick of a comic playwright, or to take arms against such scripted drama and by ad-libbing beat them…’
In a valiant bid to Become Literary, The Cambridge Impronauts now present a series of all-new Shakespeare plays! Entirely improvised on the night based on audience suggestions, these rediscovered bardic masterpieces shall prove worthy additions to the First Folio. Shudder at an elevated and ruinous Tragedie! Roar at the farcical confusion of a fine Comedie! Gasp at the political insight of an highly accurate Historie! Tell us what a Late Romance is supposed to be!
Come join us, then! You know the play’s the thing / Wherein we’ll have to make up everything.
- November 2017
A vivacious, feisty comedy about three sisters processing the death of their mother.
On the eve of their mother’s funeral, Teresa, Mary and Catherine come together to remember and misremember their childhood. Huge personalities, wild spirits and opposing ways of life clash and entwine as the women co-exist back in their mother’s home. As partners arrive on the scene, the secrets of the women’s new lives surface, while flashbacks to their memories of their mother’s life reveals the hidden and clouded past.
Full of tension, emotion and fun, Stephenson’s The Memory of Water, is an explosion of brilliant drama.
- November 2017
Join poet John Agard on a quirky re-visioning of the notorious New World Enterprise of Christopher Columbus. One of Britain's foremost cross-cultural voices and winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, Agard is known for his mischievous satirical wit. Whether glorified or vilified, Columbus, by his accidental 'discovery' of the so-called New World, gave a kickstart to globalisation, bridging Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, and joining forever the fates of these separate hemispheres and eco-systems.
Telescoping the voyages, Agard brings his irreverential humour from page to stage, fusing elements of calypso, cabaret and the absurd, as he variously takes on the voices of Columbus, The Atlantic, a native shaman and The Mighty Mosquito!
Written in verse with a sprinkling of songs and performed against a background soundscape of Atlantic murmurings and symphonic mosquito buzzing, Agard takes us on a fantastical, fanatical historic voyage that still bears relevance to contemporary issues.
Directed by award-winning live literature director, Mark C. Hewitt, with specially composed music by Thomas Arnold of Stomp's Lost and Found Orchestra, this is a one man show like no other.
- November 2017
The Marlowe Showcase is an opportunity for 12-14 graduating actors to perform one or two monologues or duologues in front of industry professionals (including agencies and casting directors) and be directed by a professional Director. Returning as 2017's professional Director is Nicholas Barter, former Principal of RADA (1993-2007) and former Artistic Director of the Arts Theatre.
- November 2017
Dear Residents of Little Heswing,
We regret to inform you that the Tourist Information Board have walked out and our beloved town is on the brink of bankruptcy. You are all invited to an urgent Town Council meeting in Michaelmas at the Corpus Playroom. We have one week before Little Heswing is demoted to a village. Or worse. A hamlet.
‘Welcome to Little Heswing’ is a brand-new sketch show with a distinctive narrative, following three peculiar heroes in their fight to save their even more peculiar town. In a bid to convince the County Council that Little Heswing is deserving of its town status, they plan to gather footage of all its major attractions, hidden gems and frankly bizarre residents. From a Squirrel Fight Club to the unmissable biannual HesFest, with guest appearances from the Insecure Morris Dancers™. It’s weirder than a one-man band that’s really seven ferrets in a suit.
What promises to be the world’s best tourist advert is then compiled and pitched to you, the audience. You get to exercise your democratic right and have your say: should Little Heswing stay on the map?
- November 2017
Every payday, garbage collector Troy Maxson holds court in the backyard of the Pittsburgh home he shares with his wife, Rose, and their son, Cory. By Troy’s side are his two best friends, Bono and a bottle of gin. Both are very good listeners, and there’s nothing Troy enjoys more than a captive audience. When his tales spin too wildly into fiction, Rose steps outside to playfully call him on his nonsense. As the evening progresses, Troy is sometimes joined by his eldest son, Lyons, who borrows money, or his disabled war veteran brother, Gabe, who has just moved from Troy’s home in a defiant display of his independence.
Life is a series of routines culminating in death.
Fences has a scope and impact far bigger than that of a simple family drama.The most accessible of August Wilson’s cycle of 10 plays, Fences manages to blend laugh-out-loud humor and tragedy in a deeply affecting combination that will add up to a thrilling evening at the Corpus Playroom
- October–November 2017
Blimey! It’s 1958 and the Cold War is in full swing, Britain’s ladies are neatly tucked away in the kitchen, and Her Majesty’s finest assassins have gathered to celebrate topping off their prime target. There’s just a small spot of bother: she’s not actually dead.
“I may not have killed her,” says Kenneth, “but I got jolly close.” Et voila! You are served a scrumptious platter of messed-up murders, accompanied by oodles of intrigue and lashings of lols.
All based on genuinely fictional events; it’s going to be absolutely capital.
A comedy from the writers of 'Bad Habits' (formerly 'Love in a Maze’) - EdFringe Review, Varsity, CTR and ‘How to lie and get away with it - The Tab
- October–November 2017
“Out. Out. What does it mean? In the closet. Out of the closet” Into the ghetto”
It is 1992, Section 28 prohibits the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools, and the age of consent for gay men is twenty-one. Sixteen-year old Steven is suffering the horrors of being a desire-filled gay teen, while his only role models are anguished, closeted men who depend on furtive sex in public bathrooms.
His teacher, Simon Hutton, the one person who could help him and a teacher at his all-boys Catholic school, is determined not to let the same reticence that limited him force Steven to succumb to the paralysis of victimhood.
Yet, the love Steven dreams of seems as far off in Hutton’s world as in his own.
TCS: 10/10
https://www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/theatre/0037867-review-what-s-wrong-with-angry.html
The Tab: ★★★★
https://thetab.com/uk/cambridge/2017/11/01/review-whats-wrong-with-angry-2-101538
- October 2017
"Whah am I to do wud the farm, Isaac? Three hundred acre a the finest land this side a the Shannon and west a the Pale. And me only son and heir can't tell nigh from day, oak from ash, he'd milk a bull and drink ud in his tay and never know the differ."
'On Raftery's Hill' is Marina Carr's epic tragedy of rural life. Three generations of Rafterys live together - they're a farming family, but both family and farm have ben debased beyond recognition. The close knit fabric of their community hides horrible acts - the play is a shocking exposure of rural life, and the corruption to be found within the mundane.
- October 2017
Join us for this evening of new writing! The Fletcher Players bring you Smorgasbord: a festival showcasing some of the most exciting and original extracts from emerging student playwrights.
Hosted at the Corpus Playroom, this is a casual opportunity for writers to have their work performed on-stage, with the chance for the pieces to be discussed and critiqued afterwards by the audience.
Unlike many other writing festivals, there are no limits to the works being presented – they can be complete plays, extracts from a larger piece, or rough first drafts – as long as they are between 5 and 10 minutes in length.
- October 2017
Everyone who’s ever done a sketch show has those sketches that seem hilarious at the time but, upon reflection, can never see the light of day. FIRM NOSE stages these ‘creatures’, and shines the harsh light of day upon them, to watch them writhe and thrive on the Corpus Playroom stage. These ‘sketches’ go so far beyond funny that they swing back around and hit you in the face with how funny they are. Like big, friendly, non-offensive boomerang(s). Have no fear, these are not things that go beyond the line and OFFEND, but things that go beyond the line and beFRIEND!
Fresh from the dark regions of Google Drive and performed by a rag-tag team of failed legends and fading stars, these are ‘sketches’ that have been ‘put’ in the folder marked FIRM NO’s (get it???)
- October 2017
CN: sexual and physical violence, homophobia and racism
Miremba, a Ugandan woman forced to leave her girlfriend and marry. Izzuddin, a Malay man who’s scholarship is removed when his sexuality is revealed. Hamed, an Iranian man who is told by the British Home Office that he is not gay. In their countries they are defined and oppressed based on their sexuality, in England their identity is denied without evidence. They are all asylum seekers, they are all LGBT+, and their stories are all true.
In Oxcam’s first venture in to Cambridge theatre, we bring you real stories from real asylum seekers. With much of the dialogue transcribed from interviews, ‘Rights of Passage’ provides an authentic and heart-breaking insight into the lives of refugees and the struggles they face. Persecuted in their countries, their oppression doesn’t end when they come to England. Their voices are taken away from them. Come, hear their stories.
- October 2017
‘Even if you don't think you can cook well, you can cook better than the food industry.’
Take a peek into the creamy, aromatic world that exists behind the kitchen doors. Featuring comedy monologues and sketches, ‘Edibles’ will take you on a taste sensation like you have never experienced before.*
*we do not take responsibility for any food poisoning that occurs as a result of this show
- October 2017
The rebel, the princess, the outcast, the brain, the jock.
Forced to endure each other's company for a Saturday detention, they must find fun ways to pass the time. Will they overcome their differences? Will the sketchy librarian stop sticking his nose in? Is this just the 80s cult classic The Breakfast Club?
Join Footlights Smoker regulars Leo, Kate, Laura, Stanley, Noah and Will as they take you on a sketch-based journey full of fresh-faced characters, shiny new jokes and at least one fake moustache.
- October 2017
"I waved the barge downstream, the dead boy and the ambulance still waiting in my head for me to turn round and look back at the lock and upstream to the weir and quarries. But I wouldn't."
In a pocket of South Yorkshire, Ruby, Lynette, and Jodie have each, unbeknownst to one another, suffered at the hands of one man. Their stories follow their most treasured memories, as well as ones they'd rather forget, in a gripping exploration of solidarity, survival, and storytelling.
- October 2017
Rufus McAlister likes to trim hedges into the shape of weeping llamas with Freudian undertones. He also likes to perform solo sketch shows, filled with props, kooky characters, mime and deep deep regret that he’s already this exhausted so early in term. Join this semi-charismatic, virtually-likeable Footlight for his debut hour of frenzied fun and madness, and the first ever human cannonball launch from the Corpus Playroom!
- October 2017
"I'm not saying he wasn't put in a dreadful position. But it's an inescapable fact he did it. He commanded those pilots to dive. To their deaths. Whatever the reasons."
Nikolai Koslov is a renowned architect about to open his biggest project yet, but when his family die in a plane crash on their way to see him, he resolves to see justice done. In his unwavering quest for answers he goes after those who he believes responsible for his loss and when an inquest fails to explain what truly happened to his family his grief turns him into the person he hates.
- September 2017
Alan and Julie, both with a past, are a successful husband and wife team working on a new play. While Alan is away on a secret mission, a mysterious visitor tells Julie that her husband is suspected of being as an agent for a hostile power. Who is deceiving who? What is the threat that Alan claims to have uncovered? What is the Riddle of the Sea?
