- May 2015
On the anniversary of their mate's death, three twenty-somethings, Ted, Danny, and Charlotte, decide it's time to make a change. Follow them through parks, raves, and greasy spoons, and watch as their youthful aspirations are tested by the unforgiving London night.
- May 2015
Martin wants it all. A happy marriage to Antonia and a delightful affair with the much younger Georgie. Yet his comfortable existence is upset when his wife reveals she has been sleeping with her psychoanalyst Palmer, and wants a divorce. Lovers are swapped around shamelessly as a brilliantly funny story, which is mostly satirical, at times bordering on farcical, ensues.
Set in the homes of the middle class in 1960’s London, the adaptation by Iris Murdoch and JB Priestley is a witty, sharp and intelligent exploration of marriage, adultery and class.
- May 2015
‘Would you string me up? Would you tie me down?’
Join us for an unrepentantly RUMBUSTIOUS, RIOTOUS and altogether RIVETING puppet show for adults! From shadow puppetry in Plato’s cave, child care arrangements with Punch and Judy, to War Ass (the critically panned sequel to War Horse), we’ll pulling your strings all night.
Featuring song, stand-up, improv, sketches, video, and a whole lot of socks – we’re here to remind you, puppets aren’t just for children.
- May 2015
What the Dickens! is an improvised comedy in the irreverent style of Charles Dickens. Expect big characters, with even bigger hats, as The Cambridge Impronauts (***** The Tab) transport you back to the timeless era of Dickensian London.
Your suggestions, including a title of the work, and a twist in its plot, inspire a unique comic creation; one of the many that Dickens himself never got round to writing. Whether it contains plucky orphans, devilish businessmen or tyrannical step-parents; each story has never been seen before, nor will it be seen again.
“brilliant improvisers... expect to laugh - a lot” - Varsity
“crazy, unexpected and hilarious” - The Tab
“It was the best of times...” - Charles Dickens
- May 2015
It's 1944 and Theresiendant Civilian Internment is expecting a visit from a member of the Red Cross. In preparation, Nazi commandants prepare a spectacle, hiding reality.
This five act production tells the true story of this notorious incident of WWII.
- May 2015
The Fletcher Players and Shadwell Society bring you “Smorgasbord”: a brand-new festival showcasing the most exciting and original extracts from emerging student playwrights.
Hosted 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 less than 10 minutes in length.
Come and see some of the boldest works of new theatre in their rawest and most creatively fertile state.
- April–May 2015
When her son comes back home after months of wandering, Sprout tells him to leave again. In order to persuade him, she tells him a story that she has never told anyone before...
This is the story of a hen named Sprout. No longer content to lay eggs on command only to have them carted off to the market, she glimpses her future every morning through the barn doors, where the other animals roam free, and an acacia tree blooms. She comes up with a plan to escape into the wild—and to hatch an egg of her own.
An anthem for freedom, individuality and motherhood featuring a plucky, spirited heroine who rebels against the dogmatised world of the barnyard and embraces her perils with love, ‘the hen comes out of the yard’ is a story of universal resonance that is a reflection on society, nature and the world at large.
- April–May 2015
Did he fall? Or was he pushed? Only one man can cut through massive bureaucratic duplicity and reveal what happened to the suspected anarchist who died at the bottom of a fourth-floor police station window.
In a world of commonplace deception and organised corruption, he stands as a bastion of honour and justice. He also happens to be a notorious liar, quick-change con artist, and certified maniac.
Nobel Prize-winning Italian playwright Dario Fo’s explosive political farce, inspired by a true story, in a version by Simon Nye ("Men Behaving Badly"), brought to life in a riotous new production.
Come and witness a masterpiece in comic absurdity, a feat of acid wit and farcical bravado, and see for yourself whether there is any method in the madness.
- April 2015
Set in the studio of struggling news channel, Headlines follows a group of journalists dealing with sensationalist stories, the breakdown of relations in the studio, and the possible rise of the living dead. Jumping between the studio, where the journalists try to keep on top of spiralling events and the possibility of a communist take over in the catering department, and stories from journalists in the field. Headlines is a surreal, darkly comic original satire
- April 2015
The New Mexico Desert.
Leave your home. Go to the other side of the world, to a country that looks like nothing you’ve ever imagined. Go there and fight for an idea. Fight for your God. And wait and sweat and starve for your God. Trust in Him, trust in the captains He set over you, trust in the priests He sent to help you. Just keep fighting.
“Is it God’s work? Because it doesn’t look like it. Not when you’ve got as close to it as I have.”
A tense psychological thriller exploring war, belief and power against the harsh backdrop of colonial New Mexico. In the dusty borderlands of the Spanish Empire, four young soldiers are waiting for the captain who will bring them home. But their trials aren’t over just yet.
- April 2015
A new comedy by Colin Rothwell (Cambridge Impronauts, various acting nonsense). It is 1562, and the Holy Roman Emperor is dead. As is traditional, the Prince Electors are convened to elect a new Emperor.
It’s just that for once, the Prince Electors aren’t quite what you might expect. There’s King Ferdinand of Bohemia, he’s a traditional choice. Margrave Franz of Brandeburg, a little young, but nothing too much out of the ordinary. But Duke Frank of Saxony, at 10, is a lot young, and certainly shouldn't be refusing a regent. And finally, there’s Count Palatine Frederick of the Rhine. For the first time in history, a woman.
Who in Christendom is up to the job of leading the Empire through this troubled time? Will the Prince Electors manage to pick the right candidate? And what, exactly, does the Pope have to say about all this?
- March 2015
ALBATROSS PRODUCTIONS presents a new version of Shakespeare's Cymbeline.
Modern Britain, home to liberal thought, social progression and a renewed sense of pride. The monarchy, having enjoyed strength and stability from recent surges in nationalistic interest, is now facing adversity from abroad and from within. Princess Imogen, heir to the throne since her brother's disappearance, and heart-throb of many, has finally decided to marry. Having eschwed kind but misguided offers to marry her step-brother, Imogen instead opts to propose to her girlfriend, Posthumus. King Cymbeline, himself a pioneer of the Marriage Equality Laws, is now embroiled in untimely personal conflict. The Queen won't permit a gay royal wedding, but losing his daughter would enfranchise his detestable step-son - and, with a backlash invasion from Italy on the horizon, he needs his kingdom as united as possible.
- March 2015
One naive fresher encounters a spirit too many in this terrifying tale about a Cambridge University degree. Matt learns the hard way not to consort with ghosts when his misguided wish to achieve academic success has haunting consequences. Matt races through his past to secure his future and get the ghoul of his dreams. It'll be dead good.
- March 2015
'The best thing to happen to the sky since rainbows'.
Based on the BBC Radio 4 show “Cabin Pressure” by John Finnemore copyright Pozzitive Television Ltd, ‘Cabin Pressure’ is set in the cabin of 'GERTI', a charter airplane run by ‘MJN Air’ and examines the relations between and the antics of the four crew members as they fly across the globe: Carolyn (the owner of the MJN), Arthur (her son and hapless flight attendant), Martin (captain) and Douglas (first officer). The crew pass their time by engaging in games, bets and general tomfoolery; making a madcap comedy that is as fun for the actors as well as the audience.
- March 2015
Back in the early 90s, Daniel Leigh applied to join the East Coast rap group the Wu-Tang Clan. After narrowly losing out on the final spot to Method Man, he found himself in the hip-hop wilderness for the next 20 years. Now he is back, exacting vengeance in the form of an hour-long stand-up show.
- March 2015
“They think I am the most beautiful thing in the world. And I don’t mind being a thing. I don’t want their respect.”
Leah is a fifteen-year-old girl who is nervous about losing her virginity. She Veets everywhere and practices her cum face in the mirror. Georgie is thirty and feels frustrated with the turn her life has taken. Having recently ended a long-term relationship and quitting her job, she spends her days lounging around drinking wine and masturbating.
Set on a double bed, the play follows these two women as they try to navigate their sexual identities. In an age of Blurred Lines and widespread access to pornography, FREAK explores the ‘female need to be validated by the male gaze’.
- March 2015
Late at night, 1941, London – heavy rain and the distant crashes of heavy bombing.
Max Slater, engineer for the British Government is preparing a demonstration for a field agent. Corks with a compartment for secret messages, lighters with secret cavities, hollow coins and keys with concealed blades are tonight’s entertainment.
She will arrive any minute. Cara Satin.
But surely it can’t be his Cara Satin? The girl who always seems to turn up at the most unexpected moments and turn his life upside down all over again.
In 1991, two researchers are writing a book about a legendary spy, Cara Satin, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. They visit the home of an elderly couple where the husband, Max, claims to have known her. Will his fondly held memories hold the answer to Cara’s whereabouts?
- March 2015
Broads on the Way - scenes of absolute uproar and confusion! A comic show jam-packed with ludicrous parodies of well-known and loved musical numbers, bizarre satirical sketches and really strange dance moves!
Come on down for a night of fun, madness and laughter that will make your abs hurt in the morning!
- February 2015
'Dreaming with Dalí' is an hour long surrealist sketch and monologue based comedy play which tells the story of Salvador Dalí's quixotic journey into his own subconscious mind to discover the greatest surrealist object there has likely ever been. It provides the opportunity to experience for the first time what it would be like to dream as though you were inside the weirdest mind of the past hundred years and promises to be very odd indeed.
- February 2015
“Let’s just say… that the trees have names? Okay? That’s right- the trees. I know- you think I’m crazy.”
Attempts to define her? Attempts to save her? Or attempts to ruin her life? A harrowingly realistic portrayal of one private life, presented through a kaleidoscopic disarray of personal vignettes, unravels the tale of a woman, enveloped by the demands of the twentieth century. Crimp’s display of twenty-first century obsessions clutter the stage as we are bombarded by memories of childhood, violence, unprotected sex, terrorism, pornography and commercialism. But we are all asking ourselves the same question: who is Anne? Or Anya? Or Anna? One woman, an ‘other’, a nobody in modern society.
Martin Crimp’s ground-breaking seventeen ‘scenarios for the theatre’ first baffled theatre-makers in 1997 in its first appearance on stage at the Royal Court with its sparse, alienating play form and rich language, the continues to question our use of theatre today, and the way we use the stage to depict real life.
- February 2015
‘Pub quizzes may attract customers to a pub who are not found there on other days.’ – Wikipedia
In an odd, dingy pub, a ragtag bunch of unlikely characters are roped together to form the final team in the weekly Pub Quiz. Betrayal, rivalry, nibbles, nuns; all is laid bare on the sticky table as they stumble their way through the rounds. A new comic play where trivia, sketches and music combine for a night at nobody’s local.
- February 2015
'There's no dark like a winter night in the country. And there was a wind like this one, howling and whistling in off the sea. It was this type of night now. Am I setting the scene for you?'
It's a windy night and the local men are gathering at Brendan's pub for their daily pints. The arrival of Valerie, a stranger to the town, sets the men on edge. As the drinks flow, so do old tales of things that go bump in the night... But Valerie has her own tale to tell, and when she shares it the group will never be the same again.
Hopeful and heart-breaking; expect toe-curling ghost stories and belly-warming laughs in this Olivier Award Winning modern masterpiece.
Praise for the play:
'The play of the decade' - Express
'I am convinced that this is the best new play I've seen in years' - Sunday Telegraph
'I have rarely been so convinced that I have just seen a modern classic' - Daily Telegraph
- February 2015
A new surreal and sophisticated sketch show. Expect some film, some settings, and definitely some styles. Written by two finalist Englings whose time has come.
- February 2015
Did you hear that? Where did that even come from? Do you hear the people sing? It doesn't matter. Join just less than half a dozen fervent, frivolous and 3/5 female comedy types as we search internet soundboards for noises that make us laugh the most.
There will be snakes, planes, and unintentional alluding to popular films. Also, a welsh man.
They say a picture speaks a thousand words. Well a sound paints a thousand pictures. Just think of how many pictures you'll walk away with.
Do come.
- January 2015
Two men: a management consultant from Manchester; an Assistant Scout Leader who has an obsession with Ronan Keeting. L’Escargot is a two-man comedy play that follows the paths of these men stranded in Paris after their flights home are cancelled.
Forced to stick together, the two heroes set out to discover the city they always overlooked. But as they journey deeper on a winding exploration of famous (cliched) sites, they become embroiled in the lives of other characters (a Parisian show girl, a Dutch priest, a rather curious mime) and each other's.
Amidst the chaos and uproar wrought across the cultural capital of the world, one question remains: can you spot the snail?
- February 2015
Based on the true story of the assassination of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Les Justes is a tense drama unveiling the experience of the group of assassins responsible. Camus’ little known existentialist play weaves an intricate picture of the people behind the plot, stripping back the layers of revolutionaries and socialists to reveal their desperate humanity. A philosophical and thoughtful work, the play raises questions about the morality of assassination and its human impact, whilst retaining a story that has both heart and passion. It will be performed in English.
- February 2015
Hatch is back, showcasing scratch performances of new dramatic and poetic works in progress from the hotbed of Cambridge literary talent.
A fantastic insight into fresh new writing in its infancy, there will be an informal post-show discussion for audience, performers, directors and writers to pick apart the evening’s work.
Hatch is a unique and exciting opportunity to be a part of a writing process.
- February 2015
“Like it's fine to say 'having sex with a dog is quite weird' now. But our children's generation might be all like 'that's discrimination!”
One-night stands are awkward. One-night stands with animals are more awkward. And when you're as desperate to please as Bobby, things get awkward as f*ck. He's just a guy with too much love to give, and a burning desire to give it to consensual adult mammals. A one-man tragi-comedy from award-winning playwright Rob Hayes
‘Finely crafted comic dialogue and strikingly surreal moments... Hayes is no ordinary writer’ (Time Out)
- February 2015
'Racing Demon’ follows a group of vicars in inner-city London struggling to come to terms with the modern world. People no longer trust their way of life, and scandal is never too far away from them. Lionel is a man who no longer relies on his faith. Tony navigates his own chaotic morals to little success. Frances is forced to anchor the lost souls of her life, despite holding no beliefs of her own. Harry is hounded by the press looking for a juicy story, struggling to keep his private life under wraps. These people do their best to fight in the face of persecution, asking the question: "How do you fight without hate?" David Hare’s ‘Racing Demon’ opened in 1990 to universal acclaim, and won four awards as Play of the Year. It has enjoyed numerous revivals, and continues to be respected as an exploration of religion, conflict and politics.
- February 2015
Kenneth Watton (six time carrier of the British Broadcasting Bowl) extends a warm invitation to the recklessly somnambulant to join him, and several respectable guests, for a late evening of wit, chat and revelry.
Gather your best bed linen and journey back in time to the proverbial land of mahogany slippers and received pronunciation. Bring your own snook.
- January 2015
Providenciales, a Caribbean paradise. A local woman and two tourists meet on a hot patch of sand.
"Why would I do what I do back 'here' when I aint back 'here' - I'm 'there' - don't make no sense - I'm not at home am I. Am I? I'm 'there' on holiday"
One subject. Two worlds. Three points of view.
A darkly humorous and quietly brutal meditation on female sex tourism, investigating the indignities inherent in international trade through the lens of first-world women visiting a third-world resort, purses stuffed with local currency and British Kitemark condoms, searching for something special.
As the sun beats down and another 'highball glass of su'un sweet' is consumed, disturbing transactions take place; sex and romance, consumer and consumed, victim and perpetrator become ever more difficult to tell apart. On this beach, 'tourism' is the title under which indignities thrust by one culture onto another are permissible in the name of commerce, and for the alleged betterment of a flailing economy.
- January 2015
'Your eyes are blank. They're like a blank screen, Ian'.
Ajax, one of the greatest warriors in Grecian legend, cursed by the gods with a frenzied madness. While he believes to be slaughtering his enemies and achieving his goals, he wakes to find only slain cattle and his sanity littered about him. Ajax440 is an innovative retelling of Sophocles’ powerful Greek tragedy for the digital age. The myth is now transposed onto modern day, where virtual violence runs rampant, and a mysterious new video-game has gaming-addict Ian in its thrall...
A warrior, punished for his arrogance. Or driven mad by his need for escape?
Reviews have called us 'truly excellent. a tight, original and gripping adaptation.' (TAB)
'inventive and clever. smooth and confident.' (VARSITY)
'clever. inimitable. ultimate. superb. all-consuming. sinister and chilling.' (TCS)
- January 2015
A new farce of dark comedy and pamplemousses set in the sexy, cloak and dagger world of Art History. It's 19--, and the fashion for using dashes to indicate a vague date is taking Paris by storm. Everyone becomes very, very confused when Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire are arrested for the recent theft of the Mona Lisa (this is almost a history fact). Can they prove their innocence? Can they persuade their next door neighbour that they are not having an affair with his wife? And, most importantly, can they find the right word to describe the Mona Lisa's smile? Find out in this one-door tragi-farce, the latest product from the invent-a-genre warehouse.
- January 2015
Tessa’s home. Unannounced.
Michael has stopped eating again.
She makes a deal with him: she’ll stay, but will only eat what he eats, when he eats. She’ll live with him and cook for him every day until he gives in.
Michael, however, isn’t ready to submit.
Attempting to live with each other again and deal with their past, Tessa begins to discover first-hand Michael’s struggles of living as an anorexic.
A brave, boldly original and unashamedly frank insight into one couple's battle with anorexia and each other.
“I have a mantra. Quod me nutrit me destruit.”
“What nourishes me destroys me.”
- January 2015
Orlando sometimes struggles with defining who he is. He didn't take a gap year, and so never had the opportunity to find himself. He will endeavour to do so in his first solo hour of stand-up. Words will be spoken.
- December 2014
Experience theatre as you never have before and immerse yourself in three of Edgar Allan Poe's classic Gothic tales, presented for your visual and auditory pleasure. Witness a man suspended in the exact moment of his death; the torture of a prisoner held in absolute darkness; and the unhinging of a man under the influence of a strange and Machiavellian creature.
Shedload Theatre are back with their unique blend of dramatic reading, live Foley effects, and on-hand lighting to bring you their new macabre showcase: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit And The Pendulum.
