- January–February 2013
Twins Presley and Haley Stray live alone in a dilapidated flat in East London, passing the time by telling each other twisted stories and eating chocolate. Into this world comes the menacingly beautiful night-club performer Cosmo Disney, and his nightmarish associate, Pitchfork Cavalier. This unexpected visit and its terrifying consequences will change the Strays forever.
This piece of magic-realist drama was award-winning playwright Philip Ridley's début play and was received both with great praise and great controversy. His masterful descriptive power capture both the childish beauty and the surreal horror of the Stray's world, inviting the audience into a unique dramatic universe, that is truly Ridley's own.
- January–February 2013
‘Every civilization sets quite arbitrary limits to its tolerances…it is my hope people will think afresh whether or not they are valid’. Martin is a world famous architect living an ideal life. He has been having an affair with a goat. When he reveals this confidentially to an old friend it sets in motion events that will destroy his family and leave his life in tatters. Painfully tragic, brilliantly funny, fast paced and witty, Edward Albee’s 2002 Tony Award winning play forces us to readjust our notion of acceptable love.
- January 2013
One man's obsession for his cause propels him towards madness. Those around him fail to see clearly and those he needs to change will do nothing. The difference between good and evil is fine, but where will you stand when the evil clings this close to his bones?
All is not what it seems in this powerful one act dissection of the mechanisms of genocide. A gripping piece of fresh student-writing.
- January 2013
The transience of love. The incommunicability of the human spirit. Issues completely irrelevant to the life of a London mini-cab driver. Usually. But tonight Jimmy is finished with avoiding difficult questions. Tonight he wants resolution… Bluebird is the first play by award-winning playwright Simon Stephens, and follows Jimmy, a London mini-cab driver, through a single summer evening in 1998. As the night life of London pours in and out of his cab, we are confronted with the random cruelty of the city, but Jimmy remains constant, our sardonic voice of reason. Perspective comes at a cost, though, and Jimmy knows this better than anyone.
- January 2013
Jamie Fraser (Footlights Smoker, Corpus Smoker) and Ben Pope (Wolfson Howler, Clare Comedy) are part-time comedians and sort-of friends. They've swapped phone numbers. They've been to Subway together. Jamie has complimented Ben on his scarves at least once. Now they're bringing you an evening of hilarious buddy comedy. Featuring their trademark stilted delivery and awkward personalities, these plucky standups are gracing the Corpus Playroom for one night only. Witty observations! Self deprecation! 100% genuine audience interaction! Ben and Jamie think it might be good. These people agree: 'genuinely hysterical’ - The Cambridge Student ‘provoked the loudest guffaws of the night’ - The Tab ‘left the audience gasping for breath’ - Varsity
- November–December 2012
Controlled by her husband, demeaned by her boss, enticed by her co-worker and needed by her children, Molly bears it well... but her subconscious won't take it lying down.
Molly is a dark and beautiful expression of one woman's journey to empowerment. Come Experience It.
- November–December 2012
'Wouldst thou have laugh'd had I come coffin'd home, That weep'st to see me triumph?'
Coriolanus, conqueror of the Volsci, returns to Rome a hero, and is soon pressured by his overbearing mother into running for political office. But he has enemies in the Senate, and will soon discover that all his military skill will do little to save him from the court of public opinion.
How does class define our narratives about the world? What comes first: country or family? How can we cling on to our sense of honour in an age of frivolity?
Coriolanus comes to the Corpus Playroom in a bold and daring new production that radically reinterprets one of Shakespeare's most powerful tragedies.
- November 2012
Burlesque! welcomes you to our Weimar-era, fortune-teller's lair to spend an intimate evening with Ryvita von Teese and her company of charming reprobates.
Bring the art of burlesque back to its roots of social satire, join us for a dizzying romp through musical numbers, sketch comedy and interactive cabaret.
All accompanied by our onstage drag band, Burlesque! is a chaotic variety jamboree and a stand-out production in a town where love comes to die.
- November 2012
Mia is at boarding school. She has access to drugs. They are Martha's. Henry is preparing for Art College. He has access to alcohol. From Martha. Martha controls their lives. Martha is their mother.
Within a bourgeois world of boarding-school torture rituals, addiction clinics and business-class travel, a family is rotting. And there is no escape from psychosis.
"Crammed with startling images, ferocious cruelty and pitch-black humour, it is insolent, audacious, witty and wise."- The Times
That Face won the TMA Award 2007 for Best New Play.
- November 2012
- November 2012
"I can't be the saint people dream of now. People want a street angel. They want a saint but with a cowboy mouth."
Patti Smith, legendary punk-poet. Sam Shepard, revered playwright. Their brief relationship in the 1970s was fraught, a passionate yet all-too brief meeting of minds. 'Cowboy Mouth' is the result. Composed on one typewriter in their room at the Hotel Chelsea, the play offers an eccentric glimpse of these artists at the very start of their career, through the eyes of their projected characters, Slim and Cavale, holed up together in a room. They fight, tell each other stories, and are surrounded by rock'n'roll, French poetry and the potential of separation at every verbal turn. They wait daily for the Lobster Man, who brings them food, and perhaps for something more, for 'un cavale': an escape.
- November 2012
From the team who brought you 'Moments' (*****- TCS, "laugh out loud funny"- The Tab) :
A comedy about knitting, penguins and Battenburg. 'Me, As A Penguin' is an insight into the life of Stitch, his heavily pregnant sister Liz and her sofa-loving partner Mark. Stitch is attempting to sample the gay scene of Hull, Mark is having doubts about 'the bump', whilst Liz is just desperate for the loo.
But who is the man in the giant penguin costume? And why is nobody allowed into the toilet?
From the writer of the smash-hit comedy "The Kitchen Sink", 'Me, As A Penguin' was the centre-piece of Northern Exposure 2009; the West Yorkshire Playhouse's new writing showcase. 'Me, As A Penguin' is witty, heartfelt and deeply engaging.
"A sprightly piece of absurd realism" The Guardian
"Heart-wrenching, engaging and entertaining" whatsonstage.com
- November 2012
'Kind' is the winner of the 2012 John Kinsella/Tracy Ryan 'Other' Prize.
'What’s he called? 'Who?' 'The pirate, the one like a door with wings?' 'The Great Skua. Or to give him his full patronymic - Stercorarius Skua.' 'And no one stands up to him?' 'He’s got no natural predators, no.' 'What can the other birds do to stop him?' 'Not much. Feed in big groups; stay near their young. Keep their heads down and hope he picks on someone else.'
Developed with the support of the Royal Shakespeare Company Literary Department.
Professionally directed by Isobel Cohen, 'Kind' will be an ambitious production involving physical theatre, innovative staging and puppetry.
- November 2012
‘Don’t tell me to cheer up. People only tell you to cheer up when they’ve run out of sympathy’.
An unexpected and unplanned reunion forces a family to take a brutally honest look at themselves and at their achievements in life. Described by The Daily Telegraph as a British equivalent of A Death of a Salesman, The Bullet is, in the words of the author, ‘about the pathological need to go home and then – once you get there – the pathological need to leave again as quickly as possible’. The CUADC are proud to present the first ever Cambridge University Fresher Show to take place at the Corpus Playroom.
- October–November 2012
Five characters. Five perspectives on rape. New writing by Lauren Steele, ‘Did you say No though?’ confronts the issue of sexual assault that affects 1 in 20 students, written with an aim to raise awareness about sexual assault, the production also hopes to raise money for Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre. This intense piece follows the experiences of a fourteen year old virgin, an unwanted arrest on the grounds of statutory rape, a woman coming to terms with her gene pool, a wife and mother facing frequent panic attacks and a date rape that affects a bi-curious male. Through exploring the ambiguity of law in consent, report and rape in relationships, this play hopes to spark a new perspective amongst audiences as to the frequency, nature and reality of sexual assault happening to people in all walks of life in the society we live in.
- October–November 2012
'I've never buried anyone before.'
Texas State. Pete is gravely ill and the sons he hasn't seen for years are spread out across America. In one last effort to unite his family he calls them to his expansive ranch. What he doesn't realise is that calling them together will only serve to drive them further apart.
Enter a world where violence reigns and the power of family bonds are called into question. How much does it take for a bad word to turn into a bad action? And who will be left behind to pick up the pieces?
Come home. See the family. Say goodbye. Welcome to the ranch.
- October 2012
Britain is Broken. Mary has recently lost her husband, a pseudo-intellectual named Gaston feels quite good about being indentured to the illegal drug trade and the neighbours are finally getting round to organizing a sex party - but not the good kind of sex party.
And on a day when everything seems to be getting distinctly odd: a representative from the Local Council has come round to make sure the walls don't collapse and terminate the lives of everyone inside. It almost sounds a bit exciting, but as Mary so rightly points out: 'the minor necrophillic orgies don't really do it for me.'
'Pop Not Broth' is an unrelenting farce, a comedy tailor-made for the blithe age. It contains language making a good show of acting tough and is not suitable for anyone.
- October 2012
'Respect is no use to you when you're gone. If you don't earn it while you're alive, don't be looking for it just because you've happened to die. I never really did any great things. In fact, I've done many things which, to tell you the truth, I'm very very ashamed of. And if you've let people down, don't be wanting them to be all crowding around talking about what a brilliant fella you were, at your funeral, you know?
John and Mark come in on a cold Christmas eve after burying a man neither of them knew. John is a sociable undertaker whose life has been destroyed by drink, Mark his quiet young assistant. John entertains Mark with stories of days gone by, but it is not until the return of his estranged daughter that he is forced to come to terms with his past in a meaningful way. Conor McPherson's Dublin Carol entices the audience into John's world for one day only, but leaves them with a whole life story.
- October 2012
Are you alone or afraid? Is your mum late back from the supermarket? Did you get off the tram two stops too late? The Apocalypse Bear can put things right for you. Stalking through the anxieties and duplicities of suburban life, he’s always ready to lend a friendly ear, and a helping paw...
Presenting three short plays from the highly-acclaimed Australian playwright Lally Katz, this production brings a unique and perceptive theatrical voice to the stage for the first time ever in the UK. Join us for an evening of exploration, taking in modernity's darkest dreams, fears and childhood memories. Are you ready to step out into the woods?
- October 2012
Follow Jamie, New York novelist finding his first success, and Cathy, actress still finding her feet, as they fall in and out of love over five years.
As he tells his story from beginning to end, she tells hers backwards, and the result is an intensely personal look at both sides of the relationship: witness simultaneously the thrill of first romance and the disappointment of heartbreak, in a combination that is at once uplifting and devastating.
In an exciting new venture, CUADC and CUMTS proudly present Jason Robert Brown's celebrated musical at the Corpus Playroom. With award-winning music and lyrics by the legendary writer of Parade and Songs for a New World, this unique two-hander will see the Playroom become an intimate off-Broadway theatre.
'No one can give you courage; no one can thicken your skin. I will not fail so you can be comfortable, Cathy; I will not lose because you can't win.'
- October 2012
Ever worried about saggy skin and wrinkles? This lovable group of comics has an answer that is clinically proven to "naturally build facial volume and tighten the skin". This miracle cure will have your facial muscles taught, your diaphragm aching and your funny bone practically dislocated. Ludicrous, eccentric and astonishingly funny, these heart-warming, tummy-tickling, rib-cracking, off the wall girls and boys have something for everyone. So be prepared for a night of unstoppable laughter as this troupe of fresh faces in Cambridge comedy has you laughing until you're splitting your sides with their brand spanking new sketch show.
May contain traces of face.
- October 2012
Pembroke Players presents PEMBROKE PLAYERS JAPAN TOUR 2012
‘Now, the most important thing you should know about real witches is this. Real witches dress in ordinary clothes, and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses, and they work in ordinary jobs.’ - This summer, the Pembroke Players will tour Japan with their production of Macbeth. Set in Edwardian Britain, in a country house haunted by the absence of a child, where rocking horses move unprovoked, the clocks forever tick and spirits are ever present, the Macbeths are left questioning who and what they can trust as they sacrifice everything for power.
The Pembroke Players Japan Tour is now moving into its sixth consecutive year. Every year the Tour takes a high-quality production of a Shakespeare play to universities, schools, and public theatres across Japan. The tour is based in Tokyo but also gives participants an opportunity to travel and perform in locations outside of the capital - previous destinations have included Yokohama, Kyoto, Nagoya and many others.
- October 2012
Having written and performed stand-up and sketches at Smokers throughout Cambridge (Corpus, Christs, Magdalene, Newnham, Kings, Clare, Wolfson, ADC), Ben Pope presents his first full hour of stand-up at the Corpus Playroom for one night only.
Ben is quite unsure about almost everything. Come and have some thoughts from his head for a small fee.
'Very funny', 'very competent' – Tab 'Superb', 'Liam Williams in the making' - Varsity 'Ben Pope is a terrible comic and a worse person' - Anonymous Gender Studies student
- August 2012
"We broke the hare's neck And made that place, for a moment, The most important place there was," (from 'Interruption to a Journey' by Norman MacCaig)
A powerful and expressive piece of theatre, this performance explores those moments in life that make us stop and remember what is truly important. Devised from Verbatim-style research and Norman MacCaig's poem 'Interruption to a Journey' this play combines naturalism with physical theatre and music to create a haunting and beautiful tale.
- July 2012
Electra’s daddy’s been killed. Her mummy’s fucking the murderer. The smell of their sex is everywhere, corrupting her breath. At night she dreams of blades and flesh, but come dawn she’s like a little girl. Until something inside starts to change. Blood. Milk. Dirt. Soon there’s a man knocking at her door… In a post-freudian world, revenge is a sexual awakening.
It's the 2504th performance of "Oedipus Rex" and Chorus 6 wants to call it quits. But the tragic hero isn’t quite ready to let go. As the plot begins to unravel at the seams, the characters start to question the purpose of tragedy itself and engage in a series of heated struggles to separate fact from fiction.
Introducing Terrible Edgar’s “The Complex” series, these thought-provoking reimaginings of familiar tales promise to be a Fringe highlight for anyone interested in Greek tragedy.
If you thought you knew Sophocles, think again.
- October 2012
"Jeannie, you can't go through life like a piece of driftwood down a stream, just waitin' for the river to make you change direction... You need to choose."
The country is bursting with the vibes of free love and the sound of rock and roll. A million miles away, in Coyote Creek, Texas, Jeannie Hogan is back home after a disastrous tour with her rock band, sneered at by critics and snubbed by musicians.
But she’s not done yet.
Jeannie’s bags are packed and she’s going to New York City, determined to start again and take the music scene by storm. But before she goes, there's a message to leave - and a lot of explaining to do.
- September 2012
Stephen Dolginoff's multi-award winning musical explores the chilling true story of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb who, in 1924, committed one of the most heinous crimes of the twentieth century. Leopold, fuelled by his intense, obsessive love for Loeb, acts as a willing accomplice to his lover - a man who seeks his thrills through a series of escalating misdemeanours. However, the dark and destructive nature of their relationship ultimately pushes them to the brink of their passions and towards the perpetration of the most horrific of crimes. They believe they have committed the perfect crime, but are they both so sure?
Intriguing and shocking by turns, Thrill Me explores the toxic relationship of two wealthy, intelligent Chicago students who become forever dubbed in history as the ‘thrill killers’.
- September 2012
A look at the diverse lives and situations of three separate inhabitants of one cubicle of a busy accident and emergency department , in one 24 hour period. A touching, amusing and always thought provoking insight into the real human stories behind the sensitive, unique, and often deeply personal life changing moments and revelations that are so often witnessed only by the four walls of the room.
- June 2012
Charles Dickens adapted 'Sikes and Nancy' from the grislier material in Oliver Twist. It became the most notorious of his legendary Public Readings; a masterpiece of high Gothic melodrama. Audiences were shocked into silence. Women would scream and faint. 'I shall tear myself to pieces,' Dickens vowed before one performance. He surely did - it is now thought that the strain of 'The Murder' hastened Dickens's early death.
Don't be left out in the sunshine. Instead, make your way into the shadows of Fagin's den. It might be the most resolutely anti-May Week show that Cambridge has ever seen.
Praise for James Swanton's last one-man show, The Hunchback of Notre Dame:
'If we didn't have a limit of five stars then this would get six, for its bravery, atmosphere and wonderful acting' - TCS () | 'Swanton conveys every pitch of feeling in an engrossing and compelling manner' - Varsity () | 'Positively stunning in his grotesqueness' - The Tab (Nominated for Best Show)
- June 2012
“In the pursuit of wrongdoing, one steps away from God. Of course there’s a price.”
What would you do if you had doubts? What would you do if you couldn’t prove them?
The Bronx, New York; 1964; St Nicholas, a Catholic church and school. The steel-gloved, iron-willed Principal, Sister Aloysius, has her suspicions of the progressive-minded Father Flynn and instructs her fellow sisters to keep an eye on him. When the young, naïve Sister James notices a change in her student Donald Miller, the only black student in the school, after observing the closeness between him and Father Flynn, she reports her observations to Sister Aloysius. Aloysius is convinced of Flynn’s wrongdoing, Flynn professes his innocence and sermonises on gossip, Donald’s mother begs her to leave it alone and Sister James implores her to find hard evidence. But Sister Aloysius has a feeling, and no amount of doubt will dissuade her pursuit of the truth.
- June 2012
A singer of death chants, breakdowns and haunted waltzes - a boiling stew-pot of vaudeville, blues, garage and lies.
A night of theatrical parlour tricks, airs, ditties and tall tales.
Joe Rubini is a Birmingham junkyard poet, armed with a reel-to-reel tape machine, death-defying ancient guitars and a zoo of electrical oddities. For one night only. On stage. In person. The nation’s favourite vaudevillian songster returns to the stage of the Corpus Playroom to regale you with songs, stories, storysongs, a spiritualistic musical séance and ghost show. And I mean that most sincerely, folks.
“An expert in rough-edged excellence, Rubini didn’t fail to leave his audiences in gob-smacked awe.”
***** THE TAB
“A lone performer, a lengthy set and a truly original act.”
**** VARSITY
- June 2012
Daniel wants a relationship. Not just any relationship; a long-distance one. All the psychological perks, something exotic and exciting, without the socially awkward situations. What could be better? Suddenly Daniel finds himself with two girlfriends: will he choose the perfect girl-next-door from the USA - sweet, funny and beautiful - or the Dutch one, who just lives closer? Surely he's not just another one of those womanisers (or 'sluts') that he and his female roommate criticise so much? Social networking might have brought the world closer together, but now it's too close for comfort and, what with his internal monologue as well, there are now too many voices competing to be heard. It's Complicated is a hilarious comedy, which was shortlisted for this year's Harry Porter Prize.
- June 2012
The Widow’s Walk is the first production of a new play. Abigail is a young painter on the east coast of the US. Boxed in by her misguided mother, her duplicitous art tutor, and a boyfriend she doesn’t feel she can trust, she stands at the railings on the roof of her house, paints, and stares out across the open water. Surrounded by attempts to control her life and her career, and with her one hope out amongst the dangers of the sea, she must find a way to establish her own identity in her art, and in her relationships with those she loves.
- May 2012
What happens when the scientist becomes the subject and autocracy becomes anarchy? How far can a man be pushed before he breaks?
Obedience/Authority, a new play from an award-winning poet, is the story of a confrontation between a scientist testing the limits of human obedience and an artist struggling to cling on to his own sanity. What begins as a simple – if ethically questionable – experiment soon devolves into a complex game of intimidation and misinformation. Allegiances are formed and broken, loyalties are won and lost and a story that must be told slowly and chillingly emerges.
Inspired by one of history’s most controversial experiments, Obedience/Authority is by turns funny, moving and terrifying, and will have you leave the theatre unsure of the beliefs you came in with.
- May 2012
Rum and vodka: a libation with the power to wake the dead.
First produced when the author was twenty, Conor McPherson's (The Weir, The Veil) Rum and Vodka is a soul-baring monologue from a young man who smashes out of his routine and embarks on a three-day bender through Dublin that threatens to consume him entirely.
Follow our hero on a lost weekend; sink a pint or six with him and he'll share with you his story.
- May 2012
Pembroke Players presents 'Be My Baby' Week 3 Corpus Mainshow.
A poignant drama about attitudes to teenage pregnancy in 60s Britain. ‘Be My Baby’ follows the life of 19 year old, pregnant Mary Adams. Forcibly sent to a Mother and Baby Home in the north of England by a mother intent on keeping up appearances, Mary – along with the other girls in the home – has to cope with both the shame and the dawning realization that she will have to give the baby up for adoption whether she likes it or not. Despite their harrowing circumstances and an overbearing matron – the girls stick by each other through the hard times as they sing along to the girl-group songs of the period.
'You don't have to be young, female or unmarried to find it immensely touching' The Times
