- 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
- May 2012
Four people wake up in a prison cell, chained to the walls and tormented by both inexplicable noises and a nightmarish guard. Despite abuse, starvation, and humiliation however, all they seem to care about is the contents of a mysterious bottle which lies in the centre of the room, just out of reach. Drink Me is a piece of semi-surrealist new writing which seeks to challenge the conventions of character and location and create a horrifying, unsettling, but ultimately beautiful experience.
- May 2012
A master of language, cleverly accessible and humane, brilliantly calculated, David Ives is perhaps the funniest writer of short plays in America today. Struggling with love, problems of communication and defining their true self, his hilarious and tormented characters must deal both with the complexities of ordinary life and large metaphysical issues. Discover what happens when you can reset conversations with strangers, find out what is at the bottom of the black holes called ‘Philadelphias’ and realize how made up languages can solve social anxiety. The world of David Ives is enchanting, perplexing and very, very funny.
- May 2012
“...i’ll tell it once. one time because it deserves to be told, and then never again. fair enough?”
Three plays. Three violent crimes. Three victims. Or is it more? A man in a plain suit confesses the tragic results of a friend’s practical joke to a stranger in a hotel room. A young woman in an interrogation room describes her relationship as a 13 year-old with her high school teacher and the consequences it had for them both. A young couple recall a memorable high school reunion, but end up telling chillingly different stories.
Neil LaBute’s collection of short plays ‘bash’ is an uncompromising dive into the darkest recesses of the human psyche and the evils that lurk just under the surface of everyday life. It is raw, unflinching and mesmerising. What exactly does it take to kill?
- May 2012
‘A true joke, a comedian's joke, has to do more than release tension, it has to liberate the will and the desire, it has to change the situation.’
Manchester, 1975. A small classroom bristles with excitement as a group of aspiring comedians prepare for a night of standup that could change their lives.
In the crowd will be Bert Challenor, representative of the Comedy Federation. If they get the laughs, they get the contract. But at whose expense?
‘Most comics feed prejudice, but the best ones make them clearer to see – easier to deal with.’
- April 2012
“As I am now, I am no wife to you,” Nora Helmer explains to her husband in the first real conversation they ever have together. Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, hailed as the world’s first realistic drama, traces the breakdown of the perfect Victorian veneer of a successful marriage. Conflicted between her duties to herself and others, Nora struggles to define her place and worth in society. Entangled in cross-loyalties, legal disputes and blackmail, A Doll’s House addresses our needs and limitations as individuals.
- April 2012
'They spend their time mostly looking forward to the past.'
Osborne's famous, autobiographical piece presents the unhappy, unfulfilled marriage of Jimmy and Alison, the failures of the British middle class and the crumbling of family life. Sex, violence and trumpets combine in a defining piece of British theatre which coined the term 'angry young men'.
Set in the intimacy of the Corpus Playrooms and using an all female cast to get a unique perspective on this masculine piece of theatre, the production offers an intense perspective on the tragic farce of a failing young relationship.
- March 2012
"I dare you to go outside"
In this bedroom, there are no toys. But Laura wants to play a game.
The Music Box is a gripping new piece of devised theatre that takes its audience on a journey through guilt, absence, and reconciliation. The three siblings seem inseparable, but the music box contains forces which not even Laura can control – and outside the bedroom door a strange young man is waiting to come inside.
With live music by Rhodri Karim and original artwork by Anna Moser, The Music Box is an innovative and interdisciplinary production that merges poetry, dance and post-dramatic theatre.
Laura is playing a game.
And there’s only the music box for company.
- March 2012
Every Sunday night, Stephen, his employees and his son hold a poker game in the basement of Stephen’s restaurant. There’s money on the table – lots of it – but there’s more to be lost (and won) than just that. For the father who wouldn’t otherwise see his son, the reckless gambler, the indebted obsessive, the aspiring pro and the stranger who claims to be a beginner but somehow wins a little more than he should, winning isn’t as straightforward as walking away with the cash. Old debts must be paid and hard truths must be faced. The game is on.
- March 2012
Matt and Marc's Shot in the Dark: a comedy smoker with a twist...performed entirely in the dark!
Pioneering a new concept that has already enjoyed huge success at the Leicester comedy festival and the Edinburgh Fringe festival in recent years, Matt and Marc present Cambridge's newest and most unique comedy smoker, featuring the best of stand-up and sketch comedians from around Cambridge, as they are dragged out of the limelight and their comfort zone into complete darkness.
Expect jokes, silliness, breaches of health-and-safety and darkness. Will our performers adapt to the challenge? Will the intimate atmosphere increase your enjoyment? Will it be completely dark?
The answers (which coincidentally are all "yes, hopefully") are to be found somewhere in Corpus Playroom. You won’t have seen dark humour quite like this. And you won’t see it this time.
- March 2012
If beauty is only skin-deep, then perhaps so is ugliness.
The thunderous bells of Notre Dame resound through the evening air. They herald your encounter with the hunchback. Half-blind, deaf and crippled, Quasimodo is more twisted than the gargoyles that surround him. As a man, he is truly half-formed. Yet there is nothing half-formed in his story, which brings the wickedness and injustice of fifteenth-century Paris screaming into the bell tower. Hovering over the body of his unrequited love, Quasimodo plans himself a beautiful destiny. This intimate and heartbreaking one-man show is not to be missed.
Previous descriptions of James Swanton:
'A brilliant turn' - BBC
'Grotesque contortion' | 'Wonderfully twitchy and lugubrious' | 'A plethora of gurns and disfigurements' | 'Among the most moving performances I have seen in Cambridge' - Varsity
- March 2012
THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR Nikolai Gogol
An Inspector is Coming…
…to a hap-hazard and highly corrupt provincial town in 19th Century Russia. A colourful cast of sneaking, squeaking (literally), blustering and trembling officials and their serf-beating Mayor panic when they are delivered the news that a Government Inspector is coming to look at their town. The subsequent schmoozing, bribing and offering of daughters (and possibly wives) to this man is made all the more hilarious by his being no Inspector, but an underpaid government clerk who has been mistaken for the real deal and decided to go along with it.
- March 2012
Van of Life: The Musical. Star Wars with Songs. Me, My Dos and I?
Ever planned on writing a musical before Tripos got in the way? Have a vision for “Frozen Planet - with jazz hands!" that you just can’t seem to start? Hate musicals and want to get your own back?
Cambridge’s first improvised musical group face the fear and prepare to perform a so far unwritten musical in just 60 minutes; you provide the title and the props, the rest is up to the cast. With live music, on-the-spot dance routines and the continual possibility that everything could go wrong, this musical could change the world as we know it.
Please bring an item of your own for the prop box (all will be returned at the end of the show) and prepare for the absurd, the amusing and the insane – the musical!
- February–March 2012
‘It’s just that I suddenly feel, I suddenly feel – help me – I suddenly feel lost. I don’t know who you are’.
A couple relocates to the country with their family; a fresh start in their new house in the middle of nowhere. But Corinne is suspicious of her husband Richard: is he telling the truth about the unconscious person he has rescued from the roadside? A stark and darkly comic dissection of a couple’s fidelity, this intriguing play is part domestic thriller, part word battle, and part game of stone/paper/scissors.
Martin Crimp is one of Britain’s most exciting and innovative contemporary playwrights – 'The Country' has been described by the Independent on Sunday as ‘a riveting piece ... by one who delights in his craft’.
- February–March 2012
There are two sides to every story…
Ever since he first saw her, Frederick Clegg has been obsessed with Miranda Grey. The repressed, introverted butterfly collector admires the beautiful, privileged art student from afar until he wins the Lottery and buys a remote country house, planning to bring her there as his ‘guest’. Having abducted and imprisoned her in the cellar he soon finds the reality is far from his fantasy and their tense, claustrophobic relationship leads to a devastating climax.
‘A fine psychological thriller…enthralling…an evening of compelling nastiness’. Daily Telegraph ‘Images will recur in your nightmares for years to come’ The list (Glasgow and Edinburgh)
- February 2012
It's a big day for Britain. Seb Coe's got a bloody tie on (plus suit - he's consistent/has a stylist) and Hitler's still dead. The Olympics are 'coming home' and it rests on the plucky shoulders of three display plane pilots to make sure the celebration befits the occasion. 'Pilot' is a one-set, one-act comic farce: a cockpit cock-up.
- February 2012
Les Justes is an incredibly powerful and dramatic play. Written by Nobel Literature Laureate Camus, Les Justes tells the story of a group of Russian Socialist Revolutionaries as they plan to assassinate a Grand Duke. It is a tense and emotional play in which anger and love characterise the relationships between the protagonists. Camus’ play makes us question the objectivity of right and wrong and shows us the terrifying potential of ideology and dogma. Les Justes is a straight play and it will be performed in English (not the original French).
- February 2012
A hunger artist. A silent artist. A lecture to the academy on apes by the most qualified speaker imaginable. A son who will do anything, anything to earn his Father's love. A man doing anything to earn a place in, and out, and in, and out of a woman's bed. But above all, the man who stands before the Law - a door he may only pass when...when...?
Welcome to the dreamlike world of Franz Kafka. Uneasy Dreams is an adaptation of the short stories and sketches of the iconic author of The Trial and The Metamorphosis; his fables turned into a fairy-tale carnival of outcasts and grotesques. Black humour and music mix to create an evening of horror, menace, and joyful weirdness.
Prepare to awake from uneasy dreams and find yourself transformed.
- February 2012
1950s New York. A longshoreman is screaming in the street, demanding respect before he loses everything. Eddie Carbone lives with his wife and niece in a world where he feels comfortable, in control; but it all changes when his wife's cousins, two Italian immigrants, come into his life and home and shake the very foundations of the family. Secrets surface, prejudices come out and the battle to be the alpha male begins. A tale of twisted knives, paper dolls and what it means to be a man. Miller's tragedy strips man bare and shows him with all his flaws with shocking consequences.
- February 2012
The machine can predict, with complete accuracy, how you are going to die. It gives no date, no specifics, only a slip of paper upon which are printed the words DROWNED or HEART ATTACK or CHOKED ON A PRETZEL. Machine of Death presents a world in which everyone knows how they will die. The stories based around this idea are morbidly interesting, but often amusing and thought-provoking as well.
Sid loathes Norma’s endless party games, but how far will he go to sabotage them when a machine of death gets involved? Can Dunmere be elected prime minister despite his embarrassing demise? And how will Simon cope, knowing he's going to be torn apart and devoured by lions? Join us to find out the answers to these questions, and more, in Week 3 at the Corpus Playroom.
- February 2012
- January–February 2012
Rookie is a ballsy new sketch show brimming with contradictions and those bloody women you love to hate. It features six of Cambridge's favourite female comedians, whom you may have seen in smokers, watching smokers, in the library and walking to the shop. Members of Rookie have previously been described as 'Funny,' 'Odd' and 'Stalkerish' (The Tab). So hang up your man gardens, dust off your lady boots and join us for an evening of lovely lady lol-fodder to get your cockles warm.
- January–February 2012
Elektra's father has been murdered - and now she wants justice. Down in the fields outside the house, amidst the sound of old spirituals and work songs, she plots revenge upon the killer: her own mother. The final piece of the puzzle is the return of her brother Orestes. But when he finally arrives on a sweltering summer's day, can he be the hero she wants him to be? Ezra Pound & Rudd Fleming's visionary translation relocates the Greek tragedy in the Deep South of America, in a new take on this gripping tale of family feud and retribution.
- January 2012
You are so lucky | That we cannot remember | How to use doorknobs.
An original adaptation of Ryan Mecum's book, Zombie Haiku follows one lone survivor's journey through ruined houses, decimated cities and abandoned airports as they contend with exploding petrol stations and reanimated work colleagues. Bringing the humour, emotion and darkness of the book to the stage, this production blends physical theatre, music and (of course) haiku for an entertaining exploration of what happens when the living clash with the undead.
The city is dead | Streets are filled with people | Who aren't quite people.
- January 2012
Ben and Gus are waiting for an assignment.
Their Revolvers lie dormant.
The dumb waiter whirs into life.
A masterclass in taut dialogue and shifty, shifting dynamics, The New Arcadians are proud to present Pinter’s acclaimed black comedy, The Dumb Waiter.
- November–December 2011
Pierre Novellie, that guy from 'Now, Now' and 'The Mexican Standoff', has a show. Watch! In awe as he engages the audience with some stand up. Thrill! As he discusses interesting topics in an hilarious way. Gurn! As he tells ridiculous anecdotes from his life and then makes things up. Essentially I’m a doing a stand-up show, guys – come along and see! There will be prizes.
- November–December 2011
"He pats her... his patting becomes beating and he continues beating her even though she's screaming..."
Nancy’s existence is on hold until she finds her missing 10 year old daughter. Agnetha wonders if her work investigating the minds of criminals is starting to affect her own thoughts. Meanwhile Ralph, sitting on a bench, feels the hot sun on his face, and spies the next little girl he’d like to keep him company for a while.
Frozen dares to ask whether it’s possible to understand the minds of serial killers, and ultimately to forgive them.
Frozen has previously been performed at the National and on Broadway. It was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play, and won the Theatrical Management Association’s award for Best New Play.
- November 2011
In Jeff Carpenter’s ongoing offence against theatre, now he tackles religion. Staging a kids’ nativity panto for students, expect showtunes, German Zoroastrian scientists, a horrendously evil King Herod, surfer-dude shepherds, and theological impossibilities at every corner! Will Joseph ever manage to propose to Mary? Will King Herod succeed in his plot to kill baby Jesus? Will the animals’ protest anthem be heeded? And will the hormonal dementia of a pregnant woman be the only way they get a room in the inn? Find out in Michaelmas’s most deranged and at times offensive Nativity Musical.
Previous praise for Jeff Carpenter includes: ‘This production has a lot in common with a terrible, terrible night at Cindies.’ – Tab
‘This was a travesty... I do not know what the director was trying to achieve.’ – Varsity
- November 2011
On Midsummer's Eve 1889, in a sweltering basement kitchen, Miss Julie asks her footman to dance.
"He's trembling, the big strong boy”...
From the Director who brought you Endgame, ('exhausting'…'brilliant' …'utterly enervating to watch' - Cambridge Tab, 'darkly amusing' …'wonderful', ***** Varsity), we bring you the dangerous joy of August Strindberg's Miss Julie, stunningly re-imagined by award-winning playwright Helen Cooper.
- November 2011
Duologues. The greatest invention in theatre since the monologue.
This will be the first ever annual Playroom Duologues Competition, in which dramatically-minded pairs shall battle it out against each other in a contest where you, yes you, are the judge. There shall be a cash-prize for the winner so it’s a given that there will be some raw and uncut passion on display. They’ll make us laugh, they’ll make us cry and they’ll make us question why anybody would ever bother with a soliloquy.
A must-have ticket for those of you out there that like the idea of drama but just can’t commit to the notion of a full-length show.
- November 2011
Beginning Middle End is a play based on real love stories, sent in anonymously and dramatised by 6 actors. The play consists of three couples' beginnings, middles, and ends.
