- 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
- 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.
