- May 2007
“And why does it always have to be the people like me who have to sacrifice, why are we always the one ones who have to make concessions when something has to be conceded, why always be who has to bite her tongue, why?”
Torture, confession and Schubert’s symphony.
“Oh, Paulina – isn’t it time we stopped?”
- March 2007
Join the Fletcher Players as they welcome the Owlets Theatre Group from their sister college of Corpus Christi, Oxford. This will be a unique one night only showcase of the best talent and new writing from two Oxbridge colleges who enjoy a strong, yet competitive relationship. Don't miss this unusual chance of seeing combined Oxbridge drama and comedy at its best!
- March 2007
This year sees the 10th annual production of Smorgasbord, THE festival celebrating the best of Cambridge's new writing and drama scene! Four original and varied plays by student writers will be performed, showcasing the best new writing talent that Cambridge has to offer!
- March 2007
A rainy Monday morning in London. Awkward chance meetings, instant attractions and casual betrayals characterise the crammed Tube trains and busy streets of the capital. Men and women follow their regular routines on a day that they can only assume will be dull and humdrum. Yet as grave news about the most powerful symbol of national unity breaks, the normal rules governing English reservation and reticence cease to apply, and six different people are offered a fleeting chance to embrace a life just a little less ordinary.
- March 2007
'If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly.'
One of Shakespeare's darkest works, Macbeth is also one of his most popular and has fascinated and disturbed audiences for centuries. This new fast-paced, minimalist production will use the intimate atmosphere of the Corpus Playroom to explore the tragic elements at the play's heart. Through exploiting movement and live music throughout the auditorium the production aims to throw the audience into the thick of the action, so that viewers will fully experience the immediacy of the fear and paranoia which grips the protagonists as events begin to spiral out of control.
- February–March 2007
"The main thing about broads is two things. One: The Way to Get Laid is to Treat 'Em Like Shit, and Two: Nothing, nothing makes you so attractive to the opposite sex as getting your rocks off on a regular basis."
Welcome to the world of the modern relationship, where sex is a commodity and love is just a word. Sexual hostility crackles through every scene of Mamet's dissection of human interaction in its various states of love, lust and dissatisfaction. An hour long, this is a play to make you cringe in your seat and cry with laughter, this is an unforgettable portrayal of sex and friendship, and what it really means to say "I love you"...
- February 2007
‘Salter’ messed-up with his first-born. He wanted a second-chance. But with the same child. A family tragedy meets futuristic fantasy, Caryl Churchill's 'A Number' confronts us with the potentially nightmarish consequences of a family experiencing the effects of reproductive cloning. Challenging us to reconsider what exactly ‘it’ is that individuates each one of us, and exploring how our senses of identity can be altered as we experience the effects of scientific advancement, ‘A Number’ is a poignant and timely play.
- February 2007
- February 2007
An Englishman, an Irishman and an American are locked up in a cell in the Middle East. McGuinness explores the way these individuals cope with their struggles and reveals the survival mechanisms inherent in human nature. The result is a humorous and deeply moving piece of theatre in which the character relationships and dynamics that develop are fascinating to watch. In our current political climate this play is not only poignant but it also offers an insight into the reality of what some prisoners might face. It is a compelling portrayal of three characters who show determination not only to survive but to retain their sanity and identity in the most challenging of circumstances.
- November–December 2006
Music. Dance. Comedy. Drama.
The Ultimate Show.
Originally produced in the late 1970s, Side by Side by Sondheim is a tribute to the greatest musical composer of the modern age. Drawing on Stephen Sondheim's remarkable lyrics and exciting scores, featuring only seven actors but hundreds of characters, and woven together with a new and witty take on Ned Sherrin's original narration, this show promises to be an evening you will never forget and the perfect end to your Michaelmas term.
- November 2006
- November 2006
Beverly is bored and brash, overbearing and overly-confident; and she has decided to throw a party…
Excluded from Abigail’s party, the hostess, her husband and guests spend the evening chez Beverly, surrounded by 1970s domestic must-haves, décor and music. Over G&Ts and “cheese on sticks” a savagely funny study of pretentious middle-class manners evolves. Mike Leigh’s perceptive dialogue and eye for social mores construct a time bomb of emotional tension. At times hilarious, at others squeamishly awkward, always engrossing; don’t miss this opportunity to see one of Leigh’s best loved plays brought to life at the Corpus Playroom.
- November 2006
Two one-act comedies by the British playwright Tom Stoppard (who wrote the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love) full of marital infidelity and sweet revenge. Two lesser-known plays, they display Stoppard’s genius for visual comedy and verbal wit. 'Another Moon Called Earth', set in an alternate reality where British Astronauts have succeeded in landing on the moon first, incorporates death, mysterious illness and philosophical endeavour while 'Teeth' demonstrates that affairs with the dentist's wife are bound to lead to trouble – “All round him there are smiles like broken-down brooms.”
- October–November 2006
A new translation by Ade O'Brien, promises to be the best Chekhov production this year. Bringing the rich and youthful humour of the piece to the forefront, the production is both uplifting comedy and an intimate tragedy.
- October 2006
‘Oh what a jolly family.’ Edward Albee’s caustic and cautionary play thrusts the audience to the empty soul of the prettily packaged American Dream. In a soulless apartment, domineering Mommy and sexless Daddy live with Grandma, whose senility makes her saner than the puppets of married life playing around her. The ‘unexpected’ visit of voracious and hypocritical do-gooder Mrs Barker reveals some deeply grotesque home truths. Yet the absurd emotional violence is delicately wrapped in the alluring shine of comedy, mirroring the disturbingly vacuous Mommy and Daddy’s attempts to claw onto the sheen and dazzling semblance of wholesome American ideals.
- October 2006
One of the most reknown authors of the mid-twentieth century has written this harrowing tragedy about a young girl who falls in love with an older, married man. Upon the death of her parents she moves in with two maiden aunts and an uncle who is a crippled priest. The passion of her love cannot be disguised for long in such surroundings. The affair is thrown into the open in a blistering scene. The girl does not feel that loving the man of her life is in any way wrong or indecent, but each episode in the closing plot leads her deeper and deeper into an inextricable situation. Finally, the wife of the man comes to see the young girl, and the tragic circle is completed. The girl struggles fiercely against all the forces within her and without, until she is entirely overwhelmed by the descending tragedy.
- October 2006
Two young men arrive at the end of the line. As the last train slips away forever, they are faced with the universal predicament of choice. Should we regret or be happy with our past? Were the choices we’ve made the right ones? And most importantly: how should we spend the last few moments of our lives? ‘Untimely Figs’ is a piercing and rapid new piece of writing which explores mortality with both humour and tragedy. It is a drama that any audience will feel themselves being drawn into emotionally and philosophically. Performed in ‘real-time’, the Corpus Playroom becomes a ticking bomb as we watch an unrelenting clock count down to the last second. Will they find the ‘right way’ to end?’
- September 2006
Dramas on stage and off in a beleaguered comprehensive. High quality small-scale theatre from Cambridge's vibrant new Horseshoe Theatre Company, following sell-out runs of 'Yerma' and 'An Inspector Calls'.
- May 2006
Making Space brings you the best of new writing for the Corpus Playroom. In four new short plays which take their inspiration from ideas in literature, film and music, dystopian worlds, backpackers, courtesans and a college Head Porter jostle for the audience's attention. Be prepared to laugh and to cry in a romp through the Cambridge imagination. Space is Made.
- May 2006
White lie or brown nose? Back-slapping fun or backbiting hate? Plain talking - or just plain stupid? Honesty? Or tyranny?
You're not mad just because you're a minority of one. But sometimes you are anyway. Molière's Misanthrope is a self-proclaimed misfit, waging war on the dishonesty he sees around himself in society, despite being totally smitten with the queen bee of his social circle. This production transfers the bitchiness, sexual intrigues and self-righteous social protest of the original to a modern university context whilst retaining the text of one of the greatest verse comedies in the canon. Get mad! Pull hair! Tear sonnets to pieces! Do the hoovering! All in French! This isn't just war. This is misanthropy.
Performed in French with English surtitles.
- March 2006
- March 2006
The traditional power structures of both the theatre and the bedroom are called into question as three women live their lives and play their games. Sexuality and its repressions and expressions, and the politics of everyday life find voice in this devised production where the inadequacy of the status-quo must be met head on.
- February–March 2006
- February–March 2006
- February 2006
How do we love someone who falls outside the moral code? Harry and Nan are a couple whose marriage has become a comfortable back drop for witty remarks and infidelity. However, this relationship is tested when their 39 year old son Isaac returns home seeking refuge from his own terrifying feelings towards someone he is forbidden to love. Harry and Nan search for clues, desperate to make sense of this horror, alternately looking for exoneration and punishment for what must be their fault. They want to love him. But they don't know how.
- February 2006
'The Father' is one of Strindberg's most aggressive works; it relates a feverish nightmare of the struggle Strindberg saw between defiant masculinity and the treacherous weakness of women. The play is a stark portrayal of a bitter domestic battle.
- February 2006
Set in the trenches of the First World War, Journey's End follows the lives of a group of British officers in the run up to a major offensive. Raleigh, an 18 year old fresh out of public school is full of heroric ideas and enthusiasm to join the war effort. This is met with the brutality of trench life when he confronts his former school cricketing hero, the captain of the battalion, and witnesses first hand the cold reality of the destruction of war upon human nature.
Whilst poignant, the play demonstrates the heartwarming strength of human relationships under the most testing of conditions, portraying moments of tenderness, sensitivity, anger, desperation, self destruction and humour.
"Then we all go west in the big attack - and she goes on thinking I'm a fine fellow for ever - and ever - and ever"
- February 2006
What if beauty wasn't a gift? What if radiance was a disease? 'The Drowned World' is one of the most exciting plays of the 21st century and explores a dystopian future where the 'cowardly,' and 'graceless' rule, and where the eradication of beauty is their goal. 'The Drowned World' addresses questions about the nature of persecution, torture and living in an authoritarian state. But at the same time, it is personal, questioning whether love and humanity can survive in extreme circumstances.
Written in 2002, Gary Owen's play won the George Devine award and a Fringe First. 'The Drowned World' promises to be a stunning and unmissable piece of theatre.
- February 2006
- February 2006
The Fletcher Players present...
'A Taste of Honey' by Shelagh Delaney, Week 3 in the Corpus Playroom
'A Taste of Honey' created a stir in 1950s British theatre and society with its frank discussion of teenage pregnancy, racial prejudice and homosexuality. Set in a bedsit in Northern England, 17 year old Jo is forced into premature adulthood by her alcoholic mother and an unwanted pregnancy. In a poignant exploration of 'the outsider', we follow Jo's search for intimacy as she turns to other, socially ostracised, individuals, who helpher to reconstruct her shattered life.
I am looking for actors who are interested in working on a challenging production, which I am updating for the modern generation. The play requires sensitive actors who are eager to explore the individual's struggles against the social prejudices of our time.
- January–February 2006
'We've got the scenery, we've got the costumes, we could put on proper shows - history's always popular, and there's enough stuff in Henry IV for several tragedies.'
An old man falls from his horse during a pageant. When he comes round, he believes he's the medieval German Emperor, King Henry IV. For twenty years, he lives royally in a castle in the air, the characters onstage playing parts in the fantasy.
But today, a plan is being hatched to shock him out of this 'insanity' and into the twenty-first century. However, just like the Doctor, we start to question how mad this king really is: where does illusion end and delusion begin?
- January 2006
It's all over. Jerry's five-year affair with his best friend's wife has been discovered and his life lies in ruins. But what made him start on the road to self-destruction? In Betrayal, Nobel-laureate Harold Pinter takes us from the end of the affair to its beginning, chronicling the petty deceptions that accumulate to destroy three lives. Beneath their conversation lies a dark subtext that is always threatening to break the surface and shatter their complacency.
Visit www.robertandme.co.uk
- December 2005
101 years after their first publication, the ghost stories of M R James can still send a shiver down the spine. Now Nunkie Theatre Company are bringing two of the eeriest and most entertaining back to life - hard by the very places where they were originally conceived and performed.
In 'Canon Alberic's Scrap-book', a Cambridge antiquary discovers the dark sie of the manuscript illumination, in a medieval town in the French Pyrenees....
In 'The Mezzotint' a ghoulish revenge is enacted within a work of art, before the helpless eyes of a museum curator....
'A Pleasing Terror' will be performed in two venues closely associated with the author. The beautiful and atmospheric Founder's Library of the Fitzwilliam would have been James' office when he was Director of the Musuem. The public will have a rare chance to judge for themselves how fr the dark corners and book-lined walls of this marvellous interior may have influenced his supernatural fiction.
The Corpus Playroom is within sight of King's College, where James spent much of his life and where he first performed the stories to friends at Christmas - friends who doubtless smiled, but who also perhaps shifted a little uneasily in their seats as the strange don pursued his singular hobby of 'inspiring a pleasing terror....'
- November–December 2005
'PAPER FLOWERS' is a tight two-hander, written in 1969 (the year the Communist leader Allende, came to power) by one of Chile’s greatest living playwrights explores the gulf between ‘Los Rotos’ (the broken ones) and the repetitive life of the affluent middle classes. The play is constructed with exceptional skill and is a sophisticated fusion of magical realism, absurdism and black comedy. I’m looking for two committed and open minded actors who wish to challenge themselves and enjoy exploring these two complicated and intriguing characters. Together we will make creative use the rehearsal process to produce a piece of theatre which does justice to the play’s unique and exciting explosion of longing, power games, silence, humour and desperation.
ROLES:
EVA: A lonely middle class widow who paints flowers alone in the botanical gardens. She tries with all her might to reach out and offer her love to Beto, a man whom she finds both socially and sexually threatening and compelling. When we first meet her, her life is ordered, repetitive and empty:
“That’s what my life is, eating and more eating, morning noon and night. I sometimes think that life is nothing more than a permanent meal, with pauses in between to get bored again”
BETO: An enigmatic figure from the slums by the river; dressed in rags, prone to severe fits of shaking and a disarming ability to evade questions about his past. He is a forceful presence, often fluctuating between monotonous utterances, brutality, childlike pathos and intensely poetic speeches:
“Love is broken bridge, with a broken tooth, with a broken crank. It flies within the world’s four walls, cracking skulls. Love is a three legged dog! A tramp with one hand and two bananas!”
The action is set in Eva’s ordered and neat living room, beginning as she enters with Beto carrying her shopping. What unfolds spans a tense few days in the house where we see Beto gradually colonise Eva’s world and impose disorder and havoc: rearranging, reconstructing and destroying the furniture and gradually filling the room with his dark, enormous, ragged paper flowers.
- November 2005
Down in Flames Theatre Company and Clare Actors present LOST FOR WORDS 22nd - 26th November, Corpus Playroom, 9.30pm. Box Office: 01223 503 333
‘The books he keeps are old now, and too tired to be anything other than domesticated. He runs his fingers down their spines, lavishing each with love…’
Warren Pale is a writer who does not write; either he cannot, or does not, or prefers not to. ‘Lost for Words’ is a symphony of moods and moments captured in Warren’s intense reflection, departing from the methods of the Stanislavskian stage in order to capture and distil instants as they happen. Assailed by the attentions of a paying audience, Warren will be taken apart and studied for significance.
Using the intimate stagespace of the Corpus Playroom, Down in Flames Theatre Company have created a threadbare mesh of worlds, brought to life through the efforts of the actors. ‘Lost for Words’ promises to be a work entirely different to anything else in Cambridge: lit by anglepoise lamps, actors are annihilated and characters let loose in their place.
If you want a show that’s original and trying new things in an exciting and unpretentious way, give this a try. ‘Lost for Words’ will be appearing at the Corpus Playroom 22nd-26th November, 9.30pm. Tickets £5.50, £4 concessions.
http://downinflamestheatre.com
- November 2005
Marlene hosts a dinner part in a London restaurant to celebrate her promotion to managing director of 'Top Girls' employment agency. Her guests are five women from the past: Isabella Bird - the adventurous traveller; Lady Nijo - the mediaeval courtesan who became a Buddhist nun and travelled on foot through Japan; Dull Gret, who as Dulle Griet in a Bruegel painting, led a crowd of women on a charge through hell; Pope Joan - the ninth-century female pope; and Patient Griselda, the obedient wife from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. As the evening unfolds we become intimately involved with the stories of these five women and begin to see the impending crisis in Marlene's own life. A classic piece of twentieth century theatre, Churchill's play explores the idea of what it is to be a woman – and a successful one at that – in a man’s world.
