- January–February 2020
'What gets me through is knowing I took this pain, and saved all of you from suffering the same.'
Stumbling down Clifton Street at 11:30 a.m. drunk, Effie is the kind of girl you'd avoid eye contact with. We think we know her, but we don't know the half of it. Effie's life spirals through a mess of drink, drugs and drama every night, and a hangover worse than death the next day - till one night gives her the chance to be something more.
Gary Owen's powerful adaptation of the enduring Greek myth drives home the high price people pay for society's shortcomings, and offers a rallying cry for those pushed down by the powers that be.
- January–February 2020
“Look at the moon. How strange the moon seems! She is like a woman rising from a tomb. She is like a dead woman. One might fancy she was looking for dead things…”
Late night, unreal city. The Tetrach is hosting a wild underground banquet. Salome - daughter of Herodias, Princess of Judea - escapes from the oppressive atmosphere of the party and the lascivious gaze of her step father.
Under the transforming moon, bodies become otherworldly and enchantingly strange. Through Wilde’s rich and symbolic mastery of language, we experience the world augmented through the eyes of Salome, culminating in the rapturous and notorious 'Dance of the Seven Veils'.
This new Soma Theatre production captures the queer and ecstatic spirit of Wilde’s most neglected and misunderstood play. In a world fluttering between enchantment and disenchantment, the familiar and the unfamiliar come face to face, breaking down boundaries of gender and exploring what it means to truly ‘see’ one another.
- January 2020
- January 2020
‘The Internet had always been a glitch in the fabric of reality; a shivering, white-hot portal where you could be everywhere and nowhere, all at once. But suddenly it seemed more like a vortex, or a black hole…’
Alarmed by the culture of surveillance shaping the virtual world, five young people conspire to delete their digital traces forever. Searching through the archives of a secluded medieval church, two historians encounter a mysterious network of tunnels. CTRL-Z explores memory and mysticism in the Information Age, asking what it means to disappear in a world obsessed with preservation.
TCS 4.5 stars
Varsity 4 stars
The Tab 4 stars
- January 2020
‘I’m actually handling it all incredibly well. I haven’t eaten a single tub of Ben & Jerrys.’
Long cold nights, short cold days, three 9ams a week, and a slowly-healing heartbreak – Robin’s winter stretches on without an end in sight.
Luckily, with Sam and Jamie in the next rooms along, life feels a bit warmer and brighter, even if it does mean hearing Jamie’s terrible music blasting out in the early hours and waiting an extra 40 minutes any time Sam’s in the shower. Friendship lights up G corridor where the crappy uni lighting fails.
But as Robin recovers and the trio tightens, things start getting complicated and feelings stand to get hurt. Love blooms, priorities waver, and chocolate mug cakes can’t quite chase off the lingering February chill.
Funny, heartfelt and moving, Spring Robin follows the happy highs and lonely lows of three friends in a corridor in the coldest, darkest season, but ultimately asks: if winter comes, can spring be far behind?
Previous praise for the writing:
‘clever and insightful [...] brilliantly funny while also being incredibly poignant’ (Varsity)
‘funny and witty [...] utterly sensitive and articulate’ (TCS)
‘exhibits a deep sensitivity and awareness’ ‘its sardonic wit caused [...] irrepressible hysterics’ (The Tab)
‘[the] characters are deliberate and well-developed’ ‘a beautifully balanced, honest play’ (edfringereview)
- January 2020
As Britney once said, there are only two types of people in this world: the ones that entertain, and the ones that observe. ‘Put-on-a-show kinda guy’ Will Owen is ready to entertain, so he’s throwing a comedy dance party like no other.
FOMO is about parties, popularity and praying that you won’t get left behind. Join “attention-seeking” (Chortle, Will’s mum) Cambridge Footlight Will for an “energetic and hilarious” (Varsity, Your Dad) hour of stories, characters and sketch, as he learns how to dance like everybody’s watching. With a soundtrack of pop diva classics you thought you left in your last Year 6 disco, Will explores all the times life doesn’t quite go the way you’d imagined. So get out of my head and onto the dance floor, or else you might get FOMO.
- January 2020
We all know that the MI5 man watching us through our webcams knows everything about us. Angela Channell has just one question: "is he judging me?". With a search history that ranges from WebMD to Mumsnet to "song that goes ba da ba da baa", she's not quite sure all this monitoring is worth his time.
Stumbling through a world where privacy means nothing, join the Cambridge Footlight as she drags out the deepest, darkest corners of her online activity in front of a live audience.
"Truly hilarious" - The Young Perspective
"Real flares of comic genius that will leave you crying with laughter" - The Tab
"Is most receptive to our targeted ads at 3am on Tuesdays" - Mark Zuckerberg, probably
- January 2020
Are We There Yet? is an improvised show about the journeys we all go on and the strange in-between places we find ourselves in along the way.
- December 2019
- December 2019
‘How does it feel?’ is back - with more performances, more performers and more stories than ever before.
In case you’d forgotten (but how could you forget?), ‘How does it feel?’ presents an hour of perspectives that are not often heard. The show will be an hour of pieces written and performed by LGBTQ+ people, foregrounding voices often under-represented or not widely known. It promises to be warm, funny, informative, emotional, fresh and -- most of all -- honest.
From stand-up and sketch comedy to personal stories, naturalism to absurdity, the show will be a space for people to express themselves in their own terms. We hope you come away laughing, thinking and feeling in ways you might not have expected.
CONTENT / TRIGGER WARNINGS:
This show is intended to be a comedic and light-hearted reclaiming and reframing of negative experiences by LGBTQ+ people, however it should be noted that there is:
Strong Language
References to Self-Harm
References to Sexual Assault
Themes of Queer Prejudice
Queerphobia
Homophobia
Transphobia
Genderphobia
Ableism
Gender Dysphoria
Identity Conflict
Hiding Sexuality
Addressing Stereotypes
Themes of Exclusion/Isolation
Historic Reference to Execution of Queer People
- December 2019
‘Her name is Antigone, and she’s going to have to play her part right through to the end.’
The city of Thebes is broken. Two royal brothers lie dead by each other’s hand, and the princess Antigone is caught in an impossible position. Trapped between duty to those she loves and to those who rule her, she must either obey the law and keep her life, or break the law and die for it. The struggle that ensues will define her family for generations, and will define her life within a matter of hours.
Jean Anouilh’s re-imagining of Sophocles’ ancient tragedy captures the intensity of the battle between individual and state with a sharply modern viewpoint. This is a story in which we can all see ourselves – and as it goes on, we realise there is no escape.
- November 2019
'Jarr my bes pal in da whole whirl.'
'Jarr my life, Pig.'
Pig and Runt were born on the same day, in the same hospital. Growing up in Cork, they've created a whole world of their own, and an unrivalled connection to each other. On the cusp of adulthood (their seventeenth birthday), they go out on the town and rip up the streets like they've never done before.
But adulthood poses its problems and possibilities, a future which breaks into their lives as feelings, aspirations and violence seep into the glittering underworld of their youth.
Disco Pigs is Enda Walsh's propulsive, explosive ode to youth, a two-hander like you've never seen before in a world you never thought you could imagine.
- November 2019
"But you've asked a simple question, and I've told you why. It wasn't on a dare or on a whim. It's hard to comprehend now that the reason why, was simply that I went along with him."
Relationships can be murder. In 1924, two wealthy Chicago University students abducted and murdered a young boy for no reason other than wanting to carry out ‘the perfect crime’. Thirty-four years later, the true motives were revealed. Stephen Dolginoff’s one-act musical brings real-life thrill killers and homosexual lovers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb to centre stage. It focuses on their dysfunctional romantic relationship, and how it eventually led to their imprisonment for ‘the crime of the century’. With a fast-paced narrative and captivating score, Thrill Me tells a story of obsession, sex and misguided philosophy.
- November 2019
'I don't know why I'm crying...
Am I suspended in gaffa?
Every one hundred years, the cailleach, the hag, must bathe herself in the sea to become young again. Would you be reborn, if you had the chance?
Covering everything from Gaelic folklore to Kate Bush, with some Radio 4 on the way, keep Helena Fox company for an evening including storytelling, film, poetry, singing (don't worry, not hers), and more.
Helena's previous work:
2nd place at Man Up! 2019
'Helena Fox’s persona...is also particularly well done... it provided a humorous social commentary without becoming didactic.' (Varsity)
'My favourite act of the night, King Hoberon's emotive spoken word' (Tab)
‘I have a huge crush on King Hoberon but who doesn’t at this point’ (Queerbridge)
- November 2019
ANERDYFANGIRL394 is a one woman show, structured as a book reading with elements of stand up in its style. With the aid four diaries, the show focusses on my teenage years, honing in on particularly embarrassing anecdotes and passages of writing. The centrepiece of the show is the fanfiction ‘Dean and Jo: Son of a Bitch’, a 26,689 word long masterpiece written by me at the age of 14-15, including some questionable erotic passages, and some attempts to be deeply romantic. Diary extracts and stories from the same age range would come alongside the fanfiction, with more of range between hilariously embarrassing and more personal/reflective points to be made. Essentially, ANerdyFangirl394 would be an exposing and amusing perusal through the written evidence of my adolescence, working through questions concerning sex, sexuality, self-esteem, and school, and having fun with the ideas and issues that fifteen year olds must endure.
Think My Dad Wrote A Porno but combined with the angst of a young teenage girl who has just discovered Tumblr. One idea is for two audience members to be handed extracts of said fanfiction, and have them ‘perform’ the dialogue. Diary extracts and stories from the same age range would come alongside the fanfiction, with more of range between hilariously embarrassing and more personal/reflective points to be made. Essentially, ANerdyFangirl394 would be an exposing and amusing perusal through the written evidence of my adolescence, working through questions concerning sex, sexuality, self-esteem, and school, and having fun with the ideas and issues that fifteen year olds must endure.
- November 2019
Fifteen year old Jamie is in love with his classmate Ste. When Ste has to move in for a few nights, the two boys start to develop romantic feelings for one another. All would be well if they didn’t have to navigate an alcoholic father, an abusive step-father, nosy friends, and over-bearing mothers. Not to mention coming to term with sexuality in urban London in the early 90s. ‘Beautiful Thing’ is an empowering and funny play about acceptance, endurance, and young love.
- November 2019
Steven and Charlie were happy. They were in love. They were getting ready to spend the rest of their lives together. There was just one problem: Charlie died. Now Steven is left picking up the pieces. On top of losing his boyfriend, he now has to deal with Charlie’s family and friends while holding the funeral together. A one-man humorous and heartfelt look at the realities of losing someone you wanted to spend the rest of your life with at the age of 21, the difficulties of admitting that there is a special person for you, and the difficulties of serving cheese and pineapple on the same cocktail stick.
- November 2019
It’s a bustling lunchtime today in Market Square until: the electricity goes out!!! Stall owners rally round to point the finger of blame as their rice threatens to putrefy, and the slow cookers just aren’t cooking at all! Eco-Steve doesn’t care, though. Eco-Steve doesn’t use electricity, pesticides, or plastics. His produce is all Organic™ and, boy, don’t we all know about that. Good for you, Steve. The market is one of the most successful in all the land, bringing together foods and products from all over the world, and the charismatic characters that hand make them with love. Who could possibly sabotage such a place? We all think it’s Dodgy Darren but CHRIST ALIVE, GLADYS!?! Don’t go around telling people! Quick everyone, back to your stalls. The show must go on. (Specifically, an hour long sketch show of eccentric characters - yippee!)
- November 2019
It was never just the sex was it?
And I said I don't believe there's only one in life
But I think you might be it.
For me.
The one.
That's why I'm still here.
Cock premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2009, winning the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre.
- November 2019
From members of the Cambridge Footlights comes a brand new immersive sketch show. The Wrecking Ball is a comedy show based around the breaking of the fourth wall. Join us in the six walled Corpus Playroom for an hour of sketches, songs and friendly lighthearted discourse. We’ll break the wall, break our legs and maybe even break your hearts (probably not though).
The Wrecking Ball is a comedy show that plays with the relationship a comedy audience has with its performers.
Also we really need some friends.
- November 2019
Ben and Oscar have been best friends since the first day of school. They have grown up together, experiencing all the trials and tribulations of childhood and puberty by each other’s sides. Now, as young adults, they meet again for the first time in years. Their history may remain unspoken, but how long can they go before their past catches up with them?
Big Boys Don’t Cry explores manhood and puberty, and how we try to convince ourselves that we’re doing just fine.
- November 2019
When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on his estate beside the paw prints of a gigantic hound, the great detective Sherlock Holmes and his trusty sidekick Dr Watson must travel to Dartmoor to unravel the mystery, and investigate the ancient curse of the Baskervilles. It should be elementary, but with seventeen characters, over thirty props, and only three actors juggling them all, we can promise it will be entertaining!
Packed with verbal ingenuity and slapstick comedy, this farcical retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic novel ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ is as relentless as it is hilarious. Prepare for a detective story like no other, as this ridiculous romp through the desolate moors will leave you howling with laughter.
- October–November 2019
THAT long-running show about four mystery-solving teens - and their infamous dog - is on its last legs. Now in their 40s, the gang face their toughest cases yet: spectres of midlife crises, demons of double-divorce, and ghouls of child-actor syndrome.
. . . . . .
Having been cast in their teens in the hit kids mystery TV show Meddlin’ Kids, Frank (the leader), Darcy (the hot one), Veruca (the clever one), Humpy (the stoner) and Robert Dubois (the dog) have been straitjacketed into playing the same roles over and over, season after season. It’s always the same old story: show up at a crime scene, question the locals, monster, chase sequence, set a trap, unmask the monster, and let the credits roll. It’s been 25 years, but now out of nowhere the network decides not to renew Meddlin’ Kids for its expected 26th season.
At their final ever wrap party party, the gang all look back at what they’ve achieved, and desperately look towards the future. All seems hopeless - that is, until one final, REAL mystery rears its head, a mystery that goes back 25 years and ties the studio to some dodgy dealings. The gang, whose off-screen dynamic has long-since eroded away over the years, will need to step into their on-screen roles one last time.
A brand new piece of devised comedy theatre coming to the Cambridge from its run at the Edinburgh Fringe! Written and directed by ex-Footlight and self-proclaimed Scoob-Nut Will Bicknell-Found.
- October–November 2019
"Like mushrooms, babies grow in rubbish."
Dennis Kelly's debut play enters into the insane world of siblings Michael and Michelle. The play follows their dysfunctional relationships with their family, themselves and each other. Michelle can't make sense of how their Mum died whilst Michael attempts to work through his relationship with his father. As they both try to navigate and make sense of their troubled past, the stories and events build to a shocking crescendo. Painful, emotional and disturbing, 'Debris' offers a dark view of the world through the eyes of Michelle and Michael that won't be easily forgotten.
- October 2019
The iconic night of new student writing is back for one night only in the Corpus Playroom.
Get ready to laugh, cry, and have your thoughts provoked by this fresh crop of new Cambridge theatre.
- October 2019
"If you're there, I want to talk. If not... that's fine. I want to talk anyway."
Valerie's sure that she knows what happened the day that Dean and Melanie died. An accident took the lives of the two people she loved most in the world, and she was left to pick up the pieces and try to move on. If one last conversation would help her get on with her life, isn't it worth a try? Even if both of them have two very different accounts of the tragedy, and she's given more questions instead of answers? It's amazing what you can achieve with some electric candles, an empty beer bottle, and some photographs.
Produced in association with Fletcher Players
- October 2019
On the eve of one of the most important games of his career, Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas received a warning: The Sun newspaper was going to “out” him as gay.
This is the story of two Welsh names bruised, but not beaten, by media speculation; Gareth “Alfie” Thomas, 100 caps for Wales, once its captain, now the world’s most prominent gay sportsman; and his hometown, Bridgend.
Working with Alfie himself, and young people in Bridgend, two of the UK’s most exciting theatre companies – National Theatre Wales and Out of Joint – teamed up to tell a great Welsh story about sport, politics, secrets, life and learning to be yourself.
- October 2019
Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and stand-up in an hour of non-stop, back-to-back, fun-filled hilarity. The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly, rude and spiky, wordy and nerdy, or a little surreal. Whatever the style, it's always 'uproariously funny' (Varsity).
- October 2019
Am I a virgin? I think I am. I mean it went in her but it was floppy and it wasn’t very nice so I think I am a virgin. I’m going to say I am. Will look better on me uni applications.
Liverpool, 1989. Greg is fourteen. He's always causing trouble with his best mate Tom. He hates school. Girls are f**king weird. Liverpool FC are everything.
Bottleneck is a gritty one-person show which tracks the days leading up to the FA cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest; a game no longer synonymous with football, but rather with scape-goating, police negligence and the unlawful death of 96 innocent people.
It is a play about a notorious city and how, after Greg's fifteenth birthday, it will never be the same again.
- October 2019
‘Yes, you squashed cabbage leaf, you disgrace to the noble architecture of these columns, you incarnate insult to the English language, I could pass you off as the Queen of Sheba’
Phonetician Henry Higgins has got a project: to transform cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a duchess of high society. However, the one thing he doesn’t realise is that his ‘creation’ has a mind and a life of her own, and he can’t simply throw her back into the gutter when he's finished with his experiment.
A witty and slapstick reworking of the classical tale Pygmalion, this play is also a cutting attack against the treatment of women by men and the British class system.
Founded in 2017, we are a non-profit, student-run organisation representing some of the best theatrical, creative and technical talent the University of Cambridge has to offer. For the month of September we tour across the UK and East Asia performing and providing workshops in venues, schools and universities. It is our aim to open up cultural dialogues through lively performances and interactive workshops. We have the support of Oscar winning Emma Thompson (an ex Cambridge Footlight) as our patron and participants will be working with some of the most prestigious institutions in each of the countries.
It is a fantastic opportunity to put together a production that will be staged internationally, while exploring some incredible places on a highly subsidised tour. It's an unmissable project if you're interested in theatre beyond Cambridge, education or culture/cultural diplomacy.
- October 2019
Manon Lever’s life has been one long struggle to fit in, but now, armed with her uniquely dark sense of humour, along with several hours of therapy, she brings you her debut hour of stand-up in which she challenges the concept of normality. In this love letter to self-acceptance, Manon Lever guides the audience through the minefield of social interaction, reminiscing on embarrassing romantic endeavours, an unfortunate flirtation with song-writing, and a woefully misguided foray into self-help websites, all through the prism of mental health. Manon Lever is different, she is strange, she doesn’t fit in: Manon Lever is just like you.
- October 2019
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s gripping and compelling story is retold through this powerful one-man musical drama.
- September 2019
- September 2019
Dare you sit in the chair?
The year is 1900, two rival barristers have proposed to the same woman, Lucy. One of them presents the other with a gift, an old antique chair, that has a dark and sinister past. The chair can supposedly take your soul, and your life...
118 years later, the same chair is found in an abandoned theatre where four friends meet for an ill-fated reunion. Romantic jealousy and a tragedy 25 years ago begin to pull them apart. Is the chair really cursed, or when the first of them dies, is something far less supernatural happening?
- July 2019
“All brains and no blood…well that’s just no good for anyone.”
Emily and Andy said they were soulmates, but the music of their blood broke them apart. How will a chance reunion impact their lives now they’re “all grown up”? A gently comic exploration of friendship, love, sex and meaning.
In July of 2019 WRiTEON will be producing an entire festival of one act plays. There will be six new plays staged across three venues. This is one of those six plays. Every play will be fully-staged and fully rehearsed.
- July 2019
Shelagh is in her thirties. She has everything she could wish for: a healthy and fit body, a long-term relationship, a job with prospects of promotion, parents close by … But she lives in a competitive world, where everyone wants more, has more, achieves more. Shelagh doesn’t own her home, she doesn’t have children, she doesn’t run the company … Trying to keep up in a world where only the fittest survive, she absorbs the neoliberalist “friendships” and takes her mother’s ambitions on herself. At the same time, she is trying to run away. She runs, she exercises, she goes to the gym every day. Her obsession to work out becomes a form of self-harming. But is she willing to give up the core of who she is so that she could have it all?
Sink or Swim is one of six original one-act plays that make up the WRiTEON Festival, a celebration of new writing across all three ADC venues: the ADC Auditorium, the Corpus Playroom, and the Larkum Studio. This unique collection spans genres, themes and styles. Dip in or complete the set for the full experience.
