- March 2006
Written just prior to her death, 4.48 Psychosis is Sarah Kane's final work. Throughout her career, Kane explored the boundaries of theatre and 4.48 Psychosis pinpoints her most drastic move away from conventional form. Without any discernible, regular plot and with no defined characters, it is a challenging and interesting piece of theatre. Through an interminable number of voices we explore the inner realms of the mind, and more specifically, a mind attempting to cope with depression. The voices are numerous, the perspectives multifarious and the language wide-ranging. This production is filled with colour, with sound, with movement and with emotion. Come and be challenged by this interesting, truly exciting piece of theatre.
- March 2005
HATS in association with the Cambridge Mummers presents an innovative piece of new writing from a team including professional TV script writer Phil Gerard.
In a media-soaked world a few decades in the future, Ellie and Trent find themselves living under the same roof. The situation is far from ideal: whilst Ellie is a passionate campaigner, Trent is an American environment-eating businessman.
What Ellie and Trent don't realise is that they are meant for one another. Because they have been programmed as such. They are pixelated characters in an internet computer game, created by Conrad and Todd, a successful writing partnership who have been employed to oversee the game and can control their entire environment. The action moves between the 'real' world characters: the writers and the viewers at home, and the characters in the game.
A bizarre string of situations that Ellie and Trent are thrown into reveal that perhaps the viewers are not taking the game as seriously as Conrad and Todd had planned. Yet, Conrad and Todd soon realise they are dealing with another kind of resistance. A resistance from inside the game. How can this be explained? Can the computerised characters be behaving of their own accord? Is it possible…?
- February 2005
HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED
The oldest and most famous of all the Greek tragedies is coming to
Cambridge. A tale of vengeance, hate and victory, the tale begins as the
Trojan War ends. Millions of men have left the country to join the Greek
troops leaving their women and families behind to fight their own battles.
The Queen takes control of the state. After ten years many things have
changed. The Queen, Clytemnestra, knows of the sacrifice that her husband
made to the gods for a 'safe journey' - their daughter. He comes home
without remorse, the great hero of the war, his mistress at his side. She
welcomes him with open arms, only to lure him into bed where she stabs him
to death in a spate of revenge. Her and her lover, the King's cousin, take
total control of the country and there is piece after the storm....until
the trilogy commences.
Dragged into 1945 this adaptation focuses on the tainted victory of all
wars. Women in men's roles. The traditional famed story is viewed through a
lens of foul elegance forcing people to the edge of their seat.
- November 2004
Shakespeare's last play, The Tempest, is a triumphant comedy of magic, love, and forgiveness. The exiled duke Prospero uses his magic powers to guide his enemies to repentance, his attendants to freedom, and his daughter to marriage. An enchanting classic celebrating some of the most complex and exciting characters Shakespeare has written.
HATS and Blank Theatre Company, in association with the Amateur Dramatic Club, join forces to bring to the stage this brilliant play. Blank Theatre Company, Cambridge's first dedicated Theatre in Education company, specialize in infusing the plays of William Shakespeare with a new form of ensemble ‘total theatre’ – utilizing physical theatre, naturalism, mask theatre, puppetry, verse, music, dance and voice – often bringing new and remote forms of international theatre to the stage wherever it advances the clear and entertaining telling of a story. Be moved, be inspired, be entertained.
Praise for Blank Theatre: 'Servants and Masters', (Blank’s first production), breathed new and dynamic life into familiar Shakespearean territory through a battery of multimedia, physical theatre and musical techniques – a really exciting and accessible piece.’ (Steve Waters, playwright)
- November 2004
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
Government agencies and private companies are authorized to violate the
privacy of people everywhere. Powerful technical systems are being created
to monitor our lives, collecting, storing and processing enormous amounts
of personal data. Orwell’s description of a totalitarian society where the
Government has complete control, citizens are under 24hour surveillance and
pumped with endless propaganda seems not too far from our own society where
we exist in databases, learn from screens and are followed by CCTV. How can
we be truly free if we are always being watched? How can we trust the truth
when it comes to us through controlled mediums? This production of Orwell’s
infamous dystopian worldview will question the authority of our society
through a physical, contemporary, experimental and implicative theatrical
form. Utilising the immense space of Homerton Auditorium together with
extensive film work, this production will provide a total theatre experience probing questions of society, the individual, freedom and responsibility.
Nineteen Eighty-Four plays on November 16th, 18th & 20th, in repertoire with [SHOW:364] on November 15th, 17th & 19th.
- November 2004
‘Hear the hoofbeats of tomorrow,
See the golden futures rise.’
Peter Hall’s adaptation of ‘Animal Farm’ was first performed 20 years ago. Frenetic dialogue interpolated with narrative prose, set against Adrian Mitchell’s militant yet haunting music fires this play with different modes of expression; reflective, active and descriptive. This particular production adds further dimensions by combining cinema with theatre, giving it a largely Brechtian appeal that echoes the nature of the novel as an allegory for twentieth century European history.
Don't miss George Orwell's cult tale brought to the stage in this unique and thrilling multimedia adaptation.
Animal Farm plays on November 15th, 17th & 19th, in repertoire with [SHOW:366] on November 16th, 18th & 20th.
- October 2004
“In the daytime you think the Neverland is only make-believe…but this is the Neverland come true!”
In its centenary year, we enchant imaginations young and old with this
awesome and turbulent flight into Neverland! Laughing, crying and tapping
your feet, you'll wish the games could last forever...
Using the essence of games and playing, this production reworks this classic story into something that today’s child can relate to. Set entirely in the Darling nursery, the imaginations of Wendy, John and Michael conjure before our eyes the fantasy world of Peter Pan, his lost boys, pirates, Indians and the legendary Captain Hook. What we see as a coat hanger is in an instant transformed into the most dangerous weapon known to man and an ordinary bunk bed can become a pirate ship.
The Cambridge run
The Cambridge run is hosted by Homerton Amateur Theatrical Society. For the Cambridge run, performances are free but donations for Great Ormond Street Hospital are welcomed.
Booking in advance for the Cambridge run is essential: for a ticket email blf22.
Reviews:
Three weeks ****
Children’s games and imagination are at the centre of this stunning production of Barrie’s classic novel. Using toys and bedroom furniture to create both the nursery and the various scenes across Neverland every location is enacted as if part of Wendy’s fantasy, with characters brilliantly created, avoiding the clichés. Tinkerbell is simply a little flashing light and some bells, Captain Hook has a really scary yet beautiful hook and Peter is strewn in both dirt and glitter. I am especially impressed by the girl they have signing the show for some dates, making its loveliness accessible to all. Everything you could ever want from ‘Peter Pan'.
- May 2004
- April–May 2004
Provocative new writing, part of the HATS SEE:IT New Writing Season
- April 2004
Take Stanislavski, mix him with physical theatre, throw in some What Lies Beneath and a bit of postmodernism. Do you get comedy? Farce? Drama? Who knows, but dropping seven actors and a somewhat-director in a room should come up with an answer.
Provocative new drama combining everything from cowboys, tramps, Cambridge students, housewives, little girls, poets and a waitress - HATS invites you to experience the provocative devised/new writing piece Rubbernecking.
We'll be waiting.
RUBBERNECKING is part of the HATS SEE:IT New Writing Season
- March 2004
First staged in 1928 at the Theater am Schiffbaurdamm, Berlin (now the home of the Berliner Ensemble), The Threepenny Opera was Brecht?s first and most outstanding success. Based on John Gay?s eighteenth-century Beggar?s Opera, the play is a satire on the capitalist bourgeois society of the Weimar Republic despite its setting in a mock-Victorian Soho. With Kurt Weill?s music, which was one of the earliest and most successful attempts to introduce the jazz idiom into the theatre, it became a popular hit throughout the western world. Filmed three times, it remains one of Brecht?s best loved and most performed plays.
- February 2004
- November 2003
Homerton Amateur Theatrical Society presents Brian Friel's acclaimed play 'Dancing at Lughnasa'
- May 2003
