- March 2005
- February 2005
INTRODUCING THE THEATRE OF TOM MURPHY: a round-table discussion with live
scenes from the theatre of an Irish outsider.
Introducing a mini-season of Tom Murphy’s plays in Cambridge, we would like
to invite you to a round-table discussion of his work on Monday the 28th of
February, at 5 pm in the English Faculty Drama Studio (Sidgwick Site). The
round-table will provide a general introduction to his work and place in
contemporary Irish theatre, with more detailed presentations and
discussions of live scenes from The Morning After Optimism (2-6th March,
10.30pm, Fitzpatrick Hall) and Bailegangaire (8-12th March, 10.30pm,
Pembroke New Cellars).
The speakers will be Dr Deana Rankin, Yvonne McDevitt, Liliane Campos and
Saraid Dodd. The discussion will be informal and all are welcome to take
part: no prior knowledge of Murphy is necessary!
‘On the Outside…’ Dr Deana Rankin, Fellow of Girton College, will introduce
Murphy and his position as an outsider in Irish theatre.
‘The Impact of EXILES (1912) by James Joyce on Tom Murphy’ Yvonne McDevitt,
director and Judith E. Wilson Fellow, will take a look at Joyce’s influence
on Murphy’s work.
‘A Theatre of Voices: voice acts and speech acts in Murphy’s Bailegangaire’
Liliane Campos, director of Bailegangaire, will analyse the tension between
voice and language in Murphy’s work. A short scene from Bailegangaire will
be performed for discussion.
‘The Morning After Optimism: should we show it to children?’ Saraid Dodd,
director of The Morning After Optimism, will give a director’s view on the
play. A short scene from The Morning After Optimism will be performed for
discussion.
- February 2005
Warmest greetings are extended by Lawrence and Beverly Moss to their cul-de-sac neighbours. Five intensely dysfunctional adults will perform, for your viewing pleasure, a carnival of loveless sexual frustration; masks are to be worn. The evening will entail party games, canapés, and certain voyeurism. Body bags will be provided. This is the event, this is the middle-class – welcome to suburbia.
- February 2005
'Apocalypse: The Musical' is set to be the most funky musical in Cambridge next term- God and Satan decide it's Apocalypse time, and elect a milkman and a whore to recruit for their cosmic armies in the war to decide the fate of the universe. Who will succeed? Will Satan manage to sabotage the milkman's efforts with a band of gospel-singing nuns, or will the chorus cows deliver him from their misguided attempts to lock him up in their convent? And what if the milkman and the whore were to... meet?
- February 2005
How far would you go for the person you love? How much would you change? 'The Shape of Things' is a provocative, acerbic play which exposes how superficial the relationship between a man and a woman can . The play deals with four university students trying to seek acceptance. It is a savage indictment of the modern 'makeover' culture, showing how far people force others to conform to perceptions of beauty with a blurred view of 'art' and 'reality'. Writer Neil LaBute has been described by the New Yorker as 'the best new playwright to emerge in the past decade...'.
- November 2004
The Queens' Fresher's Pantomime Returns! Written by and starring the
gloriously talented and beautifully supple new freshers, the Pantomime has
been around almost long enough to be classed as a tradition. Following on
from the unconventional 'The Nativity' and 'The Man in the Iron Mask', this
year's (currently under construction) will contain laughs, songs, innuendo
and no small amount of thumb-nosing at prominent Queens' figures. Support
your friends, boo the baddie, hide as the dames try and flirt with you -
all of this and more is in store.
- November 2004
- November 2004
From a fractured childhood in the chateaus of the French countryside, to an
old age trapped in the final, brilliant flash of Parisian society, before
war extinguishes its lights. Marcel has spent his life watching. Now is the
time for telling. Telling a tale of glamour and corruption, decadence and
depravity.
It has been a one-hundred year journey from Proust's astonishing memoir,
which blew off the doors of the salons of the privileged, to Harold Pinter
and Di Trevis' final script, which challenged theatregoers around the
world. In the first production since its groundbreaking run at the National
Theatre, BATS production takes the story onwards, marking a new chapter in
cutting edge Cambridge theatre. A night to remember.
- November 2004
How can peace be found in war? How can sanity be found in madness? BATS
present the stage premiere of 'Shooting the Chandelier' written by David
Mercer, named 'foremost political writer of his generation’ by The Theatre
Review. This exciting multimedia production showcases the best new talent
of Cambridge. Set in a ruined mansion from which the ongoing Second World
War is strangely absent, images of memory and a vanished world are used as
the backdrop to an intimate study of jealousy and pain. Conceived as a
television drama, this is a stage transfer not to be missed.
- November 2004
Jessie’s epilepsy prevents her from holding a satisfying job, her marriage
has ended, and her son is a petty thief who isn’t speaking to her. She
lives with her mother, Thelma, in a small house in the American backwoods.
Jessie decides to do something about her unhappy existence and announces
that at the end of the evening, after painting Thelma’s nails, she will
kill herself. What follows is as inevitable as it is heartbreaking, as
Thelma’s increasingly desperate attempts to save her daughter’s life
illuminate their life together. This electrifying, Pulitzer Prize-winning
play is a paragon of twentieth-century tragedy.
- November 2004
After a long and violent conflict, the Spanish and Portuguese are at peace.
As the ghost of the murdered Don Andrea looks on, his killer makes a move
on his wife. When the dead man's friend Horatio becomes involved he is
killed in a brutal attack. Horatio's father - driven to lunacy - vows
vengeance at any cost.
- November 2004
'Look Back in Anger' saw the birth of the prototype 'Angry Young Man' and
sparked a new wave in British theatre. John Osborne's 1950's classic is
explosive, witty and downright angry. The play is not only an exploration
of one man's impassioned demand for humanity but is also a taught domestic
drama in which the dynamics of a troubled relationship are further
complicated by the arrival of a good looking and feisty outsider. This
exciting production will be performed in week five at the corpus playroom.
- June 2004
- March 2004
- March 2004
- November 2003
- February–March 2003
Chekhov's magnificent, elegiac and profoundly funny drama, The Three Sisters, is his greatest work and one of the triumphs of twentieth century theatre. A comically subversive look at the disintegration of the Russian monied classes, it reflects life by oscillating violently between tragedy and comedy.
Olga, Masha and Irina watch time pass them by, dreaming of a return to their beloved Moscow. No-one has understood with such sensitivity, and penetration as Chekhov what it is to be human. Do not expect anything heavy or turgid - this play was written and will be performed with a great lightness of touch.
- February 2003
- November 2001
