- October–November 2024
Othello is a play of many complexities and layers. A play that tests the capacities individuals will go to upkeep their reputation and external image in society. The setting of Pembroke Chapel (never been performed in before) and it's black and white flooring, shows the mixing of cultures in a society in which race never does blur into one because of societal expectations. Set against the backdrop of the glitz and glamour of the 1920s, this interpretation of Shakespeare's much loved tragedy highlights the superficiality of society.
Charity show for UNICEF Gaza
- October–November 2024
'I want to dance, Kate. It’s the Festival of Lughnasa. I’m only thirty-five. I want to dance.'
Welcome to the not-so-hot Summer of 1936 in Rural Donegal, Ireland. As the five Mundy sisters gather round to listen to the dulcet tones of their new radio, ‘Marconi’, change is coming.
Father Jack’s back from Uganda, Gerry comes and goes at will, yet there’s one journey yet to be decided upon - will the sisters make it to the Harvest Festival after all? Brian Friel’s celebrated semi-autobiographical play artfully and wittily captures the joys and pitfalls of an immediately identifiable era.
Guided by our narrator, Michael, the 'illegitimate' son of the youngest Mundy sister, Dancing at Lughnasa is at its heart a celebration of cultural survival. Marking Friel’s return to the ADC stage, this timeless tale ultimately questions how, in changing circumstances, we relate to and secure our own senses of identity.
- October–November 2024
"Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I will try again tomorrow’”
School is a nightmare, boys are infuriating and maccies is the only place open after 6pm. Growing up isn't easy, but it's even harder when you are from a place where no one expects anything of you - and especially if you're queer or the new girl at school. Beth, Rachel, Zahidah, Ellie and Chloe are stuck, stuck in their drama group, stuck in school and stuck in their small town which doesn't even have a Nando’s.
- October 2024
“I shall tell her I met a beautiful young man lying in the grass”.
It is 1944. Two young men meet in a Kentish field as doodlebugs whizz overhead. One is a farmer, the other an artist, but an intense bond forms between them.
First performed at The Bush Theatre in 1986, Robert Holman’s acclaimed play, which forms part of the Making Noise Quietly collection of plays, is a deeply gentle and delicate two-hander.
“Holman’s instinct for truth, and an unaffected ability to spot what’s poignant in it, is what one remembers: that, and a paradoxical impression of spare richness, astringent abundance” – The Times.
Read our 4.5 star Varsity review here! https://www.varsity.co.uk/theatre/28401
- June 2024
How do our inner fears manifest themselves? Where are these feelings embedded, and how do they become externalised? Underscore is the product of exploration, collaboration and innovation between dancers and musicians around these questions. It confronts the audience with a striking atmosphere through live music and unconventional forms of movement and expression.
- June 2024
- May 2024
Laugh out loud with Cambridge Footlight and almost-qualified doctor Fatima Eshani for an uproarious one-hour comedy special: a witty, insightful take on her journey to the frontlines.
Having honed her comedic chops as a Cambridge Footlight since 2020, Fatima's deadpan and witty persona promises an unforgettable evening. From navigating the awkwardness of attempting to make friends around dissecting cadavers to mastering the art of bad news delivery to paid actors in Addenbrookes, this show unveils the hidden corners of life in the NHS. 'We Only Clap on Thursdays!' offers an honest, humorous, and unique perspective on the joys, heartbreak, and chaos of the medical world. Join us for an hour of laughter, camaraderie, and a sneak peek into the life of a junior doctor that goes beyond the textbooks and scrubs.
Fatima Eshani is "wonderful to watch" (the Tab), gives a "perfect demonstration of elegant sarcastic humour" (the Tab), and James Acaster once wore a sticker of her face (partially by accident).
- May 2024
In this satirical black-comedy set in the mid-2000s, a traumatic career-ending injury splits the trajectories of two promising football academy bros, with Wesley Lennox becoming an arrogant sporting star, while his former best friend Tricky falls into a life of increasingly reckless football hooliganism. What happens when a no-nonsense nanny and a secret relationship enter the mix?
- May 2024
Pack your boxers, tape your tits, break your voice and embrace the power of being a silly little man. Get roasted by the psychiatrist for your lack of rizz, get roasted by the national press for being too woke, get roasted by your friends for being bottom of the pecking order. (But there’s nothing wrong with being bottom, even without a prostate.)
Join Cambridge Footlight Kae Deller as he takes you on a madcap journey of trans-masculinity and self-discovery, a journey that will contain doctors, actors, politicians and, embarrassingly, Vulcans.
Warning: Sad monologue about the evils of transphobia not included.
- May 2024
Adapted from the renowned play Thunderstorm by Cao Yu, often hailed as the ‘Shakespeare of the East’, this play stands as a milestone in the development of mature Chinese modern theatre.
‘All is submerged in the ruthless well of the cosmos.’
There emerges an icebound affair traced for thirty years, and there submerges a successional withering of love and desire. On a hot summer day, an unexpected woman returned with an erupted thunderstorm to Zhou’s residence looking for her daughter, and discovering her beloved girl involved with the family’s young master. The wheels of fortune rotate, reeling off every secret hidden beneath the luxurious house…
Not only is the play one of the most influential tragedies in the history of modern Chinese theatre, Cao Yu’s Thunderstorm is an elegy of love and desire that appeals to a universal audience across time and space.
Eight years after the last time modern Chinese drama was on ADC’s stage, we’d like to bring an adapted version of Thunderstorm featuring a revolutionary presentation of aesthetics and narrative supported by a digital vision.
- April–May 2024
Vignettes is a play of two halves: past and present, fever dream and reality, cause and effect. Frayed at their seams, however, the acts have an intimate yet strained relationship with one another- a tension present amongst the characters themselves. An unflinchingly all-access tour of a tortured psyche, the play tackles masculinity, sexuality, hereditary trauma, adolescence, the vital importance of art and the crushing burden of the past. Told through voices which ring out with continual authenticity, sometimes comfortingly, often chillingly, central to Vignettes is a poignant sense of realism; whilst often choosing to present itself in a surreal lens, the play has human tragedy at its core.
- March 2024
Bread Theatre & Film Company in collaboration with FUSE proudly present a reading of Jackie Sibblies Drury's play "We Are Proud to Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia, Formerly Known as Southwest Africa, From the German Südwestafrika, Between the Years 1884–1915".
The play is a comedic dramatization of the largely forgotten Herero and Namaqua genocide which took place in Namibia between 1904 and 1907 when the region was a German colony, after Germany confiscated tribal lands and the Herero people rebelled. The retribution over four years by German soldiers resulted in more than 65,000 deaths. The play deals with the enormity of this story by introducing it through the actors of a "presentation" which is intended to tell the story, and shows how the various players respond to the gruesome facts during first rehearsal.
- February–March 2024
Tell all the aunties and uncles (even the ones that you've never heard of): Second Generation is back!
We're here again with the fifth iteration of the student-written sketch show, introducing new BME faces to the comedy scene. Come join us for a night that's bringing the heat and humor to the ADC stage for another year!
From your massive extended family mischief to watching hard-boiled eggs take over brunch, Second Generation: As Gen Z become Aunties promises to be a night of fun, nostalgic third world problems and everything nice.
- February 2024
For four evenings this term, CUMTS host a night where people can come along and sing a musical theatre song for a smaller audience in a less intimidating venue (the ADC bar). The atmosphere is always friendly and uplifting, and the performances are always of a top quality.
The most wonderful thing about these shows is that the more intimate setting allows for those less confident performers to feel more comfortable in their singing and eventually move onto principal roles in bigger shows. You never know, any Bar Night participant might just go on to be the next big star of the stage! Not only that, but also the range of performers means that there is always a range of songs and dynamics to fit every audience member's needs. Whether you're into comedy or you're a hopeless romantic, there'll be something for you!
For the third bar night of the term, in line with our goals to diversify the musical theatre scene and increase accessibility, CUMTS are working in collaboration with Bread Theatre & Film Company to bring you a Bar Night made up entirely BME performers who will be singing all of their favourite songs from musical theatre.
It's going to be an amazing night so please don't miss out! Buy your tickets now!
- February 2024
What if you code-switch so hard
That you just switch?
That it just becomes the code?
What do you get when you put a Black-British Caribbean working-class woman in a predominantly white institution that seems to be praying on her downfall?
An identity crisis, that’s what.
‘Blackboard’ follows Adina, a headstrong, politically-minded 18-year-old starting her first term at the prestigious Fawcett institute, as she struggles to reconcile her attendance there with her identity. Watch as she attempts to navigate academia, friendship, love, and what seems to be an endless sea of microaggressions while the judging voices of her friends, her melodramatic inner-voice, and the enigmatic Black Council echo.
Will she crumble under the unbearable weight of impostor syndrome and ignorance? Will she remain true to her values, keeping her ‘Black Card’? And what’s up with the mysterious blackboard that seems to track her every mistake?
- February 2024
Liminal Space is Dominika Wiatrowska’s (almost) one-woman show about growing up in Poland, learning English as a second language and moving to the UK alone at the age of sixteen. Join her at the Corpus Playroom for an hour of storytelling, dance, and celebration of Slavic culture.
Learn answers to your burning questions, including: Which city's statue of Jesus reaches higher than that of Rio de Janeiro? How could we redefine the word 'prolific'? And how does it feel like to live life in a Liminal Space?
- February 2024
Reviews
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
"You'll be kicking yourself if you don't watch it. It's courageous, outrageous, and unlike anything you'll ever watch" - Salma Salifu for The Tab
"This is not just a well-produced, well-directed, well-acted play, but one that has emotional power and is incredibly current" - Evan Grandidge de Paz for The Tab
https://thetab.com/uk/cambridge/2024/02/14/review-fairview-174714
"Chen and Bisiriyu have directed a revolutionary piece of art [...] It's productions like these [...] that can spur real tangible change" - Tirza Sey for The Cambridge Student https://www.thecambridgestudent.co.uk/culture/fairview-review-a-masterclass-into-the-power-of-observation
"Fairview changes what it means to watch theatre" - Alice Mainwood for Varsity https://www.varsity.co.uk/theatre/27095
About the show
I’ve been trying to talk to You.
This whole time.
Have you heard me?
The Frasier family is gearing up for Grandma's birthday, and Beverly needs this dinner to be perfect. But, the silverware's wrong, Jasmine is drinking, Dayton isn't helping, Keisha is being a typical teenager, and Tyrone might not show up at all. As Beverly's hostess neurosis begins to get the better of her while her family acts like a family, Keisha's adolescent malaise starts to seem like maybe it could be something else.
Hailed by critics as "astoundingly smart and riveting", "dazzling and ruthless", and "unforgettable", this Pulitzer-prize-winning play invites audiences to question and process the act of watching. What happens if you do?
- January 2024
Life is brutal to the best of us, but some more so than others. Join former Pointless contestant and Cambridge Footlight Diya Shah in her debut stand-up comedy show, as she takes you through the highlights and lowlights of her life so far and explores whether it’s better to laugh or just cry as the world throws endless character-building events her way. Don’t miss this one night only opportunity to help her decide just how much the universe conspires against her – whether you end up laughing with her or at her, she doesn’t mind too much.
- February 2023
- November 2022
Got a light?
Ashtray is a play about those little interactions in the smoking areas of queer bars. Whether it's the fleeting compliment, a quick snog, or a conversation which makes you a new friend for life. In the show, we follow three different stories of people who love and fight out in the cold.
There's something for everyone here in the piece of new student writing which uses the space of the smoking area to interrogate desirability politics, gentrification and more, but also to tell very human stories which we can all connect to.
- November 2022
The stories follows four people of colour, unconnected in all ways except for their melanin. We watch them reveal their innermost struggles and joys to a chorus and see how they are welcomed but occasionally shunned by their own.
It is a celebration and warning about the tensions that define black culture. These stories are personal and intimate markers about the Black Women. It is infused with movement that breathes life into the play.
- May 2022
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly was a glorified story about an American navy boy in Japan, failing his oriental love for his soon-to-be wife, Butterfly.
In an alternative universe of 1960s China, amidst the rise of the cultural revolution, Rene Gallimard, a French diplomat newly tasked with high-profile intelligence, falls in love with a mystical Beijing Opera singer, Song Liling, in his attempts to escape the expatriate circles. Restraining physical contact, Song cites Confucian modesty, but Rene is dissatisfied — he must create his fantasies — of Song, of the Orient, and even of his motherland, France, to live through the next two decades.
Welfare form: https://forms.gle/pwr3iBmbom1Rrk8a6
- May 2022
The Chair traces the key transitions in a Singaporean family’s ancestry, observing the evolution of a bloodline from rough immigrant labourers to educated businessmen and women. The members of the family gain affluence, survive war, and fight among themselves, with a chair being passed from generation to generation, witnessing it all. The importance of this story lies in its characters and how they are portrayed, the nuance of Singaporean behaviours and relationships, and the shared history of the nation. This show is meant to provide an insight into what makes Singapore and its people the way it is.
- March 2022
Second Generations: Ice-cream Tubs and Tupperware - a night full of spicy surprises!
Tell your parents you’re in the library and join us in the third space, where cultures can clash and aunties are on the lash. Introducing the freshest comedians of colour on the block, this sketch show will make you laugh harder than a burnt roti. Brought to you by Bread, the company behind Second Generation and Second Generation: Integrated (the titles are getting progressively more snappy, I suppose).
- June 2021
‘The Trouble With Today’s Women’ is a verbatim piece of devised theatre. The show title takes inspiration from Sudha Buchar’s ‘The Trouble With Asian Men’. With performers and collaborators in different geographical locations, the show explores the experiences of women of colour in the modern world and grapples with the dissonance that they face navigating their personal lives. This production will explore pluralities of positions instead of a single meta-narrative, through the authentic voices of performers that will navigate themes of fragmented identity. Developed through workshops and interviews, personal stories on various themes will be adapted for a multi-media performance.
- March 2020
Three times a term, we host a night where people can come along and sing a musical theatre song for a smaller audience in a less intimidating venue (the ADC bar). The atmosphere is always friendly and uplifting, and the performances are always of a top quality.
The most wonderful thing about these shows is that the more intimate setting allows for those less confident performers to feel more comfortable in their singing and eventually move onto principal roles in bigger shows. You never know, any Bar Night participant might just go on to be the next big star of the stage! Not only that, but also the range of performers means that there is always a range of songs and dynamics to fit every audience member's needs. Whether you're into comedy or you're a hopeless romantic, there'll be something for you!
For the last one of the term, CUMTS are working in collaboration with Bread to bring you a Bar Night with entirely BME performers who will be singing all of their favourite songs from musical theatre. It going to be an amazing night so please don't miss out! Buy your tickets now!
- February 2020
On the eve of Singapore’s National Day in 1988, 3 people are killed along the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE), Singapore’s oldest expressway which cuts through the heart of the country.
An interrogator has 60 minutes to question James, whose script, ‘PIE’ foretold these 3 deaths. Somehow surviving a car accident along the PIE that killed both his parents just moments after he was born, James grew up to become an unsuccessful playwright who now faces accusations of murder.
As the fragmented story of what ‘actually’ took place unfolds, the line between the ‘real’ and the ‘official’ narratives blurs, as James is forced to confront an interrogator intent on writing her own script - that James is a Communist conspirator who masterminded these deaths to ignite widespread dissent. Set against the backdrop of the global Cold War and the 1987 ‘Marxist Conspiracy’ in Singapore, Pan-Island Expressway promises to be a riveting comedy, political drama and whodunit mystery - all in one play.
- February 2020
Deptford, 1982: unemployment abounds and the 1981 Brixton race riots are fresh in everyone’s memories. Caught in the midst of these racial divides are Chima and Onochie: two mixed-race brothers, sons of an Irish mother and a Nigerian father. Finally returning home from prison after he was blamed for the death of a white girl, Chima is horrified to find out that his younger brother, Onochie, has become a skinhead who no longer thinks of himself as black. As brutal justice seeks Chima out, Onochie must decide whether he will side with the community he’s tried so hard to belong to, or stand by the flesh and blood he barely knows.
- November 2019
- October 2019
“You need a name that expresses a Christian faith - Mary- mother of Jesus - is the most blessed name - but I just named another girl that this afternoon, ahh, there is Ruth - but I hate names of monosyllables so - ESTER! Yes, that is it, that is your name. Ester, she was a woman of great, great courage, saved her people in fact, second only to the Virgin Mary in Holy women in my opinion. And you look like one - indeed you do, you do.”
It’s 1896 in Rhodesia and Jekesai has just been given her new, Catholic name. Chilford, the only black Roman Catholic teacher in the region, has decided she’ll now be known as Ester, wear European clothing and speak only in English. She’s torn away from everything that she knows by her fellow African who earnestly believes the promises of the White man.
