- February 2005
In the amateur premiere of this new adaptation of Bulgakov’s magic realist novel, we are transported to 1930s Moscow. The Master, a playwright the authorities consider subversive, is locked away. His sole ally is his mistress, Margarita: until the Devil arrives in Moscow. ‘Woland’ wreaks merry havoc, making people disappear, chopping off heads and staging a spectacular black magic show. The Muscovites’ socialist rationalism shatters at the sight of Satan himself and his deranged troupe of assistants: bare-breasted Hella, fanged Azazello and a giant black cat. The Devil befriends the hapless Master, on one condition: that Margarita hosts his Satanic ball where history’s most infamous murderers carouse. The Master strikes a Faustian bargain with Woland: but at what price? Bulgakov’s modern masterpiece throws together epic romance, political satire and comic absurdism in a story which throbs with the variety of life. An aesthetic extravaganza which celebrates the best and worst of existence: people die horribly, love madly, and nothing happens in moderation.
- December 2004
This year's Footlights/ADC Pantomime brings a classic Dickensian masterpiece to the stage. Deep in Victorian London, this panoply of music, dance and humour tracks the funny and poignant story of a young boy's quest for happiness. As our comic hero treds the pathway from poverty to riches, he is accompanied by a sparkling cast of lovers, villains, dames, ugly sisters and the all-important Pantomime Cow.
This bizarre mix of the idiosyncratic and grotesque combines romance and redemption with gothic comedy to form a hilarious Christmas treat for adults and children alike.
- November 2004
Test the mettle of Cambridge's finest improv comedians at a One Night Stand of riotous spontaneity. This perennial favourite fuses the exotic ingredients of the audience's imagination with wits so sharp they could julienne a carrot
- November 2004
Matilda is a liar. She tells so many lies, even she can’t keep up. But one day, something happens that changes Matilda entirely. She can no longer lie – everything she says is the absolute truth.
But Matilda’s family, held together only by a web of lies, falseness and façades, soon realise that if the lies hurt, the truth could be even worse. Will they be able to live happily ever after? Only one thing will guarantee their fairytale ending – Matilda must be stopped!
This jarring fable is an enthrallingly surreal fairytale for our time, and a grisly warning for anyone who ever thought a little lie wouldn’t hurt. And that’s the truth.
- 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
Finding the Sun is three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Albee's
captivating study of human relationships.
It's a warm sunny day at the beach. Some people sunbathe. Some people play
ball. Two men embrace while their wives aren't looking. A mother muses
about the possibility of seducing her teenage son to a woman she's only
just met. A marriage breaks down. And at least one person dies.
This is a fascinating, funny, and disturbing play, brought to the stage by
the cream of the crop of Cambridge's new theatre talent. The action takes
place in only a few hours of a single day, in a single location, but the
characters' pasts are more than rich enough to keep us entertained: Why did
Cordelia invite a bisexual swinger into her family home? "It was cheaper
than a new playroom."
- November 2004
“A Small Family Business” is produced, directed and acted in entirely by Freshers. In previous years, the theatre has been fully packed for the shows and they always receive an extremely positive response, as Cambridge's fresh theatrical talent is introduced to the community.
- November 2004
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of
Shakespeare's Hamlet, as seen through the eyes of two bewildered courtiers,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. This comic duo finally take centre stage in
this chilling comedy which has been widely acclaimed as a moden dramatic
masterpiece. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern find themselves caught up in the
plot of Hamlet and, frantic to find out what is going on, try to cope with
crazed Hamlets, hysterical Ophelias, dead Polonii and a group of sexually
depraved (and indeterminate) players. They struggle to escape the plot of
Hamlet that traps them in a world where reality and illusion intermix: Who
are they, where are they going, and where did those pirates come from? But
can they flee the unfolding tragedy? Or are Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern...DEAD?
- October 2004
Two people, two writers, two situations, two points of view, two genres, two atmospheres, two languages, two chairs, two spaces, two countries, two characters, two moods, two plays.
To be seen.
After Racine’s Phèdre and William’s A Streetcar named Desire (both performed in French tours), ACCENT, European Theatre Group, presents a new cross-Channel production. Nathalie Sarraute’s Elle est là (with subtitles) and Harold Pinter’s Landscape are two provocative short plays, performed one after the other, offering a contrasting vision of modern incommunicability and misunderstanding from two masters of contemporary European drama. Ranging from the absurd to the poetic, the comic to the tragic, the prosaic to the abstract, this production hopes to reconsider playfully the never-ending question of love-hate relationships between the two sexes and even the two countries…
- October 2004
For one night only, an exciting piece of new writing!
After a dismal evening ‘celebrating’ their silver wedding anniversary, Penny is confronted with the news of her father’s death. As the root of a mysterious family rift is slowly revealed, Penny is forced to make a choice: will she choose the family she hasn’t seen for twenty-five years over her hapless husband Neville, who can offer her little more than a bag of doughnuts. This jam-filled, sugar-coated comedy promises an evening filled with laughter, love and lots of… doughnuts.
- October 2004
Based on the events of the Hulme
and Parker murder trial of the 1950s, Folie a Deux explores the tender
relationship of two girls that spirals out of control. Trapped in 1950s New
Zealand – characterised by judgement, religion and the need to keep up
appearances – the girls take refuge in each other’s company. Creating
fantasy stories and a religion of their own, Juliet and Pauline finally
find the freedom they have been longing for. When their suspicious parents
attempt to split them up, the girls panic. Only one thing can save them now
– murder.
- October 2004
From the bowels of the deep recesses of the dark deep – comes a play? A play. If you wanted an eclectic example of the betrothal of the marriage of absurdism, naturalism.
From the award-multi-team-winning-team that brought you the multi-award-winning comedy ‘Daddy’s Dead’ this comes.
“Doctor Doctor” “Who’s there?” “A really good play” “Come in” “What’s my Diagnosis?” Ear infection.
- October 2004
In the degenerate opulence of eighteenth century France, the magnetic and
manipulative Vicomte de Valmont and his former lover La Marquise de
Merteuil are locked in a convoluted and calculating game of sexual conquest
and emotional sadism.
Seeking diversion from the ennui that even their customary sexual intrigues
and emotional perversions cannot alleviate, the two conspire to corrupt and
destroy the fifteen-year-old Cecile, who is barely out of her convent.
Meanwhile, Valmont also seeks prey more worthy of his talent and
reputation; Madame de Tourvel, happily married and famous for her strict
morals and religious fervour, would be his greatest coup.
Thus, the two masterful chess-players manipulate their pawns for their own
sadistic pleasure. But as the stakes rise ever higher, there emerges from
beneath a veneer of frivolity, an intense emotional power struggle and the
ultimate tragedy.
- 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'.
- October 2004
FIVE VISIONS OF THE FAITHFUL by Torben Betts returns from its highly
successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, for four nights only at
the Cambridge Union.
"The best acted student show I have seen in a very long time" - The Observer
"Something we all hope for at the Edinburgh Fringe" - British Theatre Guide
"Constantly riveting: a wealth of talent" - Edinburgh Evening News
"Fierce and constantly uncompromising" - The Scotsman
"Creepy, terrifying, confusing and disturbing" - Three Weeks
"Good old-fashioned outrage!" - The Times
"I was fascinated, moved and left not a little baffled!" - Peter Lathan
**** - Radio Fourth, One4Review, BTG, Fest Online, ThreeWeeks, Evening News.
Waiting for life. Waiting for sex. Waiting for death, love, punishment.
Everybody is waiting for something. But who is waiting for salvation? This
is a bold, hugely ambitious piece of drama, delivered in brute,
matter-of-fact language. Cambridge´s finest present a spectacle of physical
theatre and cartoon comedy.
Five shocking visions. Seven deadly sins. Ten broken commandments. These
are five very different tragicomic meditations from acclaimed and
controversal playwright Torben Betts hailed as the next Howard Barker.
Brave new cartoon comedy.
- August 2004
'five different contexts; five different types of theatre. this is bold new writing from a playwright hailed as Howard Barker's successor. Critics have raved that he is ' a major new playwriting discovery'; to see his shows it is 'worth canceling anything'. This brutal cartoon comedy is to be performed from the 4th until the 30th of August at the Edinburgh Festival in the acclaimed c-venues, home to the largest theatre and new writing programme at the fringe. A riveting marriage between the philosophical and the theatrical, these messy tragicomic meditations give us unsparing visions of everyday hell using characters from heaven.'
- August 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'.
- June 2004
A great ball. Champagne. Music and dance. Lovers by moonlight and eccentric old dears.
An exquisite ball, held to announce the engagement of Frederic to a millionaire’s daughter becomes a melting pot of intrigues as Hugo, having enlisted help of a beautiful dancer, plots to drive the lovers apart. Hugo and Frederic are in fact identical twins, so alike that “it is neither permissible not proper” but could not have been more different in their nature. The plot of mistaken identities becomes a source of many comical situations in the play. Eventually, all of the guests become entangled in this deliciously vivacious, fast-moving and dazzling plot which simply captivates the spirit of May Week. Exquisite entertainment and yet much more than that: the play poses the questions on the nature of identity as well as pondering on the strange ways of love…
Languish on the grass, enjoy a glass of wine, strawberries and cream and watch this wonderfully rose-tinted comedy.
- May 2004
Nick and Mick are rivals competing for the rights to produce an explosive new reality game show. Beneath the shroud of constructive and friendly instruction, the Director of the company manipulates and deceives them from day one, creating a tension between self-belief and teamwork. Implicated in this web of deceit is the Director’s shy but obedient secretary, Meg, who finds herself in the hands of all she encounters, used as a tool in their own self-advancement and corrupt dealings. When the Director’s wife, Debbie, asks Meg to seduce her boss to test his love and faithfulness, the barrier between business and pleasure is crossed and inner anxieties and desires revealed.
The debut performance of new writing within Cambridge promises to be a comic and diverse portrayal of stereotypical scenarios, with a tragic twist to boot. Expect everything except your expectations!
- April–May 2004
Henrik Ibsen's masterpiece is being brought to the Octagon Theatre. This production moves events to the 'roaring 20s' as newly-weds Hedda and George Tesman return home, Hedda begins to understand fully the stifling confinement to which she has condemned herself, and seeks to restore 'beauty' and meaning to her life. The opportunity presents itself in the return to town of an old flame and academic rival of George's, but as events unfold it becomes clear that the mundane and the ridiculous have a habit of suppressing and ruining the truly beautiful. A blackly humourous and subtly powerful piece, 'Hedda Gabler' is one of the most poignant tragedies ever written.
- March 2004
Annie Oakley is a poor country girl. Her sharp-shooting skills see her join Buffalo Bill’s traveling Wild West Show. There she soon falls hopelessly in love with Frank Butler, the big star. But Annie soon eclipses Frank, and they look destined to fall apart. She soon realises she'll have to make some difficult choices if she wants to win her man...
With numbers like Anything You Can Do (I can do better) and There’s no Business like Show Business, this is classic feel-good musical theatre at its best. A thrilling, romantic, vibrant production, with everything from tribal dance to gunslingin’ stunts which will amaze... not to be missed!
More information is available at the show website: anniegetyourgun.co.uk
- March 2004
Featuring some of the more unusual numbers from the Broadway and West End stages, the Amateur Dramatic Club is delighted to be bringing a touch of the musical wonderland to the ADC Theatre stage. Featuring numbers from 'The Last Five Years', 'Sweeny Todd', 'Rent', 'Me and My Girl', as well as the Lent Term Musical, 'Annie Get Your Gun', the evening promises to be an hour packed with some of the show stopping hits from the past few years.
- March 2004
Ambition, murder and treachery come to the ADC. “Now is the winter of our discontent” to “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”; from end to end a classic. Watch as English drama’s original and most magnetic villain takes over the stage and the world around him in his path to the crown by blood and by deceit. An imaginatively staged and powerful new interpretation of Shakespeare’s astonishing play.
- February 2004
Predatory, violent, immoral, angry, frustrated and comic lads Mike and Les want some easy cash, and a quick leg-over. Their target, Sylv, is an unhappy, unconscious collaborator in her own sexual exploitation; their Dad is a filthy slob; then there is poor put-upon Mum. This savage, witty and repellent play presents 1950s London: Berkoff described it simply as ‘frontal assault’.
- February 2004
The Challenge: to write, rehearse and perform a play in 24 hours. The Venue: the ADC Bar.
The last time 24-hour plays were undertaken, the audience were left wondering why weeks of rehearsal are ever necessary
- February 2004
Millions of pounds, nine husbands, two eunuchs, a butler, two thugs and one ex-boyfriend – you could be forgiven for thinking that Claire Zachanassian has it all. But she wants one more thing: revenge. Just how far will the people of the small town of Gullen go for the reward that she has to offer? By the author of The Physicists, this is a tragi-comedy revolving around money, power, revenge and greed.
- February 2004
A love story set in colonial East Africa during the Second World War. A new country, Tanganyika, is being created with Britons, Germans, Asians and African tribes living side by side. Michael is an English farm manager, born and brought up in East Africa and Poppy a confident, idealistic, Indian girl, educated in England whose father is one of the wealthiest businessmen in the territory. Separated by class, race and outlook, their relationship grows and strains against a background of racial tensions and the war. A powerful look at the need to dissolve divisions of tribes, factions and cultural boundaries, and re-form, in the process of building a new country.
- February 2004
He is named Gwarra. The Lost One. And the Owl cries for him. And he will not listen.
A mother's search for a son. A man's search for identity, born to one world, brought up in another - and alien to both. A boy's question - why am I different? A poignant story of intertwined lives, crushed in the aftermath of the clash of Australian Aboriginal and European cultures.
Based on a true story, this intense piece of new writing comes to the ADC for a one-night rehearsed reading, following a highly successful performance at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.
- February 2004
‘Cripple Billy’ lives with his two aunts on the island of Inishmaan. The pattern of life on Inishmaan is disrupted when local gossip Jonnypateenmike brings word that a Hollywood movie is to be filmed on the neighbouring island. Martin McDonagh’s meteoric rise to fame on both sides of the Atlantic is fully justified in this superbly funny, dark, and moving tale. McDonagh is unrelenting, unafraid, irreverent, politically incorrect and, most disturbingly, horribly astute.
- January 2004
Chritie in Love is based on the story of John Reginald Christie, one of the most notorious and disturbing serial killers of the past century. Seen as one of Brenton’s masterpieces, it is a gritty play with an intimate cast that retells a timeless story of sexuality and criminality set against the role of the media. Christie’s tale is a corrupted love story, one of intense honesty and utter atrocity.
- January 2004
Prometheus Unbound in association with the ADC return to Cambridge this Edinburgh Fringe success about the quartet of free-thinking radicals: Byron, Shelley, Mary Shelley and Claire Clairemont. "An amazing play...witty, acerbic and accurate" – Three Weeks "Strong ... moving ... genuinely affecting... speckled with humour... a production of which the ADC should be proud" – Varsity. Proceeds will be donated to the ADC Theatre Appeal.
- December 2003
Ten years have passed and the inhabitants of Wonderland have called Alice back through the looking glass one last time to save their world from destruction. Join Alice, the Mad Hatter, the much maligned Jabberwock and the little known Furious Bandersnatch for a lively evening of song, dance, comedy and extremely cross dressing.
- November 2003
Have you ever tried to protest and become frustrated when nobody listens to your voice? Have you ever wondered what would happen if you just gave up trying to be heard and stopped speaking altogether? Would anyone notice?
When Gemma, a young lady living in London, decides to give up speaking and to lose herself in Bach’s St Matthew Passion, her partner and friends are completely thrown. In this unique play Anthony Minghella parodies the superfluous conversations and the triviality of cosmopolitan social life through the voices of Gemma’s friends.
- November 2003
Albert paints the bridge. Hampered by the cost-cutting policies of the Chairman and his team of adept bureaucrats, Albert is engaged in a constant battle to defend the beauty of his beloved bridge. But he doesn’t really mind the struggle: life up on the bridge gives him time to think. Until it all goes wrong, that is, and Albert’s bridge and his life begin to fall apart.
- November 2003
The young and ambitious Charles Lang has designed and built an engine that uses only distilled water as its fuel – and tries to obtain a patent for his groundbreaking invention. But in the dog-eat-dog world of 1930s America, the lawyers from whom he seeks advice quickly turn on him, desperately seeking to steal his designs.
- November 2003
Returning to Argos, Orestes finds his mother married to his father's murderer, and his sister Electra working as their skivvy. Meanwhile, the gods send flies to plague the city, revenge for the regicide the people have permitted. Set in a nineteenth century mental asylum, Sartre’s absurdist reworking of this Greek tragedy is an intelligent and disturbing study of madness.
