- April–May 2013
Blanche DuBois is not all she seems. Arriving to stay with her sister Stella in the steamy French Quarter of New Orleans, she cuts the figure of a delicate Southern belle. But what’s her secret? Stella's no-nonsense husband, Stanley Kowalski, makes it his business to find out.
A Streetcar Named Desire is Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer prize-winning masterpiece; an explosive tale of lost dreams and indiscretions, brutish actions and burning lust.
This bold new production transforms the ADC Theatre into the city of New Orleans, surging with live jazz and teeming with life. Come under its intoxicating spell to witness the raw, unpredictable feeling of Williams' heart-stopping tragedy.
- March 2013
When Egyptian captain Radames captures the Nubian princess Aida, little does he know that he will be changing both of their destinies. Set against a backdrop of warfare, ambition and treachery, they are soon forced to choose between love for their nations, and love for each other.
Inspired by Verdi’s majestic opera, the timeless love story of Aida is retold by the creative team behind The Lion King. With music ranging from reggae and gospel to Elton John classics, including ‘Written in the Stars’, and with choreography inspired by everything from Latin to ballet, CUADC brings this Broadway hit to stage in a uniquely stylish and magical revival, taking the audience beyond the bounds of reality.
Winner of four Tony Awards, with a captivating story, electrifying score and beautiful design, this rarely performed musical is perfect for the whole family.
- February–March 2013
‘Greetings prophet. The Great Work begins. The messenger has arrived.’ New York, 1985. A pill-popping housewife and her gay Mormon husband unite with an AIDS-ridden former drag queen and his conscience-stricken boyfriend amidst the backdrop of a lost America. As one of the most inspired American plays of our time, Angels in America - Part One: Millennium Approaches transports an audience from New York to Antarctica, merging the realistic with the surreal and tackling such dynamic themes as American ideology, AIDS, liberalism, race and sexual identity. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the play is one of the most successful theatrical sagas of recent years. ‘A vast, miraculous play…provocative, witty and deeply upsetting…a searching and radical rethinking of American political drama…’ - Frank Rich, New York Times ‘An epic theatrical fever dream’ - Variety
- February 2013
Amateur Dramatic Club presents ANTON: Ivanov and Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, translated by Tom Stoppard and Michael Frayn Weeks 4 and 5 mainshows, Lent Term @ ADC Theatre
...I fell in love with him the first time I saw him. I took one look and - snap! - I was caught. He said, 'Let's run off... let's go!' I stripped my life away just like you'd strip the dead leaves off a stem, and I went...
Two weeks. Two painfully funny and heartbreaking plays. Two translations by two renowned British playwrights.
One master of tragicomedy.
'Anton', a double bill of 'Ivanov' and 'Three Sisters', playing on alternate nights over two weeks. Bringing together one of his first and one of his last plays, CUADC presents a fortnight of raucous laughter and stinging tears.
A time will come when people will understand what it was all for, what the purpose was of all this suffering, and what was hidden from us will be hidden no more. In the meantime, though, we have to live...
- February 2013
Amateur Dramatic Club presents ANTON: Ivanov and Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, translated by Tom Stoppard and Michael Frayn Weeks 4 and 5 mainshows, Lent Term @ ADC Theatre
...I fell in love with him the first time I saw him. I took one look and - snap! - I was caught. He said, 'Let's run off... let's go!' I stripped my life away just like you'd strip the dead leaves off a stem, and I went...
Two weeks. Two painfully funny and heartbreaking plays. Two translations by two renowned British playwrights.
One master of tragicomedy.
'Anton', a double bill of 'Ivanov' and 'Three Sisters', playing on alternate nights over two weeks. Bringing together one of his first and one of his last plays, CUADC presents a fortnight of raucous laughter and stinging tears.
A time will come when people will understand what it was all for, what the purpose was of all this suffering, and what was hidden from us will be hidden no more. In the meantime, though, we have to live...
- February 2013
Mr. Hoppy has two great loves in his life: the flowers that grow on his balcony, and his neighbour, Mrs. Silver. The only problem is that Mrs. Silver gives all of her love to someone else: her pet tortoise, Alfie. One day Mrs. Silver asks Mr. Hoppy how to make poor Alfie grow a little faster and suddenly Mr. Hoppy’s happiness is only a dubious magical spell away…
But can the nosy, bassoon-playing next door neighbour, Humphrey, figure out Mr. Hoppy’s plot before it’s too late? Or will Mrs. Silver’s heart be stolen by a man who names his favourite chrysanthemum Gerald?
Told through the eyes of Alfie - the whimsical and embittered tortoise - ‘Esio Trot’ is a new adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic tale of infatuation, deceit and celery, which poses the timeless question: should true love come before tortoises?
- January–February 2013
‘When you're caught between any kind of devil and the deep blue sea, the deep blue sea can sometimes look very inviting…’
Terence Rattigan’s modern masterpiece portrays a day in the life of Hester Collyer. Caught in a cobweb of decaying relationships – to her husband, her lover, her landlady, her neighbours – she remains alone and hopeless in a small dishevelled flat.
One of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century, this new production of Rattigan’s beautiful play explores the biggest questions in the most human way.
- November 2012
It's back.
Since its inception in Manhattan's Lower East Side over 15 years ago, the 24 Plays have appeared all over the world, pushing theatrical talent to its limit and creating unforgettable performances. What will happen when Cambridge is asked to create 5 new plays in just 24 hours in front of a panel of industry judges? The clock is ticking.
- November–December 2012
- November 2012
Burlesque! welcomes you to our Weimar-era, fortune-teller's lair to spend an intimate evening with Ryvita von Teese and her company of charming reprobates.
Bring the art of burlesque back to its roots of social satire, join us for a dizzying romp through musical numbers, sketch comedy and interactive cabaret.
All accompanied by our onstage drag band, Burlesque! is a chaotic variety jamboree and a stand-out production in a town where love comes to die.
- November 2012
'To begin at the beginning….'
Welcome to Llareggub, a sleepy Welsh fishing village where old and young potter and clatter through their day-to-day business, in a tumble of sounds and sights. Allow our gentle guide to show you the far-off dreams of Captain Cat, the sincere sermons of Reverend Eli Jenkins, and the longing love letters of Mog Edwards and Myfanwy Price.
Written as a response to the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagaski, Dylan Thomas's 'play for voices' celebrates the calm beauty of the world, through some of the most evocative poetry written in the English language. This work of Welsh genius is brought to the ADC stage by the freshest talent in Cambridge.
'We are not wholly bad or good, who live our lives under Milk Wood.'
- November 2012
'One false move and we'll have a farce on our hands'...
When rich merchant Herr Zangler jaunts off to Vienna to woo his new mistress, his beautiful young ward elopes with her penniless suitor and his two assistants decide that this is their last chance for a big adventure and go on 'the razzle'. Where are they all headed? To the same place, of course - in haste, in heat and in cognito.
Described by The Telegraph as 'an unremitting firework display of puns, crossword puzzle tricks and sly sexual innuendos,' Tom Stoppard's On the Razzle is a wonderful night of fabulous farce. See this year's freshest dramatic talent take on a muddle of mistaken identities, slapstick and romantic shenanigans in one of the funniest scripts ever written.
- November 2012
‘Don’t tell me to cheer up. People only tell you to cheer up when they’ve run out of sympathy’.
An unexpected and unplanned reunion forces a family to take a brutally honest look at themselves and at their achievements in life. Described by The Daily Telegraph as a British equivalent of A Death of a Salesman, The Bullet is, in the words of the author, ‘about the pathological need to go home and then – once you get there – the pathological need to leave again as quickly as possible’. The CUADC are proud to present the first ever Cambridge University Fresher Show to take place at the Corpus Playroom.
- October–November 2012
December 2000: Enron, America’s seventh largest corporation, is heralded as a darling of the energy industry. Voted ‘America’s Most Innovative Company’ by Fortune magazine for six years in a row, Enron claims revenues of over $100 billion and employs well over 20,000 individuals.
December 2001: The Enron Scandal. Enron files for bankruptcy. Former employees are paid an average of $4,500 worth of severance pay and lose their pensions and medical insurance whilst top executives cash in stock worth over $115 million. The resulting inquest unearths political as well as corporate corruption, the effects of which are still felt in America today.
Just what happened? Exactly how did Enron destroy itself so completely and so rapidly? CUADC is proud to present this epic tale of corporate irresponsibility and human greed at its most dangerous extremes. One of the most important plays in recent years, Enron utilises gripping personal drama, surreal humour and even musical numbers to tell an unforgettable story that you’ll wish was fiction.
Ask why.
- October 2012
In the salons of Paris, an anonymous young girl plays the piano for the wealthy elites. Here she encounters the exotic, mesmerizing and stifling Marquis. A man of the world, with a mysterious past, he offers her the key to a thrilling future. The Marquis proposes and takes his virgin to a castle on the sea for their honeymoon. When he disappears after their wedding night, leaving the girl alone – save for the housekeeper, and a blind piano-tuner – he entrusts her with the keys to every room in the house. One door alone is forbidden, but the temptation of a tiny key may prove too much.
- October 2012
Sophie Scholl has gone down in history as one of the world's greatest heroines. Her bravery in the name of freedom, and the face of terror, will never cease to inspire people all over the world. Now the first stage adaptation of the Academy Award-nominated, German film brings her powerful story to Cambridge. As a member of the passive resistance group, The White Rose, Sophie is determined to rouse the German people into action against the Nazi regime. After being caught distributing so-called 'seditious' leaflets, she must endure a gruelling interrogation process and a brutal trial. But even the most tragic fate cannot sway her unstoppable quest for justice. This heart-rending tale brings to life a passionate desire to live in a free and democratic society. This is the story of Sophie Scholl, the woman who defied Hitler.
- October 2012
Follow Jamie, New York novelist finding his first success, and Cathy, actress still finding her feet, as they fall in and out of love over five years.
As he tells his story from beginning to end, she tells hers backwards, and the result is an intensely personal look at both sides of the relationship: witness simultaneously the thrill of first romance and the disappointment of heartbreak, in a combination that is at once uplifting and devastating.
In an exciting new venture, CUADC and CUMTS proudly present Jason Robert Brown's celebrated musical at the Corpus Playroom. With award-winning music and lyrics by the legendary writer of Parade and Songs for a New World, this unique two-hander will see the Playroom become an intimate off-Broadway theatre.
'No one can give you courage; no one can thicken your skin. I will not fail so you can be comfortable, Cathy; I will not lose because you can't win.'
- August 2012
"We broke the hare's neck And made that place, for a moment, The most important place there was," (from 'Interruption to a Journey' by Norman MacCaig)
A powerful and expressive piece of theatre, this performance explores those moments in life that make us stop and remember what is truly important. Devised from Verbatim-style research and Norman MacCaig's poem 'Interruption to a Journey' this play combines naturalism with physical theatre and music to create a haunting and beautiful tale.
- August 2012
Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club presents AS YOU LIKE IT by William Shakespeare
An ALL-MALE PRODUCTION of the timeless comedy, touring to the EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE 2012
“All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts…”
Performed with an all-male cast, as it would have originally been staged, this CUADC production of As You Like It will be a festival of ludicrous metatheatre. Join the inhabitants of a corrupt modern-day court as they are thrown into the idyllic wonderland of Arden…a rollercoaster theatrical experience, where everyone is in Elizabethan costume.
‘…fleet the time carelessly as they did in the golden world…’
Rosalind and Celia just want to find somewhere to charge their iPods (the former likes Beyonce, the latter…definitely Katie Melua), but they have to get into Globe-garb, and listen to the sonorous lilt of the Renaissance lute. As they wander deeper into the countryside, they fall further and further into the past and find themselves in a completely different theatre. Court wrestling becomes WWE, Rosalind and Celia have to shed their Louis Vuitton and get into corsets, and Orlando can’t get any signal on his Blackberry, so he’ll have to try his hand at tree-carving.
‘There's no clock in the forest…’
This is Shakespeare at its most inventive, most ridiculous and most playful. CUADC’s As You Like It is a modern rendering of the play, but will be (teasingly) faithful to the hilarious, heart-breaking and highly energetic performances of the original Elizabethan stage.
- June 2012
Following its run at the Corpus Playroom, Zombie Haiku was selected to be one of twenty shows performing at the International Student Drama Festival.
You are so lucky | That we cannot remember | How to use doorknobs.
An original adaptation of Ryan Mecum's book, Zombie Haiku follows one lone survivor's journey through ruined houses, decimated cities and abandoned airports as they contend with exploding petrol stations and reanimated work colleagues. Bringing the humour, emotion and darkness of the book to the stage, this production blends physical theatre, music and (of course) haiku for an entertaining exploration of what happens when the living clash with the undead.
The city is dead | Streets are filled with people | Who aren't quite people.
- May 2012
A master of language, cleverly accessible and humane, brilliantly calculated, David Ives is perhaps the funniest writer of short plays in America today. Struggling with love, problems of communication and defining their true self, his hilarious and tormented characters must deal both with the complexities of ordinary life and large metaphysical issues. Discover what happens when you can reset conversations with strangers, find out what is at the bottom of the black holes called ‘Philadelphias’ and realize how made up languages can solve social anxiety. The world of David Ives is enchanting, perplexing and very, very funny.
- May 2012
King Richard II’s uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, lies murdered. Unable to arbitrate between his cousin, Bolingbroke, and the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray – who each accuse the other of responsibility for the crime – King Richard resorts to exiling both. After Bolingbroke's father, John of Gaunt dies, Richard then seizes his exiled relation's rightful inheritance in order to finance a lascivious court and mismanaged foreign wars.
Discontent mounts, soon breaking into open rebellion
"Landlord of England art thou and not king"
Bolingbroke will claim his due. But what will be left for Richard if Bolingbroke takes the crown too?
"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me"
Drawing inspiration from the famous revival of the play at the Globe Theatre shortly before the Essex Rebellion in 1601, CUADC are proud to present Richard II – a mesmerising and enthralling beginning to Shakespeare’s History plays.
- March 2012
CUADC presents the 2012 Lent term two week musical: Footloose.
City boy Ren is forced to move from Chicago to the small southern town of Bomont, where he experiences a considerable culture shock.
A few years before, a tragic accident killed five teenagers causing local councilmen and the beloved Reverend Shaw Moore to place a ban on dancing and rock music. With his rebellious spirit and love for dance Ren challenges the status quo, attracting the attention of the minister’s troubled but beautiful daughter Ariel.
Will Ren succeed in bringing some life back to this repressed town?
With songs such as the title-track, “Holding Out for a Hero” and “Let’s Hear it for the Boy”, this show guarantees to have you dancing in the aisles and kicking off your Sunday shoes.
- February–March 2012
“Can’t act! Can’t act! Listen to the woman! You’re blonde, are you not? You have no education, have you? Can’t act! You underrate yourself, my dear!”
Pierrot and Columbine have been performing their scene for a long time. Pierrot is the sad clown, pining for the love of the clever serving wench Columbine. They sit at a long table decked out with a splendid banquet of plastic food and deliver their lines. Tonight, though, their little comic scene is interrupted. They are kicked off the stage, replaced by a pastoral scene starring two shepherds who can’t quite remember their lines. When the script moves towards an unpleasant climax, however, they can’t seem to stop acting it out.
Edna St. Vincent Millay, a bisexual, chain-smoking lyric poet, was the first female poet ever to win a Pulitzer Prize. First staged just after the end of the First World War, this unusual play, never before performed in Cambridge, conceals a searing appraisal of the human condition. It is “amusing, brutal, and brief.”
- February 2012
As the tide comes in, Antonius Block is playing chess with Death.
The Knight and his Squire Jons have returned from the Crusades to find their homeland ravished by plague, poverty and persecution. As they continue homewards, they meet the naive and talented performers, Jof and Mia, a deaf girl, and a young witch, shaved and tied up, ready for burning.
As the little company venture into the forest for the final leg of their journey, they stop to sleep, forgetting Death himself lingers in the shadows, breathing and waiting...
- February 2012
The Priory by Michael Wynne
Following her split from her boyfriend, Kate decides to invite a group of her closest friends to a renovated and supposedly haunted priory, for a New Year's Eve party. However, as the drinks and drugs start to flow, personal revelations begin to emerge leading to near tragedy and a fraught morning after...
- February 2012
Ava and Daniel lead separate lives in Liverpool. Both facing difficult decisions, for once they each find someone that listens.
Moments is the story of how a few chance encounters can impact on the rest of our lives. A play about the comfort of strangers, what we’re willing to share and what we keep to ourselves.
‘Do you really need to know someone to tell them your story?’
- February 2012
"It's like watching an accident on the highway - you can't look at it and you can't look away".
Michael is holding a party for Harold. Before the end of the night, the friendships and relationships of nine friends/lovers are tested to their extreme. With the shock and intensity of any Albee or Tennessee Williams play, Mart Crowley tells the story of a group of friends dealing (or not) with their demons. Boys in the Band portrays people in turmoil with startling naturalism and hilarity deftly juxtaposed with tragedy making both extremes the stronger.
- February 2012
A group of characters are on a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral. Whilst travelling they take it in turns to tell stories with the incentive of a free meal for the best tale. Some stories are somber, some comedic, and others just hilariously terrible! Added to this element are the tensions between the narrators in the group which, on occasion, result in exciting conflicts.
The Canterbury Tales are varied and fascinating, containing stories that range from morality and tragedy to farce. They will be presented in different forms from naturalistic to puppetry, physical theatre, musical theatre and mask work. We are looking for a cast that can multirole – playing everything from bawdy characters to traditional heroes/heroines and are focused and committed to producing an exciting and unusual show.
- January–February 2012
“It isn’t easy, starting a war, but nothing worthwhile is easy. And once you’re in, you’re hooked like a gambler, you can’t afford to walk away from the crapshoot once you’re deep into it”.
Mother Courage, formidable, vibrant, battleaxe of a woman, makes her living following armies up and down the country, peddling salvaged goods amidst a war torn wasteland. With her she brings her two sons and dumb daughter, dragging behind them their battered cart, both home and business in times of conveniently profit surging violence. Through them we meet a disarming world of brutality and charm, temperamental soldiers, braggart cooks and cowardly chaplains, as Courage continues in her unyielding venture, buying, selling, surviving; however great the cost. Matching the thrilling quality of its characters is a production of titanic proportions, bringing to you this Lent one of the most astonishing stage creations of the 20th century, a story that is utterly beautiful and utterly devastating.
“It’s too long since they had a war here . . . where’s their sense of morality to come from?
Don’t tell me peace has broken out again”
- November 2011
What would you do if you found a mysterious treasure map? Well that’s irrelevant. Treasure Island is the story of what young Jim Hawkins did. And what he did is very much the meat of this year’s ADC/Footlights Pantomime.
When a disgusting old sea captain leaves Jim a crusty old treasure map along with a whole heap of trouble, Jim sets off to unearth the legendary booty. Along with his bumbling friends and a love interest of sort, Jim sets sail.
But all is not well. The charming ship’s cook - a certain Long John Silver - is not all he seems, and there are whispers of mutiny.
Will Jim save the day? Only one way to find out! Join him as he swipes more swag and buckles more swash than any literary character to date (but not so much that it becomes repetitive).
The ADC/Footlights Pantomime is one of Cambridge’s theatrical highlights of the year, and brings together the finest comedians, actors and musicians in the University. Treasure ahoy!
- November 2011
From the twisted branches of the forest emerge some equally twisted storytellers. Taking charge of their cauldron of fairytales, they will conjure an unforgettable brew of gothic folklore and children’s nightmare. First there are the rogues: the black-hearted stepmother, the decaying beggar, and the charming old woman who will burn to death in her oven. There is a fantastical menagerie, teeming with flesh-mongering doves, the golden goose, and an amiable donkey, whose very bowel movements betoken good fortune. Then there are mysteries to be solved. Why are the locals sticking to each other and prancing through the hills? What use is a house fortified with gingerbread? And why does the golden slipper overflow with blood...?
Mingling the imagination of the Brothers Grimm with the dark humour of Carol Ann Duffy, this is one journey into the woods you certainly won’t forget
- November 2011
Defying the temptations of 17th-century France, the wealthy Orgon has devoted himself to his servant. That servant is a seemingly pious and moral man. But in reality, he is Tartuffe: trickster, swindler, master criminal and supreme disciple of Machiavelli. Slithering like a serpent, Tartuffe winds his way ever further into the aristocratic household. He leaves behind him an unparalleled trail of confusion and corruption: controlling master, seducing mistress, turning family member against family member – and even whipping the royal family into a frenzy.
In this lively new take on Moliere’s masterpiece, expect a multi-tiered wedding cake of comic abundance. It’s an enigma. It’s a romp. It’s Upstairs, Downstairs for the multiple King Louis generation. It’s the wildest house party known to man – and the invitation is entirely yours.
- November 2011
‘I am not a victim – oh no – That’s not a part I am willing to play – believe me.’
Amelia waits at home for her husband to return from war, with only her household help and detached son for company. When her patience and resilience are worn out, she resorts to increasingly desperate measures to bring her husband home, with no idea of how destructive her jealous and paranoid actions will prove to be.
Martin Crimp, ‘one of British theatre’s best-kept secrets’ (the Independent) reworks Sophocles’ Trachinae, blending Greek tragedy with modern dilemma. CUADC’s production promises to be an inventive and gripping telling of this story of desire, fear and self-deception.
- November 2011
When Dr Stockmann discovers the public baths are poisonous, he expects the people of his small Norwegian hometown to welcome him as a saviour. However, after the cost of the proposed improvements is made clear to the Mayor of the town, the pragmatic politician moves to manipulate both the press and public opinion against Dr Stockmann, his own brother.
‘You really are hell bent on our destruction, aren’t you?’
‘I love this town intensely. I’m wedded to it. Nobody wants to see their bride become syphilitic.’
Henrik Ibsen, widely hailed as ‘the Father of modern Drama’, tells a searing tale of honour, love and ambition. In a democracy, is 'the truth' ever more than what the the majority say it is? Is it worth pursuing at the expense of those one loves? Can the press be separated from power politics? Perhaps most pertinently, is Dr Stockmann’s discovery any more inconvenient than those that 21st century governments routinely suppress?
- October 2011
When Antigone defies orders from the state by burying her dead brother, she sets in motion a chain of events that rapidly spirals out of control. This ferociously charged play asks whether family bonds are stronger than civil ones, whether laws must always be enforced and if we truly have control over the decisions we take, testing the human limits of power and love. A new version by Richard Keith and Simon Haines; directed by Richard Keith.
Richard Keith trained and worked as a professional actor and director before coming to Cambridge, including performing at The Globe, the BAC, the Apollo Theatre, West End and directing at various London venues. He continues to teach at drama school and privately: whilst in London he was a member of the Young Vic Genesis Directors programme and The Royal Court Young Writers programme.
