- December 2024
Shrek is a third year Mathmo who lives alone in Girton swamp, paying no rent to college except his obligatory contribution. He also happens to be an ogre. When the evil Bursar Farquaad triples rent to pay for the new development, Shrek’s swamp is suddenly invaded by a horde of students looking for a place to stay away from college - along with a talking Squirrel, whose rent in one of the Girton trees has also been raised. Meanwhile, Bursar Farquaad is advised by the Junior Bursar on the Wall that he should marry someone rich to fund a lavish new Bursar’s Apartment in the new court. He chooses Fiona, a third year muso tripos topper who is locked in the U.L. tower by her DoS, a vicious dragon, who wants to ensure that she tops in final year. Shrek and Squirrel journey to Girton and agree to retrieve Fiona in return for the rent going back down, but it may not be as easy as it seems…
- June 2024
- March 2024
It’s the story of two bachelors, John ‘Jack’ Worthing and Algernon ‘Algy’ Moncrieff, who create alter egos named Ernest to escape their tiresome lives. They attempt to win the hearts of two women who, conveniently, claim to only love men called Ernest. The pair struggle to keep up with their own stories and become tangled in a tale of deception, disguise and misadventure. The elaborate plot ridicules Victorian sensibilities with some of the best loved, and indeed bizarre, characters to be found on the modern stage.
- November 2023
Wendy, John, and Michael are three Freshers at the college of St. John’s. Day in, day out, life is perfect there; nothing could possibly ever go wrong. Until one night, Wendy’s subconscious, dreamy desires of living at an out-of-town college begin to come true, as she starts to be visited by Peter PAMS. What she doesn’t realise is that this was the start of an adventure the three freshers would never forget...
Join Peter (Girton’s very own Protector of Allocated Money for Students (and no way in parallel to the JCR Treasurer)) as he takes the trio on a trip to GirtonLand to uncover the life led by those outside of the town centre. Along the way, we encounter 2 of St. John’s best chefs, the Lost Boys, Squirrabel, Hook the Bursar and the Junior Bursmee, as Wendy starts to question where she actually belongs in Cambridge, whether she’s truly at the right college, and what on earth is a ‘deep schlub’?
- October 2023
It’s the start of the new academic year. Students are moving in left, right and centre and the Freshers' Committee are really feeling the chaos. Gir’tons of Love follows what happens when two freshers very randomly and unexpectedly bump into each other in the corridor on their first day. Unbeknownst to them, they end up entangled in the plotting of the evil Mistress and Bursar - it’s classic GADS guys, come on! After making some friends, bumping into the Head Porter, and getting involved in some horrifically written song parodies, will they be able to save Freshers’ Week in time? Who knows! Our incredibly stressed out Freshers’ Week President really hopes so…
- June 2023
Join us in the beautiful Fellows' Gardens once again for GADS' annual Shakespeare production. Starring some familiar returning faces and debut stars, let the much-loved GADS crew take you on an adventure through Shakespeare's famous tragedy, Macbeth. Yet, as always with GADS, things don't always seem to go to quite exactly to plan, and the play seems to take an awfully wrong turn...
- March 2023
Welcome to Girton College Freshers play, the Hound of the Baskervilles. A production put on by only freshers from Girton but for everyone to enjoy.
In this comedic spoof production not all is what it seems. The entirely, totally, absolutely fictional hound out of local legend appears to not be the only suspiciously supernatural part of the performance... not with the recent death lingering in the air, or the strange goings-on within Old Hall.
Adapted from one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous works by Steven Canny and John Nicholson and co-directed and produced by Scarlett Morine and Lou Holden.
- November 2022
Girton Amateur Dramatic Society’s annual pantomime is back and better than ever.
Girtonian Nights is a fresh take on the story of Aladdin with our usual Girton twist.
Having lost her job for "tardiness and inappropriate use of social media" the former Mistress of Girton College is down on her luck but when her closest advisor tells her of a secret Health and Safety Manual that could be the key to her regaining power, she'll somehow become embroiled in Spring Ball Committee romance, Laundry Room shenanigans and whatever the hell is going on in the Bike Sheds...
- October 2022
From the mind of Zac Copeland-Greene, comes another attempt at “comedy” and “gripping Girton-based drama”, with a few musical parodies and all the old GADS tropes thrown in. Another year at Girton means another batch of Freshers ready to shake things up, but when the brand new Mistress fails to show up at the start of the new year our heroes find themselves tangled in a web of questions:
Where is this New Mistress? What is the College Bursar plotting? And why does one of the Freshers’ Reps keep hanging out with them acting like they’re friends? Expect puns, dancing and an epic (read ‘frantic’) lip-synced bike ride into town.
- October 2022
The Junior Bursar, Ms Maureen Hackett, was busy working in Stanley Library one night when she saw something in her papers that shook her to her core. She nipped to the loo and came back to take a sip of her Girton Gin and Tonic only to fall straight back down- she had been poisoned! Oh no! Freshers’ must embark on a journey of twists and turns around the college grounds, meet with witnesses and potential suspects to discover… WHO POISONED THE JUNIOR BURSAR? WHAT DID SHE FIND IN THE PAPERS? WHY DID THEY DO IT?
- June 2022
"Journeys end in lovers meeting”
Join us in the beautiful Fellows Gardens of Girton College on the 22nd June, where we follow twins Viola and Sebastian after they are separated in a shipwreck. As they both individually journey through Illyria, they meet some intriguing comical characters along the way, and in true Shakespearean style, fall deep into a confusing love triangle. Twelfth Night is a fantastic romantic-comedy for all that encompasses mistaken identities, drunken uncles, and yellow stockings- what more could you possibly want?
You don't want to miss this hilariously funny take on Twelfth Night, complete with live musicians, and a lot of audience participation!
- March 2022
Talented but rough-edged British schoolboys have their worlds changed forever when two teachers with opposing viewpoints on education engage in a battle to get them into Oxford and Cambridge. Set in a Sheffield Grammar School in the 1980s, the show also grapples with the complexities of class, sexuality, gender, and coming-of-age.
- March 2022
It's 1972. An era of possibility and polyester and pubic hair. While Ziggy Stardust is on Top of the Pops, Penny is writing an essay on Lady Chatterley's Lover, Christine is watching Deep Throat and Brian is confused.
Devised by The Wardrobe Ensemble, 1972: The Future of Sex incorporates the company's trademark theatricality, irreverent humour and ensemble ingenuity to tell the story of three couples having sex for the first time – and a country on the brink of a sexual awakening.
- November 2021
The GADS Christmas Panto is back in traditional Girton fashion!
‘Max in Top Boots’ is a brand new, student-written take on Puss in Boots, featuring musical parodies. Watch as undergraduate Colin attempts to woo the Senior Tutor's daughter with the Mistress' cat as his wingman while somehow getting caught up in a plot to save the Spring Ball. Hilarity, dancing, foiled evil genius, and wholesome Girton chaos of course ensue.
- October 2021
By Girton for Girton. GADS once again presents its Freshers Week Musical, here to entertain and confuse a new cohort of freshers!
‘GirTrapped!’ is a brand new, student-written comedy about a Girton Freshers’ Week from hell, featuring musical parodies. The play follows freshers Alex, Charlie and Sam arriving at Girton only to discover they are trapped in the college! Hilarity, dancing, foiled evil genius, and wholesome Girton chaos of course ensue.
- July 2021
“Love is familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love.”
After vowing to avoid women, the King and three of his friends have to host a princess and her three ladies. The four men fall in love and decide to court the women. In the end, the women must return to their kingdom for a year after which they will marry the king and his friends, providing they remain true to them.
TL;DR: Four men forswear women right before four women arrive to meet them; the men change their minds.
- December 2019
The GADS Bridgemas Pantomime about the incredibly true history of Emily Davies and the founding of Girton College! Featuring Max the college cat, the evil Master of Trinity College and the Girton Co-op.
- October 2019
It’s dangerous being a fresher. Welcome to Girton, a college populated by fiendish bureaucrats, feisty cats and some rule breaking initiative taking freshers. They become disorientated on arrival when they mistake the bureaucratic, spirit-draining, 5-minute chore that is Matriculation for "The Hunt": an ancient, fiendish set of silly tasks to welcome the freshers. What was supposed to be a simple show up, sign in, shuttle out ceremony becomes a high-stakes clutch of life-defining challenges. They firmly believe that if they don't find the right booze, books and cat-photos they won't enrol in the college or receive a penny of their allowances. By the time the night ends will they finish the tasks in time? Or be left struggling without their student loans, and with their amassed debts from phone game add-ons.
- June 2019
On a Midsummer’s night, four young lovers find themselves wrapped in the dream-like arms of an enchanted forest where sprites lurk and fairies rule. While a feuding Fairy King and Queen are at war, their paths are crossed by Bottom, Quince and their friends presenting a play within a play. Chief mischief-maker Puck is on-hand to ensure that the course of true love is anything but smooth, and games of fantasy, love and dreams ensue in Shakespeare’s most beguiling comedy.
- May 2019
The GADS Freshers' Play team is happy to present 'Black Comedy'!
Set in a South Kensington flat, it follows artist Brindsley Miller and his fiancée Carol as they prepare for a very important night. Carol's boisterous father Colonel Melkett is paying a visit, as is the elderly German art collector Georg Bamberger, and Brindsley is desperate to impress the both of them. He thinks he's ready for the night ahead… right until the power cut. As the building plunges into darkness, all manner of uninvited and unwanted guests converge on Brindsley’s home - can he keep them entertained until the fuse is fixed?
Tickets @ https://gads.tessera.events/tickets/black-comedy
- November 2018
Pinocchio is coming to Girton.
Girton appoints an Academic Strategic Supervisor, Valerio, whose ambition is to get the college to the top of the college rankings. As Valerio is struggling to reform the college, an international student called Pinocchio is making a name for himself. Spying the boy: half human, half puppet, the Valerio plans the production of puppet-pupils that only know how to do chores and get firsts in their exams. But before this, he needs to identify what makes Pinocchio work?
- October 2018
It’s dangerous being a fresher. Welcome to Girton, a college populated by fiendish bureaucrats, feisty cats and some rule breaking initiative taking freshers. They become disorientated on arrival when they mistake the bureaucratic, spirit-draining, 5-minute chore that is Matriculation for "The Hunt": an ancient, fiendish set of silly tasks to welcome the freshers. What was supposed to be a simple show up, sign in, shuttle out ceremony becomes a high-stakes clutch of life-defining challenges. They firmly believe that if they don't find the right booze, books and cat-photos they won't enrol in the college or receive a penny of their allowances. By the time the night ends will they finish the tasks in time? Or be left struggling without their student loans, and with their amassed debts from phone game add-ons.
- August 2018
The experimental multimedia sketch show for the ‘fake news’ era is back.
Set in a world where all comedic speech is banned, the performers start an illicit underground club where they must use physicality, projections, sound and the audience themselves to make you laugh.
Coming to the Fringe fresh from runs in Cambridge, Durham and London, this criminally good devised show with glowing reviews is about the importance of communication, the dangers of censorship and the universal appeal of comedy. Relaxed performances available.
- May 2018
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the admission of women to degrees at the University of Cambridge, GADS will be putting on dramatised readings of select scenes from Blue Stockings.
Girton College, 1896. Women study alongside men, but when they graduate are not awarded degrees - and are instead labelled as unnatural, unmairrageble, educated women. However, the move towards change has begun, and over the course of the academic year four young women fight for the right to graduate with degrees.
- April 2018
"Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is elephant" - Charlie Chaplin
After a dictatorial decree, all comic speech has been banned and comedians branded in an attempt to secure power. In a ramshackle theatre, a group of intrepid performers stage a new rebellion: using their physicality, subtitles, projections, sound effects, overdub, recorded lines, audio description and the audience themselves to create laughter. Speechless is a devised comedy sketch show about the importance of communication, the dangers of censorship and the universal appeal of comedy.
Narrowly escaping the police after their Cambridge run, the rebel comedians take to the nation's capital for one night only.
- March 2018
The Girton Smoker is back, and this time it's actually gonna happen!
Tick visiting Girton off your bucket list and join us for the best student comedy night in the South Cambridgeshire constituency. Plus its in the Stanley Library, which is really neat.
Performers to be announced soon!
- January 2018
"Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is elephant" - Charlie Chaplin
After a dictatorial decree, all comic speech has been banned and comedians branded in an attempt to secure power. In a ramshackle theatre, a group of intrepid performers stage a new rebellion: using their physicality, subtitles, projections, sound effects, overdub, recorded lines, audio description and the audience themselves to create laughter.
Speechless is a devised comedy sketch show about the importance of communication, the dangers of censorship and the universal appeal of comedy. It focuses on multimedia and is the first Cambridge comedy show to be BSL interpreted.
In association with the Relaxed Theatre Company.
- November 2017
The GADS Bridgemas Pantomime about the incredibly true history of Emily Davies and the founding of Girton College! Featuring Buster the college cat, the evil Master of Trinity College and the Girton Co-op
- November 2017
We're back! After a smash sell-out Fresher's Week Smoker, Pembroke Players have teamed up with GADS for a fantastic collab night of comedy and sticky-floors. Featuring a hot-to-trot line-up with some of the best comedians Cambridge has to offer, this is one you won't want to miss!
As always, wine will be provided ~~
Ticket link below:
Students: £6, Concessions: £4 (Girton students eligible for this discount).
- October 2017
Girton: The Musical tells the tale of a rag-tag group of students as they face the trials and tribulations of starting life in the far-flung frontier of Girton College. Featuring hit songs such as 'I'm Ditching You', 'The Lesbians of Newnham' and the classic 'We are Girton', Girton: The Musical is not a show to be missed
- August 2017
Four old school friends – Ella, Cathie, Robyn and Sal – reunite at a bar to reminisce about the good old days. However, Philippa, the fifth member of the group, is noticeably absent; upon discovering her old diary, she decides to do some reminiscing of her own. Over the course of the evening, we rediscover the group’s school days and watch as their friendships become increasingly fractured, as arguments over schoolwork, the pressure to fit in and their complicated love lives tear apart even the closest of friendships. As these arguments work their way into the present day, we are left to wonder – do people ever really change?
A brand new musical about memories, heartbreak, and, above all, friendship.
- November 2016
Are you an Arts Student? Or a Scientist?
In distant Girton, a bitter feud between the subjects set in motion by the dastardly DoSes Dr Artsmith and Professor Scimo rages on, tearing would-be friends apart and fracturing the heart of Girton into pieces
That is, until a chance meeting of an Arts Student named Romeo and a Scientist named Juliet ignites a love that could begin to end the subject war...
Joined by Nursie, Benjamin Volio and Mike Utio, come with our heroes as they quest to pass their degrees, maintain a stable social life and to save their true love!
The Girton Pantomime 2016 promises to have you dancing in your seat, or at the very least still happily humming the songs as you leave the Old Hall
This Christmas, Come join us in distant Girton, where we lay our scene...
- October 2016
A raucous tale of a misfit bunch who come to the hallowed halls of Girton, and the trials and tribulations they face on the way. Girton: The Musical features such hit songs as "I'm Ditching You", "The Lesbians of Newnham", and the seminal classic "We Are Girton".
- November 2015
- November 2015
Fancy a barrel of laughs, but haven’t invested in a respectable keg yet? Always wanted to make noise in a library? Tired of all these rhetorical questions?
Me Laugh You Long Time is an original sketch show, developed by some of Girton, and the wider university’s, top up and coming comedic talent. Forget all about the stress and horror that is your Cambridge existence, and come and enjoy an evening of side-splitting entertainment.
- November 2015
Cinderella with less pumpkin, more picketing? The classic tale of Ali Baba told with one more X chromosome? The greed, ignorance and vanity of The Red Shoes translated into dance? They’re all destinations on the journey and you are invited.
Yearwalk brings to life the stories you thought you knew in a setting you could only dream of. Traditional folklore and fables are reinvigorated with music and dance, puppetry and shadows, magic and spectacle. The often vague and mysterious nature of story-telling is explored as ancient stories from around the world are brought to stage after being passed down the generations. The atmosphere will entrance you as we embrace the history and mystery of different cultures…
