- November 2003
"Shall I tell you what you heard just now? Nothing in the world but your own terrors calling"
Locked in a cellar during the Red Terror in St Petersburg, 5 British people are held captive, unsure of their future. After 6 weeks as the strain is starting to show, each individual responds to the pressure in different ways: one focuses on maintaining her beautiful image, another resorts to British stiff upper lip, a third survives through exaggerated concern for others. Into this situation steps a small man, Derry Moore, "the Irish Hans
Andersen", who has been mistakenly captured in place of his
counter-revolutionary brother. Derry relieves the tension by helping the captives to get lost in a tale of leprechauns and wonderful colours - the fairy tale of the title.
- November 2003
- October–November 2003
Set in 18th century Venice, A Servant To Two Masters is a classic tale of love, honour, sun-dried tomatoes, and Truffaldino- a servant trying his best to earn an extra lira. Underpaid and over-stretched, Truffaldino scurries through mishap after mishap as he performs chores for two unwitting masters: Florindo, and his lover, Beatrice, in disguise as her dead brother. As excuses for his mistakes become more fanciful, chaos ensues - mistaken identities, betrothals, duels, near-suicide and a fabulous feast twice-enjoyed occur, before Truffaldino is finally found out. With its colourful array of comic characters, Carlo Goldini´s farce, given a new lease of life by Lee Hall´s recent adaptation, mixes historical Italy and classic 18th century commedia with cockney cheek.
- April–May 2003
- March 2003
Controlled mayhem.
- November 2002
- November 2002
- October–November 2002
- March 2002
- October 2000
'Road' represented the theatrical debut of Jim Cartwright, described by The Sunday Telegraph as “a writer of outstanding talent”. It won the Samuel Beckett Award in 1986, and launched his reputation as one of the country's most eloquent, radical playwrights. His string of subsequent successes culminated in the 1998 filming of his play 'Little Voice', starring Jane Horrocks, who had also taken a leading role in the original production of 'Road'.
One of the most striking of the 1980's state of the nation dramas, 'Road' casts an unsparing mirror on an industrial town ravaged by the economic policies of Margaret Thatcher. The works of Jim Cartwright have never been performed in Cambridge before. Pembroke Players' 'Road' is a timely recognition of his genius.
- November 1999
"The Wave" is based on a true incident that occurred in the Palto High School, California, in 1969. A history teacher, Ron Jones, tried to inspire his disaffected students by conducting an 'experiment in discipline' - reproducing the mentality behind the Hitler Youth movement.
The result, according to Jones, was "one of the most frightening events I have ever experienced in the classroom". No one talked about what happened for 3 years.
It was in 1981 that, under the pseudonym 'Morton Rhue', Jones wrote "The Wave". A minor classic, particularly in Germany, it seeks to get to grips with the psychology behind Nazism, and has sold 1.5 million copies world-wide. It has been made into a play in 16 different countries.
Jack Thorne's new adaptation of The Wave has been described by Ron Jones as 'a wonderful and important play'. It aims to reveal how the pressures towards conformity thrown up within the classroom can create the conditions necessary for a cult born out of adolescent despair. In a year in which members of a secret group of 'outsiders' - the Trenchcoat Mafia - shot dead 24 of their classmates in a Colorado school, the enduring relevance of the message cannot be doubted.
