- February 2017
‘Unravelling the Ribbon’ is a light-hearted, touching play about three Irish women whose lives are changed by breast cancer. The characters interact, separate and come together in a moving tale of love and survival.
Rose is thirty-four, living on a farm in Tipperary with her husband and two children. She discovers a lump in her breast, which is found to be cancerous. Her relationship with her husband deteriorates. Her daughter Lyndsey is eleven, both obsessed with and terrified of her primary school ‘friends.’ She is self-absorbed, an innocent (and sometimes unbearable) detraction from the emotional experience of her mother: ‘did anyone even bother to ask how I felt about having a bald mother? No.’ Alongside them is Lola, she is in her fifties, living lonely in Dublin. She had cancer five-years ago and struggled with her diagnosis and treatment, pushing her husband, who has since died, away.
When Lola meets Lyndsey, and is then introduced to Rose, they form intense, life-changing bonds.
- February 2017
The Lady Smoker is back, this time as a termly fixture at the ADC Theatre! Join a stellar line-up of female and non-binary comedians for a night of side-splitting laughter.
- February 2017
‘It took their lives for them to help us.’
In 2006 Steve Wright, of 79 London Road, was convicted of the murders of Tania Nichol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholls. The deaths of these five sex workers shook the quiet rural town of Ipswich to its core.
London Road documents the experiences of the residents as the police and the media flocked to their front doors, grappling with what it means to be at the epicentre of a tragedy.
Real words from real events set to an innovative musical score, London Road is a gripping verbatim musical that tells the story of a community rising from the depths of trauma.
Nominated for 4 Olivier Awards, winner of Best Musical at the Critic’s Circle Theatre Awards and adapted into a film starring Olivia Colman and Tom Hardy, London Road is a groundbreaking piece of experimental musical theatre.
- February 2017
“I can make… impossible things happen”
Jude Beringer thinks she’s going mad. Then she meets Leon, a young card magician who can make people disappear. What follows is a wildly entertaining journey through the minds of two young people surviving against the odds in the big bad city.
A Sudden Burst of Blinding Light is at once a delirious game-show, a witty and inventive exploration of mental illness, and a powerfully compassionate play about family, friendship and illusion.
- February 2017
Gemma, out of the blue, has stopped speaking, with her friends, family and lovers clueless as to the cause.
Over the course of an hour, we see them struggling to cope with her silence, as relationships unravel and they reveal far more about themselves than they initially intended to.
Oscar-winning Anthony Minghella’s play is an acerbic commentary on how, to quote Oscar Wilde, we live “in a time which knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.” In our age of immediate and constant communication, how would we react to sudden and inexplicable silence?
- January–February 2017
"During the eight years of our mourning, not even the wind from the street shall enter this house!"
Andalusia, 1936.
In the wake of her husband's death, tyrannical matriarch Bernarda imposes eight years of mourning upon her five adult daughters: for eight years, they are not to leave the family home.
But Bernarda's blinkered puritanism cannot account for the desires of her daughters, and soon unrest begins to swell in the house as each seeks to assert a sense of self and their own place in the world.
Interpreted by an entirely female cast, this is a tale of generations at odds with one another, of the assertion of identity above conformity and of the drive to be human.
Often grouped together with The Blood Wedding and Yerma as a “rural trilogy”, The House of Bernarda Alba is Garcia Lorca’s final and greatest work. He was shot by the fascist authorities of Granada two months after it was completed.
- January 2017
Open the oven door to the ADC and fill up on the aromatic comedy delights of our new sketch show, Bread.
- January 2017
“Ladies and Gentlemen may I have your attention purrrrlease...
Introducing, Dragtime! An evening of eargasmic drag delights where the beards are beautiful, the broads are busty, and binaries are busted!
Don your cap, grab your heels - it's smart, it's sexy, it’s coming back from the future into your present... it's Dragtime!”
In 2017, a motley assortment of drag kings and queens were frozen in time in a forgotten drag bar. Thirty years later, an unsuspecting teen stumbles upon them, and the troupe creaks back into life to give the future a blast from the past.
Expect a time-bending cabaret like no other, featuring spectacular musical numbers, side-splitting character comedy, breath-taking lipsyncs and all manner of surprising delights for your pleasure and enjoyment.
Fasten your seatbelts and get ready to be taken at breakneck speed through the crazy, spectactular, gender-warping world of drag.
- January 2017
Don’t miss the ADC’s biggest dance show of the year, as the CU Dance Society returns to the stage for their annual variety dance show! Come and explore our enchanting library of dance, as some of Cambridge’s most talented dancers perform brand new choreography inspired by literature. From ballet to bollywood, folk to flamenco and tap to tango, this is a performance with something for everyone.
Praise for previous shows:
“Dancers from different nationalities, ages and styles showcase their skill with one thing in common: talent.” TCS, 2016
“Vibrant, eye-catching and enthusiastically performed” – Varsity, 2015
“Original and innovative choreography” – TCS, 2014
- January 2017
'I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.' Frida Kahlo.
write
comedy monologues
?
A one-night stand of newly written comedy monologues.
Character comedy, songs, dances, short stories, stand-up and more!
~~// for information about how to get involved as a writer and performer email Sarah and Eve on sjc282@cam.ac.uk and ed466@cam.ac.uk \~~
- January 2017
The finest of Cambridge's musical theatre talent join forces to create an original musical... in just 24 hours! Creative teams are given a theme for a musical, and each team write, compose and rehearse a song over the 24 hour period. The result is an eclectic and brand-spanking new show, and a spectacular celebration of new writing!
- January 2017
Comely boys with baggage. A household in stasis. Millennial mischief running riot in an orgy of sound and colour.
Sort of.
From the millenial writers of the Footlights Pantomime 2014: Emperor's New Clothes, Footlights Spring Revue 2015: A Whole Lot of Bother and Footlights International Tourshow 2015: Love Handles, comes Mothers, a sketch show from 3 millenial sketch performers.
Winners of the London Sketchfest Audience Choice Award, millenial sketch triangle Two Plus Ones bring you 'Mothers', their comedy debut from the Edinburgh Fringe, for one millenial night only.
That's about it to be honest, bring your friends and have a 2017 laugh at a 2016 show that leaves a kind of spicy 2006 aftertaste.
Broadway Baby: "Nothing short of hilarious"
LondonTheatre1: "The boys didn't disappoint"
Shortcom: "Seem to wear their millenial status as a badge of honour"
- January 2017
Fresh from a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, Britney is the true story of what happens to two best friends when one of them gets a brain tumour. It's told by a host of characters, including a stuffed dog, the population of a small Welsh town, Rubeus Hagrid, a pair of Hollywood Producers, the two best friends in question, and some bubble wrap.
Hilarious, poignant and touching, this show is an uplifting reminder that laughter is sometimes the best medicine.*
The debut show from ex-Cambridge Footlight Ellen Robertson (CUADC/Footlights Pantomime 2014: The Emperor's New Clothes, 2015 Footlights Spring Revue) and prize-winning playwright Charly Clive, Britney is a sketch-style-cum-cabaret-cum-play-cum-comedy-cum-one-cum-all-cum-to-the-show.
Ultimately the best medicine is the operation and please, if you have a brain tumour, seek urgent medical attention.
‘I have never been so moved by a Fringe performance before. Britney touched me in ways no comedy show has.’ – Edin Blogger ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
‘Witty, lively and often heartwarming, Britney is a hilarious and hugely watchable production.’ – Broadway Baby ★ ★ ★ ★
- January 2017
A new stand-up hour from the man who brought you Ken Cheng: Chinese Comedian.
- January 2017
The Cambridge University European Theatre Group is a self-sufficient, entirely student-run theatrical company, which tours a Shakespeare play around Europe for two and a half weeks every December (and has been doing so for over 50 years now!). It is an ambitious coach-bound operation; a company of 25 or so tour with professional lighting and sound equipment, costumes and an experimental set, enabling us to put on a show absolutely anywhere.
Over time, ETG has developed a reputation at home and abroad for producing exciting, innovative, experimental and professional interpretations of classic texts, attracting the most ambitious actors, technicians and creative forces from within the university. We provide successive generations of company members and audiences with challenging experiences completely unimaginable elsewhere in British (let alone student) theatre.
- December 2016
- December 2016
- December 2016
The CU Show Choir presents a night of the world’s greatest Divas!
Featuring the classics such as Madonna and Whitney, to the modern Beyoncé and Jessie J, to the slightly less conventional Chris Martin and Freddie Mercury. Expect incredible harmonies, cheesy dance moves and fit mashups as the CU show choir show off our brand new line up and take over the ADC for one night only!
- November–December 2016
It is 1725 and, in the convent of Saint Simeon, another sinner has arrived to repent. Little does this young lady expect to become the audience to one of the most scandalous stories eighteenth century England has to offer.
Based on Eliza Haywood’s novella ‘Fantomina’, Love in a Maze sees one woman’s struggle to capture the heart of a man who gets bored as soon as they have slept together. Fantomina is forced to don increasingly outlandish disguises in order to secure herself just one more night. With the help of a sarcastic vicar, beleaguered innkeeper and a handful of unconventional nuns, both of our heroines will learn that debauchery is really rather fun, and that perhaps happy endings can be reached without the need for wedding bells.
Love in a Maze is the farcical tale of one woman's pursuit of love and sex. But mostly just the sex.
- November 2016
It's bigger, better, and on the main stage!
Since 2014, the Newnham Smoker has encouraged women and non-binary people into stand-up in Cambridge. In the two years it’s been running, it’s become one of the friendliest springboards into performance in Cambridge. Our philosophy is never to let our comedy punch down. We have over eight of the finest acts from around Cambridge University and the town to entertain you. You're invited to sit the hell down, let it go and listen to some of the finest new voices in town.
- November 2016
Teams of writers, directors and actors must write, rehearse and put on plays on a theme in the space of just 24 hours. This is theatrical collaboration on a scale not seen anywhere else, pushing the whole team to the limit and creating unforgettable performances.
- November 2016
The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler: a series of pieces about individuals' relationships with their vaginas. Each is written with fire and beauty. This genuine, open, honest exploration of people's relationships with their bodies and sexuality is profoundly moving in its simplicity. These personal stories form a powerful political message, giving voice to a silenced but essential discussion.
- November 2016
Welcome to the sleepy alpine village of Alpenberg; there’s beer, snow, semi-constructed gold castles, and the Christmas tree market is in full swing.
But when a careless offhand comment by the local landlord gets his daughter into trouble, it sparks a chain of events that resurrects Alpenberg’s darkest secret.
Meet our heroine Frieda, our lumberjacking Dame, and mad King Bruno for a snow-capped, gold-plated, schnitzel-covered tale of revenge, greed and love.
Cambridge’s finest offering of comedians, actors, technicians and musical talents present this year’s CUADC/Footlights Pantomime 2016: Rumpelstiltskin.
Come down to the ADC this Christmas and join us for a bit of rumpy pumpy.
- November 2016
Seven friends in their twilight years share a vast bed. Through an exhilarating sequence of abstracted monologues, expressive movement and spectacle, they dream, remember and reflect together on a long past. Acclaimed at the Royal National Theatre, Jim Cartwright’s Bed is a surreal exploration of life and dreams, of old age and death, an “odd, harrowing and hilarious piece, entirely without sentimentality, sturdy but moving”.
- November 2016
The comedy sketch show is a genre that has grown incredibly popular in Cambridge over time as we all love to see our favourite student comedians combine to act out the absurd and the hilarious for our entertainment. However, with such a diverse field of talent we're always left asking for more...
So, for the first time, more is exactly what you're going to get. Under the frantic time limit of 23 hours, 30 of the finest student comedians in Cambridge will group together to produce not just one but FIVE sketch shows for your entertainment. Stand-up and song, improvisation and mime, come and see comedians of all genres combine to produce and perform jokes fresh from a frantic day of writing.
30 comedians, 23 hours and at the end of it all 60 minutes of brand-spanking-new comedy sketch show for you all to enjoy.
Sound like something you want to miss?
I think not.
- November 2016
Everyone creates their own coping strategies or rules for living. But what happens when an extended family gathers in the kitchen for a traditional Christmas and they each follow those rules, rigidly?
In Sam Holcroft's theatrically playful dark comedy a family does just that. And when the instructions are there for all to see, audience included, there's really no place to hide. As long-held mechanisms for survival are laid bare, even Mum, who's been preparing this lunch since last January, becomes embroiled. Long-held rivalries and resentments will out.
Accusations fly, relationships deconstruct, the rules take over.
- November 2016
“Comedy Weekly” is Britain’s best loved televised topical panel show, but now it’s coming to an end. It's one hour before the final live performance, and all that needs to happen is for the panellists to arrive, know what they’re doing, and stay alive for the duration of the show. Except that’s harder than it might be when they are chronically disorganised and forgetful, mostly hate each other, and in one case are Britain’s rather controversial retiring Prime Minister. Still, at least they’ve got a spare panellist in reserve.
"Comedy Weakly" is a new comedy by Colin Rothwell, who wrote "Politics!" ('A happy combination of slapstick and wordplay' - Varsity), co-wrote "Spilt Milk" ('An evening of hi-jinks and absurdity' - Varsity), and learnt from the experience.
- November 2016
“Revenge for the Duchess of Malfi, murdered,
For lovely Julia, and for myself,
That was an actor in the main of all…”
In the court of Malfi, the jealous, incestuous obsession of one man sets into motion a series of events that will end in tragedy and redemption…
There will be sheets, soot, shadows, blinking red lights, and those shoes...
That pair of hanging shoes.
- November 2016
“We’re not dorks. I think Herbert could quite comfortably be classified as a dweeb, however. And I’m more of a posh effete.”
After getting kicked out of Cambridge for spending too much time writing student comedy, best friends Piers and Herbert must learn to function in the real world. Join them as they embark on an outrageous and farcical romp outside of the Cambridge bubble!
Watch in amazement as they enrol at a university that isn’t even in the Russell Group, fall in love (not with each other), get on the wrong side of a crazed drug lord, join the wakeboarding society and drink beer for the first time. But things go awry when dark forces cause the pair to grow further apart; can their friendship survive the ultimate test? Will their old college tutor stop stalking them? And what on earth does the janitor know that they don't?
Dropouts! is a new fish-out-of-water comedy from the people who brought you Judge Judy’s Buzz World (Footlights Harry Porter Prize Winner 2016), Quinoa: A Middle-Class Sketch Show, Quinoa II: No Pain No Grain, The Country Wife, Tristram Shandy: Live At Scotland!, Comedy 4 Calais, Kenneth Watton's Bedtime Chat Show 3: The Benign Comedy, Crow, Tristram Shandy 2: A Sentimental Journey, Rubber, Tate Postmodern, Picasso Stole the Mona, the sold-out Fresher's Week Smoker and numerous other college and Footlights smokers.
Past praise for the team;
“quickly had the room in stitches” (Varsity) ★★★★ ½
"vastly enjoyable" (The Tab) ★★★★
"gems of sarcastic satire" (TCS)
"kept the audience engaged and with a laugh on their lips throughout" (Varsity)
Darkchat Edinburgh Fringe Awards 2016- Best Comedy Performance- NOMINATED
- November 2016
Cambridge Footlights Haydn Jenkins, Mark Bittlestone, Ruby Keane and Luisa Callander present a brand new sketch show where two established double acts (vowels) combine to create…. DIPHTHONG. If you have ever seen the word Diphthong, or heard the word Diphthong, or even if you have never seen it or heard it, you are guaranteed to enjoy this hour of comedy from these experienced chuckle monsters.
- November 2016
Down on Skid Row, where everything is drag and dreary, Seymour toils away in Mr. Mushnik’s flower shop, dreaming of one day achieving greatness, as he pines away for the sweet shop assistant, Audrey. Through mysterious circumstances, he comes upon a unique plant. Little does he know that this strange and unusual plant will develop a soulful R&B voice, a potty mouth, and an unquenchable thirst for human blood- all the while giving him all he’s dreamed of: a chance at fame and fortune, and a plan to win the heart of Audrey. To what lengths will Seymour go to satisfy his own thirst for success, and the plant’s thirst for blood?
- October 2016
Bohemian Lights, a comedy about darkness and enlightenment.
Max is a blind poet, an authentic bohemian, and he is also going to die in less than 24 hours. Bohemian Lights is the tale of his last adventure through the streets of Madrid. Come and experience the world reflected into an esperpento mirror.
- October 2016
“Show Political Restraint”
We invite you to come and traverse the turbulent history of early twentieth-century China in the first ever English performance of China's most famous play.
Teahouse is the revolutionary tale of the Chinese revolution: the fall of a dynasty, the establishment of the republic, and bloody civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists.
Follow history as told from within the iconic Beijing 'Yu Tai' teahouse between 1898 and 1948 as it struggles to survive in turbulent times. In its lifetime China transforms: it is a dying Qing empire overrun by foreign aggressors and rampant with human trafficking; a republic devastated by anarchy; a state saturated with oppression and corruption.
Is the hope of a new tomorrow real, or is it only an illusion crushed again and again under the wheels of history? Teahouse showcases Lao She's brilliant social and cultural commentary through a three dimensional depiction of the common and the grotesque, an international classic that remains eerily relevant today.
- October 2016
THE HOME OF WITTY BANTER IS BACK!
Join two teams of assorted comedians as they play an eclectic mix of games from your favourite panel shows, including ‘Would I Lie to You?’, ‘Whose Line is it Anyway?’ and ‘Just a Minute.’
Completely improvised, there will be different audience suggestions, games, and even different mixture of panellists every night.
This isn’t just another repeat on Dave.
Will anyone actually have some news for you? Where are the missing 2 out of 10 cats? Why buzzcock? All these questions and more might be answered in Cambridge’s semi-fresh alternative comedy night.
PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS SHOW:
‘With a completely brilliant host and excellent panelists, this show (...) more than takes its place alongside its televisual cousins.’ - TCS **
‘the quality of their improv beat out a good deal of scripted comedy (...) a great way to appreciate how genuinely talented Cambridge’s student comedians are’ - THE TAB ***
- October 2016
'If I woke you up because I wanted you to read something, you definitely wouldn't like it. You’d tell me to fuck off.'
The break-up has been a long time coming. It’s planned, clean, mutual, and unavoidable – but not easy. Of course it’s not easy.
https://vimeo.com/189320600
- October 2016
Following the success of last term’s Cambridge Shorts, the ADC’s first ever film screening event is back!
A selection of the best student short films will be screened in one unforgettable night, hosted by Joe Shalom, as part of a unique collaboration with the Cambridge Film Association.
A great way to experience more of the rapidly expanding film scene in Cambridge.
