- February 2022
- February 2022
Loosely based on Puccini’s opera La Bohème, RENT is a Putlizer Prize and four-time Tony Award musical that follows a year in the life of a group of struggling young artists living in Manhattan’s East Village. Mark, an aspiring filmmaker, struggles to find his place in the world; his roommate Roger, an HIV-positive musician, wonders how he will leave his mark before he dies. Mimi and Angel look for true love as they face the harsh reality of life when HIV-positive, while the lawyer Joanne seeks loyalty from her flirtatious performance artist girlfriend Maureen. The group’s dreams, losses, and love stories weave through the musical’s narration to paint a stunningly raw and heart-breaking portrait of the gritty bohemian world of New York City in the late 1980s, under the shadow of HIV/AIDS.
- February 2022
Marx, Jesus and Mufasa walk into a bar… Who wouldn’t wanna know what happens next!
In Heaven and Hell, we ask the red-hot pokery questions which the establishment doesn't want you to think about… What happens when Heaven gets bought out by Facebook? Should Judge Rinder win Hell’s employee of the month? And for Christsake (get it?), does Batman need to go on a mindfulness course?
We've risked our spiritual salvation to make you heathens giggle, so please come and make our punishment worth it. You’ll be bellyaching all through this rip-roaring hour of sketch banter. Heaven and Hell is transsubstantially the spiciest thing since Beelzebub’s butter chicken special. Be there or burn in Hell.
- February 2022
When Doctor Stockmann discovers that the water in the Municipal Baths of his small Norwegian hometown is poisoned, he immediately takes action to make the information public and warn the town’s citizens. As soon as the town’s Mayor, the Doctor’s elder sibling, gets a hold of this information he attempts to dissuade him and undermine his efforts, knowing that the local economy and social well-being of the community depend on the spa. In the crisis that ensues, public opinion turns against Dr Stockmann as both him and his family lose their social and economic standing in the community.
‘Dr Stockmann: I propose to raise a revolution against a lie that the majority has the monopoly of the truth. What sort of truths are they that the majority usually supports/'
Henrik Ibsen, widely held as the ‘Father of Modern Drama’, tells an emotionally poignant tale of the possibilities and limitations of integrity, love, and honour. Does democracy have the power to destroy ‘the truth’ when public opinion can be easily mobilised against it? And if it does, can we still call it a democracy? Does ‘the truth’ have the power to destroy a local community, or family? And if it does, should it?
- January 2022
Eidolon is the Ancient Greek word for ghost, dream, or vision, and the play is meant to be a dream-like fairytale or folk-story, making use of familiar, yet unsettling, archetypes, and playing with the border between fiction and reality. The story follows Sasha, a nonbinary immortal jester who interacts with the audience and also functions as the play's narrator, Þjórsá, the play's main character, a very confused and reluctant hero, and Penelope, a prophetess who's come to rescue her old love, on a journey through the dark woods, along which they meet ravens, monsters and old gods.
- January 2022
A sketch show which will be dark and satirical in bent, concerning itself with FOOD! How do we consume it? Market it? How do we perceive/judge others who eat/don't eat certain foods? Gets to the heart of people, no? COMEDY!
- January 2022
- January 2022
An Unsustainable Mess is a climate change themed sketch show that'll have millennial tigers, competitive knitwear, and a wind turbine that dreams of a better life...it’s going to be totes-bags amazeballs.
- January 2022
After a year long hiatus, CUMTS 24 Hour Musical is back!
On a cold January night, performers, composers, directors and choreographers will be tasked with putting together a 1 hour musical in 24 hours based on a yet to be revealed theme!
Come one come all at 9pm on Tuesday 18th of January to watch the culmination of the most exciting day and night of cambridge musical theatre hit the stage !!
- January 2022
A new version of the enduring classic: KIPPS is Half a Sixpence but with even more Flash-Bang-Wallop!
Arthur Kipps is an over-worked draper’s assistant at the turn of the last century. He is a charming but ordinary young man who dreams of a better world, but when he unexpectedly inherits a fortune that propels him into high society, it confuses everything he thought he knew about life.
This is the 2016 revival version which took the West End by storm with dazzling showmanship and amazing song and dance numbers. The new book is by Julian Fellowes, with a brilliantly infectious new score by Stiles and Drewe that imbues the original and much loved music with a joyous verve.
- December 2021
Mizzis Horrocks’ class of seven year olds is about to perform their nativity play at Flint Street Junior School for the proud mums and dads. Squabbles arise when Gabriel wants to play Mary, the Star grumbles he’s not a proper star like they have at NASA, Herod won’t stop waving to his mum and dad, and the subversive Innkeeper is determined to liven up the traditional script. And then the stick insect escapes… The children are played by adults in this warm, witty, funny play by the author of Calendar Girls, featuring songs with original lyrics set to the tunes of familiar Christmas carols.
- December 2021
Welcome to The Man Presents: Anyone But The Man!
The Man is back and oh yes you guessed it, he is presenting yet again. Following the hilarious successes of The Man Presents comedy nights in the past, we are now taking over the ADC for a full run. Join us for an hour of comedy monologues written and performed by Cambridge's funniest women and non-binary people.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - The Reviews Hub
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Varsity
- November 2021
Do you need a hero? Show Choir is back and ready to supply the killer moves and musical melodies to help!
To celebrate Show Choir's valiant return to the ADC stage we will be performing some of your most missed pop tunes. Show Choir will be going ‘Zero to Hero’ with this return to the stage as it feels like ‘For the First time in forever’!
We’ve all been ‘Holding out for a hero’ this past year and Show Choir can’t wait to bop, boogie and belt our way back into what is set to an amazing show! Come along for some killer harmonies, magic moves and cheesy choir fun! See you there!
- November 2021
Had a rough year? We know how to cure those blues - no cis men, no script, no worries! Comic Sans is BACK, and this time, we’re handing the mic to all underrepresented genders! So get out of those joggers and into your glad rags. Come to ‘objectively the most ridiculous and hilarious show you will ever see’ - probably Emma Thompson (at some point, maybe...).
- November–December 2021
Welcome to Rapunzel! In a land where art has been banned and all the Dames have been banished, can this kingdom be brought back to life?
In a dastardly plan to keep them away from his crown, the evil King sends his nephew and niece, Prince Victor and Princess Stella, on a quest to save Rapunzel from her dragon-guarded tower in the hopes that they perish. Along the way they instead encounter adventure, hilarity, and friendship. Join Victor and Stella on their way to save Rapunzel and, ultimately, the entire kingdom.
Rapunzel brings live pantomimes back with a queer and colourful bang. A celebration of individuality and self-love, Rapunzel is not to be missed.
- November 2021
- November 2021
This November, the ADC Theatre’s Freshers Mainshow is Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘A Small Family Business', taking you to the 1980s where Jack McCracken, a man of principle in a corrupt world, gets the chance of a lifetime - to take over his family’s furniture business. There’s just one problem: he’s just found out his family is, how do you put it… criminally gifted. After being approached by a private detective armed with revealing information, the morally straight Jack must figure out how he and his corrupt family can survive. The tangled world of Jack and his family of thieves and cheats guarantees to make you both hold your breath and burst out laughing.
Everyone involved in this production is new to Cambridge theatre, so this promises to be an exciting show for all who are keen to show their support for the next generation of Cambridge thespians. ‘A Small Family Business’ promises to be a big week in Cambridge theatre!
- November 2021
A Comprehensive Understanding is a hilarious sketch show packed with character and sketch comedy. All the cast and production team are from state school or disadvantaged backgrounds; platforming new writing, directing and comedic talent.
- November 2021
The Old Bailey Alumni Network is a new, devised production that brings to life stories from the archives of the Old Bailey Courthouse. It is a huge party, a who’s-who of the most audacious, gregarious, and fun-loving Londoners from the eighteenth century, and we get to hear their stories, live their memories and celebrate life with them!
- November 2021
Ghost stories: isn’t it time for a new one?
Improltergeist! lets you help us create a brand new story to pass down the generations. In a mysterious world of your choosing, who is going to go bump in the night, and why?
Each show is a unique creation for and by its audience, and will delight you with adventure, ghouls and laughter.
- November 2021
‘Ships are safe in harbour. But that’s not what ships are for.’
Astrid has never set foot on solid ground: as the first and only child born in space, she faces her whole life on board the spaceship Mara. But when an asteroid strike decimates their oxygen supply, she and the crew of the ship must abandon the mission and return home before it’s too late.
From the award-winning, five-star writing team behind Rust and Life With You, this original musical explores what it means to know who you are. Set against the breathtaking and deadly backdrop of space, Astrid and the others travelling on the Mara grapple with life, friendship, and loss.
When it really matters, we risk everything to make it back to the only home we truly know: Earth.
- October 2021
Following the success of Dragtime! Presents: #squadghouls and Dragtime! Presents: Things That Go Bump N' Grind In The Night, Cambridge's premiere drag troupe is back again with yet another hour of cabaret fun and this time it's even spookier :O :O :O This autumn Dragtime! are returning to the ADC with their third Halloween show, presenting the best new drag talent the city has to offer. Hold on to your seats as Dragtime!'s kings, queens and inbetweens take you on a thrill-inducing ride through the dark side of drag, featuring singing, lip sync, spoken word, pole dance, burlesque, live music and more!
- October 2021
Moses and Kitch stand around on the corner – talking shit, passing the time, and hoping that maybe today will be different. As they dream of their promised land, a stranger wanders into their space with his own agenda and derails their plans.
Emotional and lyrical, Pass Over crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, exposing the unquestionable human spirit of young men stuck in a cycle that they are desperately trying to escape.
- October 2021
Salmonella is the Footlights Harry Porter Prize Play Winner for 2020, judged by comedian and ex-Footlight, Phil Wang.
Salmonella follows the young adult life of best friends Sam and Ella as they navigate early adulthood and all the laughter and tears that come with it! Meanwhile, 60 years on, in the old people's home, Sam and Ella reminisce on their youth together and consider...how much has really changed?
The play takes us through the ups and downs of early adulthood, charting the downright ridiculous scenarios that the two get into in their new flat together.
- October 2021
A student-written sketch comedy dell art(gallery)! Follow us through the evening happenings of an art gallery quite unlike any other! From snobby artists to bewildered school guides, from chatty Picasso's to truly moving art (wait a darn second, that's not supposed to move!!!) from the worst possible art heist to the inner thoughts of the paintings on the walls: Did Leonardo Di Caprio truly paint the Mona Lisa? Is modern art a whole bunch of tosh? Was Van GHOghST always this attention seeking?Just how pretentious is TOO pretentious?? Put on your nicest berets, pick up your stencils, and come and see this mosaic of comedy.
Oh, and before I forget,
DON'T TOUCH THE ART!!!
- October 2021
Marlene has just received a promotion at her job agency and she’s on top of the world. To celebrate, she hosts a dinner party for all her most interesting female friends. The strange part? Her guests include a thirteenth-century Buddhist monk, a Pope, and a figure from Flemish folk lore.
‘Top Girls’ explores Marlene’s rise to success in the Thatcherite 1980s, from surreal dinner party chat, her thriving job agency, and all the way back to the family she left behind, and questions whether successful women can truly be allowed to ‘have it all’.
- October 2021
All it takes is Mike spilling a drink on Jaz at a party, and bang, a few months later they’re sharing a flat filled with supernatural toast and arranging Christmas dinner together – it’s domesticity on warp speed really. But, all good, healthy friendships require communication, and Jaz and Mike are not too great at the whole ‘talking about their feelings’ thing – which is fine until it isn’t really fine at all. A charmingly chaotic mix of comedy, tension, and drama ensues as we take a bittersweet look at two young adults trying to navigate an increasingly complex friendship. One that could be simplified relatively easily if Jaz befriended the internet when it comes to disability rather than placing the onus on Mike to explain All The Time.
Written by a creative team with first-person experience of the type of physical disability represented in the show, Attrition pulls you into the intricacies of trying to adult when it feels like the world, and worse, your friend can't see you for you.
[Image description: an illustration of a piece of toast with a bite taken out of the top right-hand corner, in the centre of the toast is the word ‘attrition’ written in dark brown.]
- October 2021
- October 2021
Anne is on the brink of becoming queen and the country is in the midst of war and a succession crisis after the death of her children. She is criticised, doubted and satirised by all. She battles to overcome the subservient role she has assumed her whole life and become the queen England needs. She is pushed and pulled by court factions, political parties and most devastatingly by her closest friend, Sarah Churchill, with whom she has long been infatuated. As their relationship turns sour Sarah resents the queen’s incompetence in comparison with her own brilliance and will stop at nothing to prove herself the most powerful woman at court and avenge herself on her former lover.
Queen Anne takes the male dominated genre of the history play and places women at its centre, portraying fierce friendship, sexuality, jealousy, war, politics and betrayal through the eyes and inner lives of women.
- October 2021
Five ex-comedians, who were all responsible for one of the most notoriously terrible comedy revues of all time, are each invited to the same abandoned theatre... only to realise that they are trapped. Yes, trapped! By a mad captor! He wants them to make him laugh, and they have only an hour to prepare their material. If they don't, then they may well face a fate worse than death. Can they pull off such a thing? Come and see for yourself...
- October 2021
Cambridge Footlights Emily, Robbie and Maddie are bringing an hour of irreverent sketch comedy to the ADC this October!
Track their journey and peep through the letterbox as they meet the weird, wonderful and downright wacky. As Tina waits for 415 working days for her vibrator, Mr McMoon wonders if she’s the full package. The community officers investigate a suspicious parcel in the children’s playground, whilst local teens look in every nook and cranny in search of the dark web. Join these three comics as they courier you through a mashup of quirky characters and outrageous observations, shedding light on the everyday to the truly extraordinary.
- October 2021
Ella Hickson's 'The Writer' is a work of meta-theatre which addresses what it means to challenge the status quo; if it’s even possible to do so; and the personal costs of attempting it. If we want to change the world how should we write the new stories? The play attempts to answer such a question through brittle scenes which navigate gender, love, race, sex, and money. From a young woman forgetting her bag and a row over a cassoulet, to surreal memories of a lake and distorted realities, The Writer is attempting to destabilise the establishment from within.
Funded by the Lady Margaret Players.
- September 2021
It’s time to laugh… Present Laughter is the most autobiographical of Noël Coward’s plays and deals with the ‘price’ of fame as theatrical impresario Garry Essendine entertains both male and female stalkers in his studio: a long suffering wife, a longer suffering personal assistant and a close circle of friends, all ‘a charming constellation of gossipy little planets circling round the great glorious sun’. This riotous but revealing farce is being brought energetically to life, as Coward intended, by Bawds (directed by David Sear). In an era of #MeToo and celebrity culture, its relevance to 2021 is clear.
- September 2021
Join us for a celebration of amateur drama – 10 short plays by drama groups from Cambridge and around, and this year from farther afield too! Everyone will be striving to present their best work, which our professional adjudicator will comment upon and judge which is the best overall dramatic achievement. Will you pick the winner? Might you spot up and coming young stars of theatre?
- September 2021
- July 2021
Combining elements of comedy, tragedy and farce, The Playboy of the Western World is set in a remote village on the coast of Country Mayo in the west of Ireland. There is great excitement when a young man on the run from the police seeks shelter for the night in the village public house. His crime transforms him from an intensely shy young man to a local hero, but events unfold which cast doubt on his new-found status. After scandalising upright Dublin citizens at its premiere in 1907, this tragicomic masterpiece has been delighting and entertaining audiences the world over ever since.
