- July 2021
Ballet Central returns to Cambridge with its new tour this summer. This renowned company of young graduate dancers will be performing a crowd-pleasing mix of dance pieces by leading choreographers including Scenes from Le Corsaire, a thrilling classical ballet with romance and daring, dashing pirates and magical pas de deux set against a backdrop of the high seas; a new creation Jigsaw by upcoming choreographer Charlotte Edmonds to a commissioned score by Ballet Central Resident Composer Philip Feeney and to finish, Act 2 of Matthew Bourne’s Highland Fling, a gothic fable of winged fairies, romanticism and kilts filled with wit, magic and wicked humour.
- June 2021
-Do you think this is the year we become real playwrights?
-We haven't had an audience larger than the cast since 1587, and that was back when we were doing erotic puppet shows in Saffron Walden.
Tom and Rob languish in a bedsit situated somewhere between 1590s Deptford and undergraduate accommodation built in the 60s. They're greasy, cold, and fancy themselves writers; Rob drinks too much and Tom is bad.
‘The Parnassus Players’ is an original student-written comedy, set within a fusion of the 21st century student theater scene and the theatrical world of 1590s London. It follows two budding writers, Rob and Tom, in their struggle to navigate the scrappy underworld of Shakespeare's London and attain literary stardom.
Join these vagrants for an innovative satire and celebration of live theater! We're talking queer Elizabethan romance, goofs, gaffs, the Phantom of the Opera, and more bawdy puns than you can shake a pickled herring at!
- June 2021
‘The Trouble With Today’s Women’ is a verbatim piece of devised theatre. The show title takes inspiration from Sudha Buchar’s ‘The Trouble With Asian Men’. With performers and collaborators in different geographical locations, the show explores the experiences of women of colour in the modern world and grapples with the dissonance that they face navigating their personal lives. This production will explore pluralities of positions instead of a single meta-narrative, through the authentic voices of performers that will navigate themes of fragmented identity. Developed through workshops and interviews, personal stories on various themes will be adapted for a multi-media performance.
- June 2021
In a dingy flower shop on Skid Row, Seymour’s discovery of a rare and exotic plant, Audrey II, turns his world upside down. The plant’s survival and his rise to fame and fortune however come at a cost: his own flesh and blood. Set to the sound of 1960s Rock n Roll and a backdrop of dark humour, we watch Seymour grapple with a blossoming love, a masochistic dentist and an avaricious boss as he struggles to do the right thing. Will his trials and tribulations end with Audrey somewhere that’s green, or will the monstrous flora have other plans?
Content Warnings
Abusive Relationship (prolonged, mentions of and shown)
Death (frequent, on stage, often comedic tone)
Blood (Simulated with plots/set dressing)
Torture (Brief comedic mention in song, character shown to enjoy inflicting pain without anaesthesia)
Guns (visual prop, no gunshot sound)
Dentist (scenes of wishing to inflict teeth damage but nothing explicitly shown, dental drill sounds)
Implied Self Harm (brief)
Implied/Accidental Suicide (both staged)
Drugs (addiction to nitrous oxide, overdose)
Flashing lights (used throughout certain songs)
- June 2021
- June 2021
Just when you thought that C*VID had wiped us out, CUMTS presents you with the gift of Gala. For one night only, CUMTS brings you an evening of pure musical theatre decadence. Dressed to the nines and accompanied by a full orchestra, the finest of Cambridge’s Musical Theatre Talent will be performing all of your favourite musical theatre classics alongside the latest Broadway hits, all dazzling with glitz and glamour…
- June 2021
A wealthy merchant by the name of Jenrick retires, thinking he's settling into a life of relative peace and composure. Philosophic rest, you might call it. But his long unrequited love, his disgruntled business partner and his plotting servants don't quite have the same thing on their minds.
A lot of plotting and hijinks ensue, and it seems that not one of these schemers is going to get much rest, unless it's an eternal one.
- June 2021
On air they're seasoned professionals - but when the cameras stop rolling, no-one is sticking to the script!
Join the Cambridge Impronauts as they host a hilarious improvised news show dealing with drama on camera, and behind the scenes! Friendships will be tested, romance will blossom, stories will break: and most importantly YOU will be controlling the whole thing!
We will be taking prompts LIVE throughout the show, giving you the power to invent our top stories and weigh in on the unfolding workplace drama! Is our special correspondent interviewing a jelly baby? Does our weatherman have a secret past? Can our anchors navigate the messy aftermath of a joint business venture gone wrong?
Tune in to tonight's programme for all this and more in 5, 4, 3, 2...
- June 2021
Live Musical Theatre is back! Whether you’re a newcomer or a Finalist looking for their final chance to smash it on stage, The Spotlight is the perfect opportunity to belt one of your favourite musical theatre songs, whether that be a classic or something a bit more new!
This edition, with a return to live performance, will feature a LIVE AUDIENCE (omg) and also performers will have the exciting chance to workshop their songs (also in person) before the performance night with a Director and Musical Director! Such high quality performances with the glitz and glamour of a full stage with our brilliant Musical Director Alex accompanying, will make this event like no other!
- June 2021
CW: rape, mention of suicide
Is Justice really blind? Should she be?
Two friends find themselves opposing lawyers on a rape trial.
They have no connection to the people whose lives they are debating.
As their versions of the truth are challenged and their own lives made a lot less certain, will they understand what their jobs really mean?
Are you a reliable witness? Is anyone?
- June 2021
A feast for musical theatre fans, this hilarious parody is a long-awaited chance to relish some of the form’s most popular styles. One plot is spun into five musicals, each in the distinctive style of a different musical master: Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Kander & Ebb all take their turn. The plot? Ingenue June can't pay the rent and is threatened by her evil landlord. Can the leading man rescue her, with Abby’s help? With music by Eric Rockwell, lyrics by Joanne Bogart, and book by them both, come and join our celebration.
- May 2021
Join three hapless criminals as they attempt the heist of their lives: stealing the Crown Jewels. Watch as they assemble their team, plot their path, and even fall in love on the way. Will they swagger off with the swag, or be swept up in the long arms of the law? Either way, irresistible tunes and uproarious comedy guarantee a criminally good time.
- May 2021
- May 2021
Footlights Smoker - Easter Term 2021
- May 2021
Fleeing a world he has rejected, Robin finds solace in his music and the sanctuary of his remote family home. But as his kingdom begins to crumble around him, how far will he go to save it and at what cost?
Polly Stenham drags us far into the depths of Robin's mind, unearthing dark family secrets on the way. As the extent of his suffering is slowly revealed and his sanity is called into question, Robin plummets into a spiral of self destruction as he fights to keep his world from falling apart....
- March 2021
N.B. this show has been cancelled
Ever felt like everyone around you is SOOOOO fake? Like you’ve had to pretend to be a better person just to fit in? Well, imagine what it’s like being Henry VIII’s new wife, Katherine Howard! Negotiating court politics, flattering your ageing husband, meeting his daughter who’s EIGHT YEARS OLDER THAN YOU! In fact, you don’t need to imagine - Katherine can tell you herself!!! Let her walk you through the Tudor court and tell it how it is! Don’t worry if she’s a bit vague about her past though - some stones are best left unturned…
- March 2021
Binge-watching Netflix and Disney+ over lockdown has given Show Choir a fabulous idea.......
Bringing some of the most iconic TV and film bops to the ADC stage for a night of dazzling musical fun!
From absolute classics from the likes of Grease and Mamma Mia, to all the cheesy High School Musical and Disney-esque tunes that you’ve come to expect from Show Choir, this will be a Hall of Fame experience like no other!
With slick harmonies and killer choreography, we plan to throw the best Oscars party of the century, so grab your dancing shoes and come along and join us for an hour of hilarious movie-musical fun!
- March 2021
Sleeping Beauty is rudely awoken from her slumber. Marry Prince Charming?! Thanks but no thanks - a better adventure is calling.
Join our hero as you've never seen her before as she enters the world of work under evil bosses, Jake and Will Grimm, and on her very first shift must undertake a dangerous mission to find an escaped Panto Horse and save her colleagues' jobs. She sets off journeying through a series of absurd pantomimes in pursuit of the horse, only to discover that everything is not as it seems...
Sleeping Beauty and her friends must work together, find the horse and ship the baddies off - next day delivery.
- March 2021
Maybe it's a good thing they're tearing down this playground. I mean. The playground means shit. If you forget, you forget, right?'
It is the night before a mosaic Dragon playground is due for demolition in Singapore. Millennial activist Sharon coaxes her cantankerous boyfriend, Hanis, to partake in her Facebook-initiated protest, to which she arrives to realise no one has shown up. Not until an eccentric stranger appears with a tragic, bone-chilling personal story to tell, and Hanis' best pal, Wong who escalates pre-existing tensions and awkwardness through his unfavourable psychoanalysis of Sharon and Hanis' toxic relationship.
What begins as an impassioned night of heritage activism to save a disappearing playground unravels into an existential dramedy that light-heartedly prodes at millennial anxieties of the search for identity and purpose and the insincerity of Singaporean nostalgia in the face of industrial change and progress.
- March 2021
'The breaking of so great a thing should make a greater crack.'
A love made public rarely lasts, and neither can the most powerful couple of all time. As Antony rules his empire, and Cleopatra her kingdom, the unbreakable lens of the public interest will obliterate them.
True love loses itself in a world where love is love, and power is power.
- March 2021
Ding Dong Oh - hello, you poor thing, let me grab you a towel, that bloody thunderstorm! All’s wool that ends wool ey - you just made it in time for the show, only comes round once a year! Your room’s pasture mill on the right; we got everything you need. Breakfast is at 7, zumba is at 8, we loooove staying in sheep, an-- ewe honey those curls need work, I’ll book an appointment with our baaa baaa asap…Anyways, work is at 9 Monday to Friday - no ifs, no buts, no excuses, we run a tight sheep. Ooo look at the time - show’s starting in 5 - WHAT SHOW? The annual sheepcase of course consisting of the kookiest of characters, the strangest of songs and the silliest of sketches - the silliest of billies in fact - I can’t wait for you to meet Billy, he’s such a lamb. Last year’s show set the baaaa real high, they even had Britney Shears make an appearance! lights go down Buckle up for an hour of comedy gold, relax and enjoy the show! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
- February 2021
The Marlowe Showcase is an opportunity for 12 graduating Cambridge actors to work with a professional director, Nicholas Barter (former Principal of RADA) and perform contemporary and classical monologues for agents, industry professionals, family and friends.
- February 2021
Musical theatre is back and better than ever! Whether you're a newcomer or a CUMTS veteran, The Spotlight offers performers a chance to take to the (virtual) stage and belt out one of their favourite musical theatre songs, whether that be a classic or something a bit more new!
A Live Call including all our Hosts and Performers, chatting and laughing the night away, and watching all the pre-prepared performances for the first time at the same time as our Live-Streaming Audience, these high quality performances in such a supportive and relaxed atmosphere will make this event like no other!
- February 2021
- February 2021
A sculptor’s obsession with the ‘perfect woman’ leads to a sexual fixation on three generations of the same family.
Jocelyn Pierston has been faithful to one perfect woman all his life – is it really his fault if she won’t stay in the same body very long? She certainly wasn’t to be found in Avice, the humble, unassuming island girl who was, for a time, his sweetheart. It turned out that she wasn’t really there in Marcia either, the woman with whom Jocelyn had run away to London to be married. As the years roll by, Jocelyn ages but his Well-Beloved stays as young, as fresh, and as tantalisingly ungraspable as ever. When he hears news of Avice’s death he realises that the Well-Beloved was in her all along and rushes home, only to find that, in Avice’s young daughter, his passions are still very much alive…
- February 2021
Why is 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 8 9 DUH?! What happens when an immovable object gasp meets an unstoppable force GASP?!! Why did that iceberg have to be such a b?*&! ? Questions, questions, questions. So many questions? So little time. Revolving in my head...round and round… spinning and spinning… in a never ending loop… just like I am in this revolving door! Character Assassination dares to question the unquestionable, to answer the unanswerable, to make the inanimate animate. A night of character monologues and duologues through the lens of objects, concepts and anything without a voice. Join us for a hilarious evening brought to you by some of the finest comedians in Cambridge as they bring to life the lifeless and make you laugh while doing it.
- February 2021
N.B. this show has been cancelled
‘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.
- February 2021
It’s 1935. Alma Martyr, a lovable English professor, and her secret gardener fiancé Castor are preparing for a romantic weekend getaway at her parents' woodland cabin. However, a mix-up with dates leads to four of her best students joining them for the weekend. There’s sweetly innocent Daphne, pompously cruel Leopold and laughably keen Lance and Laurie. Unwise preconceptions and misunderstandings abound – unrequited love and mutual hatred leading to such entanglements! Carnage ensues, as rivalries among the students and complex love affairs lead to games, disputes and a dramatic conclusion...
- February 2021
N.B. this show has been cancelled
"No Men. No Meat. All manners."
It's 1956, and the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein gather for their Annual Quiche Breakfast, where they sing, dance and rave about their favourite food. However, an atomic explosion soon sends their town hall into a lockdown. When placed under the pressure of a life without egg, this energetic 50s pastiche confronts the society with more than just communists. They must face the real root of their love for quiche and what has brought them all together (see title for clues).
- January 2021
N.B. this show has been cancelled
Dragtime! is back and this time it's getting political :O Cambridge's premiere drag troupe return to the ADC with another hour of cabaret fun, showcasing the city's best new drag talent. Parliament is in session and our kings, queens and inbetweens will be stepping up to the dispatch box, donning their best leather trousers and leopard print kitten heels, and giving you 'Yaas Minister'. Whether we're poking fun at political figures or reflecting on current social issues, this production showcases drag in all its disruptive and subversive glory. Our exciting and uncompromising drag artists will entertain, challenge and amaze you with singing, lip sync, spoken word, burlesque, and more!
- January 2021
N.B. this show has been cancelled
“If we are all eternal, and if Human Life is only the first mile in a billion, do you honestly believe that God could abandon any mothahfuckah so soon in the journey?”
In purgatory, a court case is being heard against Judas Iscariot, the notorious betrayer of Jesus Christ. Witnesses from across history are invited to give their testimonies. Was it a terrible crime, or was it a necessary part of God’s great plan?
Set in a time-bending, seriocomically imagined courtroom where saints talk streets slang and lawyers barter with Satan, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is an ambitious philosophical meditation on religion. The play alternates between riotously funny and deeply thought-provoking, revealing at its heart profound reflections on human fallibility, guilt and forgiveness.
Regardless of your faith-or lack thereof-you may discover a new gem or two from a two-millennia-old story.
- January 2021
N.B. this show has been cancelled
The House Is Now Open is a student-written comedy play focusing on Endre, a chaotic fresher who accidentally commits to two shows on the same night. Written by two third years who've experienced their fair share of unfortunate theatrical mishaps, this play within a play exposes once and for all the true meaning behind the phrase, 'the show must go on'.
4 days until the dissertation deadline. 3 hours of sleep. 2 shows on the same night…
and 1 over-committed student actor, who has somehow ended up in both.
Overwhelmed by the stresses of uni life, Endre discovers that the two plays he’s been rehearsing for are happening on the same night. At the same time.
The house is now open….
Determined not to let his friends down, Endre finds himself running between both shows, juggling the jetés of Shakespearian dialogue alongside the iambs of contemporary dance.
As tensions rise, Endre takes the ‘quick change’ to a whole new level, and hopes no one becomes suspicious of his unusually long toilet breaks.
Will he pull it off? Will his fellow cast mates manage the mishaps of opening night on their own? Will he miss that all important cue line?
All the world’s a stage, but this player needs a break!
- January 2021
YOU Split the votes! YOU Split the show!
Split is a fast paced panel show with various comedy rounds. The panel have live and pre-recorded tasks that you as the audience vote on to split the winnings. There are also opportunities to mess with the show, your suggestions are always valid and we will strive to improvise with them as much as possible. Come mess us up, come split the show!
- January 2021
ETG’s 2020 production of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of forbidden love, sets the fateful events within a school classroom, these famous characters reimagined as modern-day students, parents and teachers. This familiar world exposes both the joy of young love and the horror of unnecessary violence in their extremes. This student company hopes to reinvigorate this well-known and well-loved text by drawing new focus to loss of hope and innocence, the consequences of generational actions, and ultimately what it means to be young in today’s world.
While this year's tour has sadly been cancelled due to COVID-19, Romeo and Juliet will complete its run at the start of Lent Term, with additional matinees to be streamed to schools to uphold the society's commitment to education and theatre.
- December 2020
Hip hip hooray – it’s Show Choir’s 10th birthday!
To celebrate, we will be performing some of your favourite Show Choir anthems from across the decade, from absolute classics like Don’t Stop Believin’ and Fame, to all the cheesy hits you love to hate – Call Me Maybe or Wake Me Up Before You Go Go anyone?
Don’t Stop Us Now as we boogie our way into our 10th fabulous year, grab your dancing shoes and your party hats and come along and join us for some slick harmonies, killer choreography and an hour of hilarious musical fun! See you there!
- December 2020
N.B. this show has been cancelled
The folktales of the Mabinogion are some of the oldest and strangest in the literature of the British Isles, telling the mystical stories of ancient Wales; in this world, children have been known to turn into fish, and a wizardly mouse may well cast a spell on you. Mabinogion follows the birth and life of King Pryderi - whose name translates to modern-day English as 'Anxiety' - as he contends with mysterious deerlike visitors from the Otherworld, battling the undead armies of the Irish, and a rather heated argument with a neighbour over a herd of pigs. This show reimagines the four branches of the Mabinogi for a present day audience, and our merry troupe of performers will be using song, puppetry, and comedy to sift through the surreal stories of Pryderi of Dyfed and present them in fantastical ways such as you've never seen the likes of before. From the minds behind Fables for Robots ('a space of vibrancy and innovation... a performance that is genuinely refreshing' - The Cambridge Student, ****).
Mae tegell yn ferwi and ty'n barod.
