- January 2025
Expect laughs, laughs, and more laughs...
Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and stand up in an evening of non-stop, back-to-back fun-filled hilarity. The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly; rude and spikey; wordy and nerdy or a little surreal - whatever the style, it's always "uproariously funny" (Varsity).
- December 2024
“I’ve discovered the secret of happiness is following my will.”
Meet Jerusha Abbott. As a longtime resident of the John Grier Home for Orphans, her prospects
are a little bleak. But one day, her life is turned upside down by an anonymous benefactor, a
shadowy figure she knows only by the moniker she gives him, Daddy-Long-Legs. Jerusha steps
into a world of education and society she could never have dreamt of, but little does she know that
her mysterious patron will change her life in more ways than one…
An intimate epistolary musical sure to prove a delight for your festive season.
- December 2024
You there! Boy! What day is today?! Why… it’s Chrimprov day!
Cambridge Improv Factory are back with their annual festive comedy special. Bring your finest suggestions and watch Cambridge comedy legends turn them into an hour of spontaneous hilarity! Think 'The Muppets Christmas Carol', but with bigger, leathery, human-shaped muppets, more improvised comedy, and relatively few Dickensian morality tales. A light-hearted, laugh-a-minute way to kick off your festive season. Come join us, everyone!
'Tear-inducingly funny' (The Guardian)
- December 2024
Fresh from its run at the Camden Fringe, The Chaplain tells of a prison chaplain in 1850s Victorian England, tasked with cleansing the souls of those sentenced to death or transportation for the most heinous crimes.
In a dirty prison cell, the Chaplain meets three convicts. Throughout, he is also plagued by the voice of a mysterious woman who lurks in the cell's shadows, and the Chaplain is certain he has met her somewhere before. As the musical unfolds and the Chaplain's mental state deteriorates, it becomes clear that he too has sins he must confess.
- November 2024
"Tragedy comes for them, and it looms larger with every passing hour. There is nothing they can do about it. And those bearing the news are likewise powerless to prevent it."
In "Intruder", a family waits in nervous expectation for news about their sick relative. In "Home," an old man and a stranger gather in a back garden, preparing to deliver some bad news. Both one-act plays are thrillingly intense, lyrical, and tragic in the imagist tradition. These dramas are both unconventional, original works that become breathlessly anxious as they ask profound questions about what it's like to lose a family member. Nobel-prize winner Maurice Maeterlinck's mystical, death-haunted tragedies are both profound and cathartic. Never before performed in Cambridge. Script adapted by AC Gray.
- November 2024
Standup. Making Friends. Nothing Else.
- November 2024
'I wish there was something else, but there was... the excitement that all of us deny. Because excitement is not – no, not an appropriate response.'
Four artists are invited to their most famous friend's house, after ten years apart, for a night of reminiscing and celebration. However, celebration soon turns into horror, when the host suffers a horrifying accident. Soon placed into in a coma, the group battle with an intense array of emotions; the suppressed resentment, the duty to care for a friend, and how just maybe, their 'friend's' suffering could be their next work of art.
'pool (no water)' a visceral and shocking play about the fragility of friendship and the jealousy and resentment inspired by success.
- November 2024
CUADC Freshers' Play
In a remote area of the UK, where nothing ever happens, a group of teenagers share a safe house for LGBT+ young people. The group must decide how they commemorate an attack on queer people that happened in a country far away.
How do you take to the streets and protest if you're not ready to show the world who you are?
Dungeness is a funny, uplifting and moving play about being yourself.
This production is suitable for ages 14 and over.
- November 2024
CUADC Freshers' Play
Left quad. Right quad. Lunge. A girls indoor soccer team warms up.
From the safety of their suburban stretch circle, the team navigate big questions and wage tiny battles with all the vim and vigor of a pack of adolescent warriors.
The Wolves is a portrait of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for nine girls who just want to score some goals.
This production is suitable for ages 14 and over.
This amateur production of “The Wolves” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk
- November 2024
Negotiating With The Dead is returning to Cambridge this Michaelmas!
You are a singular stroke of a letter in a word of the great Epic of these Crusades. Your rebellion will be counted as a tremor in the hand of a chronicler. The story has already started; This tale must be written. Do not presume to have a say in it.
A historical fiction drama split between the modern day and medieval crusades, 'Negotiating with the Dead' follows an archaeological team discovering ‘The Templar’s Cross’, a fictional medieval relic supposedly as famous as the Holy Grail. It is a discovery which the archaeologists have dedicated their lives to finding, and now, one archaeologist, Florine, has begun to hallucinate the Crusaders who once searched for the same relic – as she does, the play devolves into an exploration of how faith can be manipulated by corrupt figures for political and personal goals (e.g. expansion of empire, war, power, greed) and how this behaviour often works in direct opposition to the goals and motivations of the faiths they claim to represent.
Winner of the Pembroke Player's Playwriting Competition 2023.
- November 2024
'And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.’
Rosalind and Celia have spent their childhoods telling stories, dressing up, putting on puppet shows, and creating plays. But when Rosalind is banished to the Forest of Arden, play is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Their toy puppets become a means of disguise, and a chance for freedom.
A charming new take on Shakespeare’s comedy of youth, love, and finding yourself, As You Like It will whisk you a way into the whimsical world of the Forest of Arden, where anything is possible. Perhaps you’ll fight a lion, or marry a clown, or even fall in love with a puppet…
- November 2024
Can we ever control how we feel?
Are our feelings an emotional or physical sensation?
Are love and sadness anything more than a chemical reaction?
Lucy Prebble’s gripping play "The Effect" delves into the lives of four individuals involved in a clinical trial for a potent new antidepressant, RLU37. Doctors Lorna and Toby, once lovers, find themselves in a heated scientific debate about ethics and the extent to which we should seek to manage human emotion. Volunteers Connie and Tristan quickly find themselves ensnared in a turbulent love affair where every developing affection is tarnished and they question if their love is true, or simply a side effect. This expansive and exhilarating play willingly asks us a multitude of questions, but does it provide the answers?
- October–November 2024
George Crudgeon is the most loved TV journalist in the nation, according to himself.
Join George in the studio as he asks the big questions about arguably quite minor issues, whilst dealing with an editor clearly not appreciating his talent, the fallout from his three-and-a-half divorces and the consequences of his own lack of respect for technicians.
The news is breaking and George Crudgeon intends to fix it.
- October–November 2024
"Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I will try again tomorrow’”
School is a nightmare, boys are infuriating and maccies is the only place open after 6pm. Growing up isn't easy, but it's even harder when you are from a place where no one expects anything of you - and especially if you're queer or the new girl at school. Beth, Rachel, Zahidah, Ellie and Chloe are stuck, stuck in their drama group, stuck in school and stuck in their small town which doesn't even have a Nando’s.
- October 2024
“I shall tell her I met a beautiful young man lying in the grass”.
It is 1944. Two young men meet in a Kentish field as doodlebugs whizz overhead. One is a farmer, the other an artist, but an intense bond forms between them.
First performed at The Bush Theatre in 1986, Robert Holman’s acclaimed play, which forms part of the Making Noise Quietly collection of plays, is a deeply gentle and delicate two-hander.
“Holman’s instinct for truth, and an unaffected ability to spot what’s poignant in it, is what one remembers: that, and a paradoxical impression of spare richness, astringent abundance” – The Times.
Read our 4.5 star Varsity review here! https://www.varsity.co.uk/theatre/28401
- October 2024
Sameera Bhalotra Bowers’ one person comedy show is coming to the Corpus Playroom! Expect poetry about spherical cows, a PowerPoint about the government’s next lunar mission and new stand up comedy. Both you and her will be asking, "what is going on?"
- October 2024
In a little parish in the depths of rural England, a new Priest is ready to make his debut. Little does he know the many challenges that await him, including scones, rivalries, passionate love affairs, and stray tambourines.
The village ladies watch with amusement as he attempts to navigate his new post, helped (and sometimes hindered) by his ever-loyal curate, Simon.
Will he live to see Easter? Only time can tell.
- October 2024
Somethings hatching…
Its The Egg! But what is the egg? Well thats up to you! 🥚
You can see this improvised creature feature at Corpus Playroom next week!
Come prepared with your suggestions of how our egg looks, sounds and smells, and we'll see together what hatches… 🐣
We have 4 shows and every night will be different, Wednesday 16th - Saturday 19th October.
If you love gremlins, lilo and stitch, or little shop of horrors, you'll love the egg!
- October 2024
Expect laughs, laughs, and more laughs...
Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and stand up in an evening of non-stop, back-to-back fun-filled hilarity. The material is always original and always varied. It can be soft and silly; rude and spikey; wordy and nerdy or a little surreal - whatever the style, it's always "uproariously funny" (Varsity).
https://www.instagram.com/footlights_smokers/
- October 2024
- October 2024
Smörgåsbord is the Corpus Playroom's own eclectic bi-annual showcase of new student-written theatre.
For over a decade, this evening has been a rite of passage for emerging student playwrights in Cambridge, and it’s the event at the heart of the Corpus Playroom’s calendar.
We particularly seek to give a spotlight to those who haven’t previously had their work audienced, and to anyone who feels that they have an underrepresented narrative or cultural lineage to bring to the fore.
Come and sample a platter of the most exciting new theatre in town!
- July 2024
Henrietta Brown used to be an artist before the war but with her creative endeavours on hold and with a doctor husband and children who want to play their part in the war effort, her world is suddenly very different.
Join Henrietta as she shares letters with her childhood friend Robert who is serving in France. You and Robert will hear about the trials and tribulations, ups and down and laughter and tears of the community in this small seaside town during World War II. This very human and warm portrayal of life will draw you in and leave you feeling for an hour or so you have taken a small step back into another time.
This production is suitable for ages 12 and over.
- July 2024
You are invited to join Cupid, the legendary ‘God of Love’ on the ultimate true love learning experience. This beginner’s session will give you the opportunity to learn first-hand in the home of our selected couple. Witness them at the peak of their emotional connection, and only a few months away from their first anniversary, as they (unknowingly) demonstrate to you the basics of true love.
Whether you have or haven’t found the one yet, treat yourself to this extraordinary lesson on love from the source of love itself. And remember…nothing can go wrong when you’re in love.
This production is suitable for ages 16 and over.
- July 2024
You’re seven years old. Mum’s in hospital.
Dad says she’s "done something stupid". She finds it hard to be happy.
You start a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world.
Everything worth living for.
You leave it on her pillow.
You know she’s read it because she’s corrected your spelling.
What is it like to live with a parent who doesn’t want to be here? Is it your fault? Can you do anything to make it better?
This is an amateur production in arrangement with Casarotto Ramsay and Associates
This production is suitable for ages 16 and over.
- July 2024
It's the summer of 1988. Tory politician Robin Hesketh returns to his idyllic home in the Cotswolds. It’s his birthday and, having successfully passed Section 28; effectively banning the 'promotion' of homosexuality in schools, he is in a celebratory mood. However, his welcome is not as he'd hoped.
Diana has a stinking hangover, a fox is destroying the garden, and secrets are being dug up all over the place. As the day draws on, what starts with the familiar rhythms of marital sparring quickly turns to blood-sport.
Historyonics Theatre Company presents Hansard, a witty and savage portrait of the governing class and the society at the time. Funny, tender, and ultimately brutal.
This amateur production of “Hansard” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd. on behalf of Samuel French Ltd. www.concordtheatricals.co.uk
This production is suitable for ages 12 and over.
- June 2024
Coming soon to a Playroom near you! A new blockbuster film is on the horizon. What genre is it? What's the title? You decide!
Watch as this completely improvised movie is filmed before your eyes. And watch as it goes hilariously wrong! Between the film sets, quirky actors, stressed out directors and snarky crew all have their wacky personal dramas, leading to blockbuster disaster! Can they put aside their differences to save the film? Or will romance, rivalry and chaos drive this movie into ruin? Each night is a unique whirlwind of comedic drama, influenced by your suggestions. Get ready. Lights, camera...
- June 2024
- June 2024
CUADC EDINBURGH FRINGE SHOW 2024
They’re married. They just don’t know it yet. But this isn’t Vegas. It’s Slough…
Awoken by her birth control alarm in a messy hotel room, Poppy finds herself naked next to her ex who isn't really her ex, Freddie. The two struggle to piece together the events of the night before, gradually remembering the details until they reach the horrifying revelation that they are married. Sounds pretty rock-n-roll, right? But this isn't Vegas, this is a BnB in Slough. Stuck together in the honeymoon suite, Poppy and Freddie are forced to confront what went wrong between them and reconcile the differences that once forced them apart and, crucially, decide whether or not to get an annulment. Poppy and Freddie have an hour until they need to check out. What happens when a Scouser and a Kentish Maid wake up married? You'll have to wait and see...
FRINGE TICKETS: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/vegas
- May 2024
In this satirical black-comedy set in the mid-2000s, a traumatic career-ending injury splits the trajectories of two promising football academy bros, with Wesley Lennox becoming an arrogant sporting star, while his former best friend Tricky falls into a life of increasingly reckless football hooliganism. What happens when a no-nonsense nanny and a secret relationship enter the mix?
- May 2024
England, 1640s: The country is gripped by civil war and religious fervour. The Second Coming seems imminent, but no one can quite agree on how and when Christ will return, or what shape things will take in his kingdom on earth. But for a small group of utopian dreamers, ordinary people caught up in the extraordinary events around them, this apocalyptic outlook is one of hope, of radical unity, and of a new paradise. They are preachers, prophets, politicians, social outcasts, sinners, and saints, and they have a vision for a new and egalitarian world. But these Diggers, Levellers, and Ranters are not the only people who see England as a new Jerusalem in waiting, nor are they the only people with plans for society in a kingless England. Told in vignettes that veer from the grand to the intimate, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire uses the stories of common people swept up in the tides of history, religion, and utopian visions to ask questions that still resonate in the 21st century: what happens to the idealists on the losing side? Whose vision for the future is the one that must be followed? When does the political become religious and the religious political? And what do we really mean when we try to create heaven on earth?
- May 2024
3 lost souls wander aimlessly through the forest, before setting up camp for the night and telling each other stories to entertain them. Welcome your storytellers, a band of travelling figments of imagination who bring to life an array of British folklore, from simple to horrifying. Until the worlds and the monsters created within them return to bring the lost souls home.
- May 2024
Pack your boxers, tape your tits, break your voice and embrace the power of being a silly little man. Get roasted by the psychiatrist for your lack of rizz, get roasted by the national press for being too woke, get roasted by your friends for being bottom of the pecking order. (But there’s nothing wrong with being bottom, even without a prostate.)
Join Cambridge Footlight Kae Deller as he takes you on a madcap journey of trans-masculinity and self-discovery, a journey that will contain doctors, actors, politicians and, embarrassingly, Vulcans.
Warning: Sad monologue about the evils of transphobia not included.
- May 2024
There's my train - Good-bye.
Two strangers' chance encounter, or two lovers' final goodbye: two lives intersecting at Milford Junction station as the 5:43 train departs from the platform.
Still Life by Noël Coward is a deeply touching romance about a fleeting yet tentatively genuine love that provided the basis for the hit movie Brief Encounter in 1945. After meeting and falling in love at a suburban rail station, Alec and Laura meet every Thursday in the refreshment room over tea, debating between respectability or love, and some sentimental moments transpire before they must decide whether to take that leap in the dark.
A poignant tale of forbidden love, polite apologies, and a life left behind.
- May 2024
'The Palace' cabaret club, Berlin, sometime in the late 1920s. A drag performer, their faded mother, the controlling stepfather, a preacher who lives in the basement, a doorman and a patron.
This radical new adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 'Salomé' tells the biblical story in place we've never seen it before as cabaret performer Salomé struggles to maintain her independence in an environment controlled by sex, seeking salvation in the baptist preacher Jonathan, only to be scorned as a "child of Sodom".
A visceral and gut-wrenching tragedy which explores the depths of rejection and fetishisation as queer person.
- May 2024
- May 2024
Before there were knights, there were idiots who thought swinging a sword and being a hero were pretty much interchangeable.
In this original quirky comedy, a group of medieval squires, led by dreamer Lance, grapple with the realities of their lowly existence. When a new squire, Phil, arrives, the group's mundane lives take an unexpected turn. Little do they know that Phil is short for Philippa, and she is running from a past that just might catch up to her.
While Phil tries to hide her identity from what is rapidly becoming the world’s most awkward love triangle, the squires get to work training for an upcoming tournament and engage in the classic debate of magic v. science. A series of disparate events, including inventing the concept of gravity (suck it da Vinci), spirals into a murder that demands an elaborate cover-up.
We are looking for a hilarious and formidable cast and crew for our Corpus run before heading to Fringe. If you are interested in being a part of our company for Cambridge, Edinburgh or both, please apply!
