- March 2018
Set in the 1920s, this tale of London's criminal underbelly is based on real events and real members of the notorious female gang, the Forty Elephants.
- March 2018
Sir Trevor Brierly – writer, director, philanthropist, plasterer – was many things to many people. But to his colleagues Michaelmas Crouch and Patio Horse he was a friend above all. Patio and Michaelmas will be hosting a memorial service in tribute to the life and works of their late companion, featuring an array of guests, from family members to former lovers, each of whom has a story to tell.
Footlights James Coward and John Tothill invite you to an evening of touching character comedy as they trace the life of this extraordinary man. Sad buffet provided.
- March 2018
Singapore, 2007: a city growing faster than its history can contain. Even the dead aren’t spared, as sprawling cemeteries make way for shiny skyscrapers. Amidst this, a reformed-gangster-turned-property-agent dreams of a better life while his ageing mother clings onto their family home as it is slated for redevelopment. As they face their past being swept away, it comes back to haunt them when Jeremiah, an idealistic civil servant with a gift for talking to corpses, unearths some memories…. Welcome to the surreal world of “Boom”.
In this quirky and poignant tale, Jean Tay skilfully conveys the sense of dislocation and loss felt in many Asian cities in the unrelenting march of development. A city dreams of progress, but what memories are lost on the way?
- March 2018
Declan Amphlett was born and raised in Worcestershire. Or as many people call it, 'Where's that? You mean like the sauce?' He also hates writing about himself in the third person. I genuinely do. I feel like I'm writing my own obituary.
A brand new stand-up show from one of the people behind the CUADC/Footlights Pantomime 2016: Rumpelstiltskin, Footlights Presents: Xylophone, Jet Lag and Disappointment, and the faint crying noise coming from Trinity College most Saturday nights.
'Faultless' – ★★★★★ Varsity
'The makings of a brilliant stand-up comic" – ★★★★ The Cambridge Student
- March 2018
"Listen, Juliet.
Come here. Come close.
Press your ear to the earth
So I know you’re listening."
Verona. The heat simmering.
Sharman Macdonald’s blend of light lyricism and staccato colloquialism imagines a drama in the wake of Romeo and Juliet’s suicides.
Prince Escalus has ordered lasting peace, but the lives of the remaining young Capulets and Montagues are still governed by the same forces of love, fear, and hatred. Rosaline - once the object of Romeo’s swiftly forgotten passion - arrives on stage with venom. In the absence of Romeo, she must attempt to establish control within the Capulet family, reconciling her jealous resentment towards Juliet with the familial duty which is all that remains to her.
- March 2018
"I think heaven is a sea of untranslatable jokes, except everyone is laughing."
‘The Clean House’ is a whimsical romantic comedy centred on Matilde, a Brazilian cleaning woman who would rather be a comedian. She has come to America after the death of both her parents, but is too depressed to clean, and only dreams of creating the perfect joke. Surrounding Matilde is a cast of tenderly drawn, eccentric characters: her high-powered employers, the married doctors Lane and Charles; Virginia: compulsive cleaner, neurotic, and sister of Lane; and Ana, Charles’ Argentinian breast cancer patient, who he falls in love with and leaves his wife for. This trilingual play deals with questions of what makes for: the perfect joke, a fulfilling purpose, a soul mate, and a satisfactory death. Moreover, it addresses the struggles of being isolated from your own culture, and pursuing your dreams in an unsympathetic setting.
This is a fresh production of a play which incorporates elements of music, dance, projections and other media; creating spectacle, naturalising elements of the supernatural, without compromising the emotional or psychological integrity of the characters. We aim to celebrate the cultures of our Latin American characters through our multi-media and moments of Portuguese and Spanish dialogue, and use this as an opportunity for authentic representation.
- February–March 2018
Do you miss the 90s? YES YOU DO! Come see this improvised sitcom, then. It'll be like Friends, except without how insufferable Ross was.
- February–March 2018
‘What is the city but the people?’
In the midst of battle a Roman soldier of great renown defends his city from invasion by his sworn enemy. Yet as the dust settles on his herculean victory, Caius Martius Coriolanus must face the demands of a potential famine, a divided senate, and a restless citizenry.
In this electrified atmosphere, wounds speak like tongues, mothers quell battles like soldiers, and an entire populace is sucked into the psychological struggle of one strange, remarkable warrior.
Join us as six performers build one of Shakespeare’s biggest and most restless worlds.
- February 2018
Remember that thing? You know. That thing that keeps you up at night? That time you called your teacher 'mummy'? How about when the barista in Costa asked if you wanted a regular or a large and you accidentally snotted instead of answering? No? Patrick Wilson does. He remembers all the stupid, embarrassing, borderline-illegal things he's done in his otherwise well-meaning life, and is ready to lay them all out for you for one night only!
Come join Patrick for an hour-long exploration of what keeps him up at night (no, not that, the other thing. Like, the things we've covered so far. Get your mind out of the gutter.)
These are Patrick Wilson's Apologies.
- February 2018
“Are we right? What is right? And can we have a vote on it?”
The channel island of Bullwick is in the middle of an election, but the papers are empty, the polls haven't moved, and the result seems certain. Until one of the candidates start telling people not to vote for him.
A bleak new comedy, Beige promises to be equal parts absurd, nihilistic and hilarious.
- February 2018
Mad Padraic is hard at work torturing a drug pusher up North when the news comes through that his beloved cat, Wee Thomas, is poorly. So instead of slicing off some nipples, as planned, he heads back to the island of Inishmore. But when he arrives home, he discovers shenanigans involving shoe polish, an assassination plot, and a teenaged gun-toting admirer. Soon the bodies start piling up...
- February 2018
Will Hall is 22 and recently found his first grey hair. In Netflix and Will, his debut stand-up show, he'll be asking whether it’s too late to turn it all around or if he’s better off just embracing his old age. Expect stories about love, life and an old Spanish tourist called Maria.
Will Hall is a stand-up and sketch comedian who has been countless Footlights shows since he arrived (back when all his hair was still brown) as well as appearing at the Fringe last year in the sell-out two-man show Studio 9. Don’t miss him for one night only in his debut stand-up show, which critics are already describing as "an hour".
Previous Praise
“Will Hall stood out among the Footlights; his timing and stage presence was exceptional…phenomenally funny.” – The Bubble
“Would not be out of place as an upcoming to the likes of Fry and Laurie or Mitchell and Webb…the highest standard of new comedy” ★★★★★ - Broadway Baby
“Very tight…most of them are direct hits” ★★★★ - The Wee Review
“Will Hall is particularly funny” - TCS
"Had the audience in hysterics" - The Tab
- February 2018
Together™ provides top-quality, interactive workshops for offices and business around the country. Using the power of team spirit, founders Larry and Marko have energised and harmonised hundreds of groups of people just like you. Our standard package involves a one hour session focusing on teamwork through togetherness, and costs £6 a head.
If you enjoyed the experience, why not try one of our short ice-breaker sessions (£50), or our highly rated weekend expeditions (£400 + tax).
Remember: T.E.A.M.
(Together, Everyone Achieves More)
- February 2018
“Lots of talk about people disappearing. Pomona’s a place that finds itself in those conversations. I don’t know why. But if you’re looking for someone lost… Might be a place to look.”
Gale collects the blood types of her employees. Charlie guards the gates to the underground warehouse in Pomona. They don’t know why, but they don’t ask any questions - because deep down, they know they don’t want the answers. As Ollie’s search for her missing sister leads her deeper into the dark belly of the city centre, she discovers horrors which reveal to her why it’s easier not to get ‘involved’. Unsettlingly funny and deeply challenging, Pomona tears the sheet off our modern world to confront with the horrors hidden beneath. Blurring the line between fantasy and reality, it leaves us questioning where the nightmare ends and real life begins.
Described as a ‘fierce dystopian drama with terrific comic edge’, Alistair McDowall’s Pomona jumps between and blends together nightmarish reality and horror role-play games, as we gradually piece together exactly what is happening underground.
- February 2018
Gérard B. is arrested for the murder of Polonius - a murder he committed in a dream. From reality to absurd, ‘Rêver,Peut-Être’ is a schizophrenic dance into B.’s deepest fears and fantasies.
As part of the Month of International Theatre, the French society will be proposing this original and immersive show - on the brink between typical French absurd and experimental theatre. The play promises to be a visual and aesthetic experience suited for a non-French-speaking audience.
Between dreams and reality all the characters of this sometimes fantastical play coexist, evolve and become obsessive. Rêver Peut-Être is an absurd comedy with a plethora of references to Hamlet: it addresses the unconcious, the desire for revenge, the dangers of arrayed justice, the absence of the father and perhaps more than anything the schizophrenia of the actor.
- February 2018
" When the white man sees you walk down the street and calls out, 'Hey John ! Come here'...to you, Sizwe Bansi...isn't that a ghost ? Or when his little child calls you 'Boy'... you a man, circumcised with a wife and four children ... isn't that a ghost ? All I'm saying is be a real ghost, if that is what they want.
Spook them into hell, man ! "
Written and set in apartheid era South Africa, Athol Fugard’s Sizwe Bansi Is Dead obliquely references several of the struggles faced by people of colour during the time and tethers them to broader questions of identity and human worth. Set in a photography studio, the plot follows a man who comes in to have his photograph taken. He enters as Sizwe Bansi, but due to a series of circumstances beyond his control, leaves as Robert Zwelinzima.
- February 2018
Join us for this evening of new writing! The Fletcher Players bring you Smorgasbord: a festival showcasing some of the most exciting and original extracts from emerging student playwrights.
Hosted at the Corpus Playroom, this is a casual opportunity for writers to have their work performed on-stage, with the chance for the pieces to be discussed and critiqued afterwards by the audience.
Unlike many other writing festivals, there are no limits to the works being presented – they can be complete plays, extracts from a larger piece, or rough first drafts – as long as they are between 5 and 10 minutes in length.
- January–February 2018
Bromley Bedlam Bethlehem is drama exploring the effects of mental illness on three
generations of an immigrant family, in a society that is unforgiving of those who do not
‘fit’. The story is told over three timelines, with the weight of each generation bearing on
the next: Eamonn, an Irish immigrant, struggling with dementia and alcoholism and
trying to make amends with his estranged daughter Sara; Ben, Sara’s son, suffering
from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia and his mother’s unrealistic expectations for
him; and finally Sara, as she copes with the suicides of both her father and son.
- January–February 2018
Dear Lupin is the stage adaptation of the comic, caustic, and charming collection of letters sent by racing journalist Roger Mortimer to his wayward son, Charlie - nicknamed Lupin - spanning two and a half decades of their lives.
The play follows both their stories as Charlie, an Eton dropout, embarks on an array of jobs and years of “drunken hedonism” whilst Roger, a renowned horse racing correspondent, tries to keep his son on the straight-and-narrow.
This is a touching portrait of nostalgia, joy, and regret that delves into addiction, bereavement, and the time-worn yet unbreakable bond between a father and his son.
- January 2018
''Do you think gnomes are mammals or amphibians?''
Warden Adam McDonald has been a warden for three weeks. It's alright. He does his job, it occupies him, it pays his bills. Although part of his job is being forced to interact with the prisoners, which is tiresome to say the least; especially Dember with her dumbass questions.
In this brand new comic play which tackles the relationships we make and break, and asks why we befriend the people we do, Adam questions if it matters who he helps, and whether it's worth helping people at all.
Moreover, in the back of his mind, the question still lingers; should he try and scavenge from the life he had before, or leave everything behind and start life anew?
- January 2018
Tom Basden’s There is a War is a bleakly comic play about the absurdity of war.
As soldiers, priests and scavengers roam a battle-scorched landscape, young medical officer Anne, desperately trying to reach a front-line hospital, finds herself abandoned and useless. The war is raging between the almost indistinguishable Blues and Grays, with no end in sight. On her journey Anne encounters, amongst others, an angry priest, some blasé gravediggers, a clown, a group of campaigners and a recently promoted General. But no one seems to know what exactly it is they’re mean to be fighting for.
- January 2018
Footlight Rhiannon Shaw has [lost] it all. Her father's dead, her brother's left home, her boyfriend is on the other side of the country. And where the flip is her mooncup?
So she's filling her life with characters -- weird and sad, lovely and Scottish.
- January 2018
Cambridge character comic Henry Wilkinson bestows upon thee 'Peacock', a debut hour of hilarious characters and personalities.
Much like the esteemed Peacock, Henry Wilkinson fans out his comic tail feathers for an hour of silliness and absurdity as he explores the lengths and breadths of character comedy.
Those to be found among the colourful plumage of ‘Peacock’ include the fabulous and illustrious likes of the infamous silent movie star Brigitte Binoche, the acclaimed gothic horror author Finnian Finley, the notorious Victorian mystic Madame Bah-Bah-Rah, the entire cast of the James Bond franchise, a riled up schoolmaster, and Kelly.
Previous Praise:
★★★★★- Broadway Baby
★★★★★ - CTR
★★★★★ – The Tab
- January 2018
Christian and Eve are going on a date. Christian's done all this date stuff before. He's just looking for someone to settle down with. Eve's been getting ripped for the last six weeks and has been going on practice dates with her close family and friends. A lot of comedies see things going horribly wrong, but what about when they go cataclysmically right?
- January 2018
‘Your group. Your women. What do you tell them you do?’
‘I say I’m an estate agent.’
Charlotte never intended to work for Doghouse for more than a few months, but when Miss Local Lovely 2018 turns out to be less than legal it’s all hands on deck to stop the magazine from going under. As Aidan and Rupert work tirelessly to charm the girl’s legally minded father, it looks like long-suffering intern Sam may take the blame – but when his only other option is glossy Electra and its tips for making cotton wool more appetising, is he stuck between a rock and a hard place?
A tale of two offices, Lucy Kirkwood’s NSFW is a biting black satire of manscaping, misogyny and media manipulation – a co-worker cocktail that’s definitely Not Safe For Work.
- January 2018
An improvised comedy about the things that get lost...and found. What happens to the sock in the washing machine, the keys dropped down the sofa, or the thoughts we lose track of?
- December 2017
Join Santa and his assistant, Ellie the Elf, as they try to get everything ready for Christmas in time. Combined with spectacular magical tricks, and sing-a-long Christmas songs for all the family, this show is the perfect Christmas treat!
- December 2017
'For God's sake! This protest of yours – is it really worth losing your lives over?'
January 1916: Bert Brocklesby is a young schoolteacher, and preacher at his local Methodist chapel. Bertrand Russell is one of the greatest philosophers of his time. With the advent of military conscription their worlds are about to be turned upside down. Russell could lose his lectureship at Trinity College; Brocklesby could lose his life.
This Evil Thing, acclaimed at last years’ Edinburgh Festival, is the compelling, shocking and inspiring story of the men who said no to war, told by award-winning actor Michael Mears in a breath-taking display of vocal and physical dexterity.
Longlisted for the Freedom of Expression award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
A moving and dynamic retelling of a hidden story.
THE LIST
Magnificent storytelling.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
As well as two previous acclaimed solo plays (SOUP, about homelessness, Fringe First Award winner at the Edinburgh Festival - and TOMORROW WE DO THE SKY, about factory canteen workers) Michael Mears has written and performed five specially commissioned solo plays for BBC Radio 4. Onstage, he has performed for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Peter Hall Company on numerous occasions, as well as in London’s West End, most notably for nine months as Arthur Kipps in THE WOMAN IN BLACK.
‘Michael Mears is that rare combination of fine writer and formidable actor.’ - Time Out ‘One exceptional man' - The Observer
- November–December 2017
An exploration of the history of lesbianism, through the use of historical and literary sources. Using a combination of oral histories, written narratives and videos, ‘The Cambridge Companion to Lesbianism’ seeks to make visible the often invisible narratives of queer women in modern British history. This abstract, physical production will provide a starting point, a mood board, for the consideration of love, sex and gender identity in modern Britain. The piece is a kind of collage: a collection of overlapping, related, yet differing experiences.
- November–December 2017
It is one of the oldest stories on Earth: a tale of shame, of delusion, and of one man whose crimes finally catch up with him.
This November, the Corpus Playroom introduces a radical restaging of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King set in a contemporary prison.
Trapped inside the walls of a cell, there is no escaping the past. Oedipus is about to discover who he really is.
- November 2017
This dark but witty comedy sketch show tells the story of Simon Hall - national treasure and comedy legend. Allegations have been made that back in the 1970s he was not actually funny at all. Sketches are memories and form evidence in a show that culminates in a comedy trial!
- November 2017
'Killing my enemies is easy. The challenge is to control their minds. And I think I controlled yours pretty well. In years to come, I'll be able to say: 'Bulgakov? Yeah, we even trained him. He gave up. He saw the light. We broke him, we can break anybody'. It's man versus monster, Mikhail. And the monster always wins.'
Moscow, 1938.
A dangerous place to have a sense of humour; even more so a sense of freedom. Dissident playwright Mikhail Bulgakov has both, despite being stalked by the secret police. Inspired by historical fact, Collaborators embarks on a surreal journey into the fevered imagination of the writer after he’s offered a poisoned chalice in exchange for freedom: write a play glorifying Stalin to celebrate his sixtieth birthday. Help is at hand, however, when the dictator himself decides to help out in the writing of the play – and Bulgakov takes over the running of the Soviet Union!
‘Collaborators’ is both hilarious and surreal, charting an artist’s slow erosion of principle and certainty involved in collaboration as he is confronted with the steamroller of absolute power.
- November 2017
Is there life beyond Cambridge? What is the point in an education? Should you bother getting a job? All these questions and more will be answered in a rampaging, rambunctious and raucous hour of stand-up comedy from ex-Footlight Mark Bittlestone, ex-Cantab Will Dalrymple, and ex-human Will Penswick.
- November 2017
‘To improvise or not to improvise? That is the question; whether ‘tis funnier on the stage to witness the jokes and slapstick of a comic playwright, or to take arms against such scripted drama and by ad-libbing beat them…’
In a valiant bid to Become Literary, The Cambridge Impronauts now present a series of all-new Shakespeare plays! Entirely improvised on the night based on audience suggestions, these rediscovered bardic masterpieces shall prove worthy additions to the First Folio. Shudder at an elevated and ruinous Tragedie! Roar at the farcical confusion of a fine Comedie! Gasp at the political insight of an highly accurate Historie! Tell us what a Late Romance is supposed to be!
Come join us, then! You know the play’s the thing / Wherein we’ll have to make up everything.
- November 2017
A vivacious, feisty comedy about three sisters processing the death of their mother.
On the eve of their mother’s funeral, Teresa, Mary and Catherine come together to remember and misremember their childhood. Huge personalities, wild spirits and opposing ways of life clash and entwine as the women co-exist back in their mother’s home. As partners arrive on the scene, the secrets of the women’s new lives surface, while flashbacks to their memories of their mother’s life reveals the hidden and clouded past.
Full of tension, emotion and fun, Stephenson’s The Memory of Water, is an explosion of brilliant drama.
- November 2017
Join poet John Agard on a quirky re-visioning of the notorious New World Enterprise of Christopher Columbus. One of Britain's foremost cross-cultural voices and winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, Agard is known for his mischievous satirical wit. Whether glorified or vilified, Columbus, by his accidental 'discovery' of the so-called New World, gave a kickstart to globalisation, bridging Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, and joining forever the fates of these separate hemispheres and eco-systems.
Telescoping the voyages, Agard brings his irreverential humour from page to stage, fusing elements of calypso, cabaret and the absurd, as he variously takes on the voices of Columbus, The Atlantic, a native shaman and The Mighty Mosquito!
Written in verse with a sprinkling of songs and performed against a background soundscape of Atlantic murmurings and symphonic mosquito buzzing, Agard takes us on a fantastical, fanatical historic voyage that still bears relevance to contemporary issues.
Directed by award-winning live literature director, Mark C. Hewitt, with specially composed music by Thomas Arnold of Stomp's Lost and Found Orchestra, this is a one man show like no other.
