- November 2011
"I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger - anything that can blow your candles out! - for nowadays the world is lit by lightning.
Blow out your candles, Laura."
St. Louis. 1937. The Wingfields, trapped by poverty, struggle to survive. Stuck in a dead-end job, would-be poet Tom seeks solace in liquor and late night movies while supporting his mother, Amanda, and delicate sister, Laura. When he invites Jim O'Connor home to dinner, we are met with a man who has the power to shatter the family's illusions.
The world-famous Marlowe Society (“a powerhouse of theatrical expertise” – Sir Ian McKellen) presents Tennessee Williams’s most intimate dramatic masterpiece.
- November 2011
A chat show leviathan spiralling quickly toward unemployment. The newly-minted celebrity whose career he helped catapult to the heights. Two ridiculous men with enormous egos, met together in an attempt to film an hour’s worth of engaging conversation without making things any worse than they already are.
As the tensions and jealousies between old friends grow and the night descends, both on- and off-'camera', into a chaos of missteps, dwindling sanities and national scandals, the focus shifts from getting through an interview to ever being allowed into the public view again.
- November 2011
- October 2011
Chit-chat. Smalltalk. Just making conversation. Realising far too late that you should have ordered that panini. The murmur of cafe-talk, fuelled with talk of weather and lattes, comes shattering down in one blow during a perfectly lovely afternoon. But when convention is no longer convenient, where do you turn? From the author of Cambridge’s 24 Hour Plays’ ‘Best Writer’ and ‘Best Play’ comes Plank, a comedy that doesn’t really say much.
- October 2011
Tom Stoppard’s THE REAL THING, already a classic in modern drama, is an unforgettable exploration of love, art and reality. Winner of the Tony Award, Critics’ Circle Award and Evening Standard Award for Best Play, it has delighted audiences the world over and established Stoppard as one of the greatest writers of our time. At its heart, Henry—a playwright with high romantic ideals—aims at true love in both his life and writing. His relationship with the strong-minded actress Annie comes at a price he struggles to afford, but it affords us ‘two of the finest [roles] in modern drama’ (The Independent). Sparklingly witty yet profoundly moving, Stoppard's play muses and amuses as it asks us whether we can ever find true love, express love truly or capture 'the real thing'.
This new staging for the all-new Corpus Playroom comes from the production team that brought you SEXUAL PERVERSITY IN CHICAGO and MARGOT DE SADE, and looks set to be a highlight on the theatrical termcard this Michaelmas.
Find out more at TheRealThing.org.uk.
- October 2011
Hacker wants to be a protestor more than he wants to protest. His mind: the most revolutionary for a decade. His flat: the seat of the greatest protest operation in history. His friends: idiots. When he calls in the semi-sane Frank to help him, things get even worse.
- October 2011
'This has been the worst day of my life. So can you please get drunk with me?'
Ruth has just been dumped by her 'fucking boyfriend'. She, Dana and Jess spend their Friday night drinking, smoking and getting stoned. Joined by Jess's Dad Jim after being booted out of the family home the party-cum-crisis prevention evening collapses into chaos and maturity disappears with every shot of booze.
Having recently completed a successful run at the Royal Court, award winning young playwright Anya Reiss's new play is sharp and pacy, offering a hilarious insight to the dysfunction of young adult life.
'The Acid Test' is the second play from Anya Reiss, whose play 'Spur of the Moment' premiered at the Royal Court in July 2009, winning her the award for Most Promising Playwright at both the Evening Standard and Critics Circle awards. Anya completed the Young Writers Programme at the Royal Court and wrote her first play when she was 17.
- October 2011
- October 2011
In this Pinter double bill, two very different couples engage in a series of struggles to separate fact from fiction.
The Lover (1962) humorously contrasts the bland domesticity of a suburban marriage with the eroticism of an illicit sexual encounter and explores the limits of a relationship built on fantasy and make-believe. While Richard initially accepts his wife’s infidelity, his attempt to put an end to her affair forces the couple to confront the significance of the eponymous lover’s position within their marriage.
In Ashes to Ashes (1996), Devlin forces Rebecca to reveal uncomfortable details about her past, only to discover that the boundaries between personal memory and public grief aren’t as stable as he thought.
- October 2011
A singer of death chants, breakdowns and haunted waltzes – a boiling stew-pot of vaudeville, blues, garage and lies.
A night of theatrical parlour tricks, airs, ditties and tall tales.
Joe Rubini is a Birmingham junkyard poet, armed with a reel-to-reel tape machine, death-defying ancient guitars and a menagerie of electrical oddities. For one night only. On stage. In person. The nation’s favourite vaudeville punk artiste will regale you with songs, stories, story-songs, a spiritualistic musical séance and ghost show. And I mean that most sincerely folks.
‘Like an archive recording of a telephone conversation between Robert Johnson and the Devil’
‘A mysterious troubadour haunting the recesses of the stage.'
***** THE TAB
- May 2011
- May 2011
Fifteen years after she last spoke to them, ELEANOR SANS is visited one night by two friends from her time at The University©. Whilst ELEANOR has become an extraordinary designer of ever more sleek and modern fonts in a wealthy London firm, CHRISTOPHER QUERL and KATHLEEN CURLINGTON have spent the last twelve years warming their seats as academics at the high brow institution which saw them through their time as undergraduates. When the initial niceties are over, incidents from their past come surging forward, and the evening moves towards a disturbing denouement. A funny and disturbing play about the meaning of an education.
- May 2011
How far would you go for love? for art? What would you be willing to change? What price might you pay? Such are the painful questions explored by Neil Labute in 'The Shape of Things'. A young student drifts into an everchanging relationship with an art major while his best friends' engagement crumbles, so unleashing a drama that peels back the skin of two modern day relationships, exposing the raw meat and gristle that lie beneath.
- May 2011
Caryl Churchill’s Seven Jewish Children, written in response to the siege on Gaza, met with controversy and acclaim at its Royal Court premiere two years ago.
This unforgettable theatrical experience sees Churchill’s fascinating moment of stirring political theatre meet with the voices of student playwrights who have crafted their own responses to her piece. The result will be an unmissable occasion of varied, engaging, and ultimately impassioned theatre.
Admission is free of charge. A collection will be held for Medical Aid for Palestinians.
- March 2011
Henry and Sonia are having a turbulent evening with Arnaud their six year old son; but when Henry's influential yet obnoxious boss, Hubert, and precious wife, Inez, arrive on the wrong night for dinner, the fact that there is no food in the apartment (merely an ample supply of Sancerre and cheesy wotsits) is only one of the nightmares that the couples face. Add to this Hubert's often brutal treatment of Inez; his lust for Sonia; Inez's weak head for alcohol; Henry's discovery that his professional work may be going up in smoke; Sonia's equivocal attraction towards Hubert; and the ghastly behaviour of the invisible Arnaud - and the stage is set for a catastrophic unravelling of civilised behaviour.
- March 2011
* 'Utterly brilliant in conception and performance. See this!' (Cambridge Tab) The List Edfringe.com Theatre Guide London Broadway World Varsity TCS The New Current
'Worthy of the RSC' (The Stage)
Join the critically acclaimed Movement Theatre Company as they tour their beautiful rendition of William Shakespeare's final tale. Drawing on the narrative styles of the Commedia Dell' Arte and combining stunning masks, live music, dance and puppetry, this promises to be a fantastic evening's entertainment suitable for all the family.
- March 2011
Hostage is a crucifying aloneness. It is a silent, screaming slide into the bowels of ultimate despair. - Brian Keenan (Hostage during the Lebanon Crisis)
Inspired by the Lebanon Hostage Crisis of the 1980s, "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" follows the heartbreaking ordeal of three civilian men as they struggle with the terrifying monotony of life as a hostage.
"In a play which is heartrendingly compassionate, tenderly tragic but also uproariously funny... an Irishman, Englishman and American overcome their cross-national tensions to form a close friendship under the appalling strain of captivity". (CurtainUp)
- March 2011
Two brothers. Polar opposites. While house-sitting for his mother, Austin is finalizing a deal that could be his big break as a writer in Hollywood. Lee's an alcoholic thief, returning from the heart of the desert after many years, only to disrupt his younger brother's route to success. Lee’s idea for a Western catches the attention of Austin’s potential backer, Saul Kimmer. One decision then causes a shocking reversal. Quite literally at each other's throats, they go unnoticed by their oblivious mother who seems to think they’re both still 13. All set in one kitchen, True West exposes the disappointing reality beneath the vision of a writer, small-town life and the endlessly stereotyped "West" of America. Above all, this master class in tragicomedy presents us with the terrifying disintegration of a relationship between brothers. It doesn't take long for the American Dream to spiral into a nightmare.
- March 2011
“Contemporary art is like a soufflé not yet cooked: if only one dared to open the oven, it would crash with no pity.”
Two painters, shunned by an art gallery, decide to take revenge on its greedy, status-hungry owners. Based on Molière’s famed comedy “Les Precieuses Ridicules”, this hilarious yet biting satire imagines what would happen if the French playwright visited the Museum of Modern Art and found the inspiration for his latest farce. What results is an Emperor’s New Clothes for the contemporary art industry, that will make you laugh, think, and perhaps reconsider the value of a jar of pickles…
- March 2011
Cat’s got big feet so her boyfriend calls her Duck. She’s also got a middle-aged lover who drinks and writes novels, a best friend with a short fuse, a dysfunctional family, and a boyfriend with a nightclub, a gun, and some unfinished business. But which of these threads will she follow?
Premiered at the Royal Court in 2003, Duck is the hilarious and moving dark comedy from Irish playwright Stella Feehily, a provocative coming-of-age story about teenagers on the brink, growing up in the face of everything a city can throw at them. But girls just wanna have fun, and how can you learn to be good when your elders are no longer your betters? Somehow, they must learn to cope or find a way of escaping.
Witty, sharply-observed and highly relevant to modern society, Duck is a show that will make you question the nature of sex, love, family and friendship, and all that falls in between them.
“Duck hurls its audience into the heart of ladette culture… without doubt, an adrenaline rush, a hyperventilating hymn to the age of the angry women.” The Evening Standard
"An exhilarating piece of theatre" The Scotsman
"Immensely engaging and vibrant" The Financial Times
Tickets on sale in advance from the Cambridge Arts Theatre on 01223503333, or available on the door.
- February 2011
"Welcome to the happy world..." Attempted murder, New Age strippers, Techno music, Bulgarian go-go boys, corporate anarchists, AIDS cocktails, horny ghosts, beautiful bodies, abusive lovers, and lots and lots of E. This is 1999. At times poignant, shocking and bleakly hilarious, Ravenhill's Some Explicit Polaroids shows us what happens when these characters collide.
- February 2011
One of the last true icons of the American entertainment industry, Margot de Sade was muse to many musical theatre greats such as Sondheim, Fosse and Kander & Ebb. For the first time in over thirty years, the living legend known simply as 'Margot' returns to Cambridge for FIVE NIGHTS ONLY appearing in the intimate setting of the Corpus Playroom Cabaret Lounge.
"... when I first arrived in Hollywood, it was an age when men were really men... and so were some of the women too."
Expect candid confessions from a long and glittering career, timeless showtunes, saucy stories and fabulous frocks galore!
"Margot is not ONE of the greats... she IS the greatest" - New York Post.
BE SURE TO BOOK EARLY FOR THE THEATRICAL EVENT OF THE DECADE.
Miss de Sade's appearance generously facilitated by Ben Kavanagh.
- February 2011
“Jamie and Tarquin share a flat. So do Tamsin and her sister Maggie. Each has an other half. Each has a choice. And each has reached the final station stop. All change.
A new, experimental play that lasts thirty minutes and covers chess, a fat man, imitation, and eternal justice; embraces Tony Blair and Garry Kasparov, candlesticks, unsmokeable cigarettes, scars, courgettes, choice, or unchoice; penetrates Mum's jug, chicken legs, bad jokes, people who don't listen, and/or divided hearts on a divided stage.
AND/OR stages the desire to see the outcome of all choices, and the wishful thinking that they are not mutually exclusive. The play tries to keep a grip on every possibility. It's a car-crash.”
- February 2011
Three gods come down to earth, there have been so many complaints from Szechwan province about the poor quality of life there, and they simply cannot put off a visit any longer. If they can just find one good soul in the whole of Szechwan then they can go back to their opulent and luxurious lives with a clear conscience. They put their trust in the prostitute Shen Te, and hope that with the help of a little money from the gods she will be able to live her life as a paragon of kindness and virtue and reaffirm the gods belief in their notion of abstract "goodness." Shen Te tries her best but the world is not on Shen Te's side, it is not so easy to be good when you have a business to run, a lover to entice or a child to care for. Shen Te must resort to desperate measures if she is to be good and survive.
The Good Soul of Szechwan is one of Brecht’s masterpieces, funny, tragic and thought provoking Brecht probes the depths of the practicality and prudence of being "good" in a world such as ours.
In an exciting and innovative production from the Director who bought you critically acclaimed ‘Oh What a Lovely War on Terror’ and ‘The Garden Party’ (5 stars – the tab), Toby Jones demonstrates to Cambridge how Brecht can and does work for the modern stage. With an original score written by singer/songwriter Joe Rubini and masks from the RSC, this production is set to be one of the highlights of next terms theatre line up.
- February 2011
When a cross-country coach is forced to make an emergency stop at a service station in the middle of nowhere, three travelers find their lives put abruptly on hold. Ben and Michael are desperate to make it home before it's too late; Selina is preparing herself for a seismic shift in her existence. The three find their fears and ambitions put to the test, caught in close quarters with a cast of fellow passengers who are by turns ridiculous, difficult and desirable. As they wait for the arrival of the day which will determine the rest of their lives, the question looms: can they emerge unscathed?
- February 2011
Julia: Rich. Spoilt. Famous. And now just one more in a long list of high-profile figures caught up in high-profile affairs. Except it’s 8.A.D., and her grandfather Augustus Caesar has legislated for public and private morality; an example must be made, and in Rome, it will invariably be made of a woman.
A new play by Niall Wilson, previously shortlisted for the Marlowe Society ‘Other Prize’ and writer of ‘Ava Adore’ (4* Varsity), in which celebrity righteousness and classical morals shape one royal tearaway and her claim to just want a little bit of fun.
- February 2011
New Writing by Michael Christie Week 2 Late show - Corpus Playroom
'Two brothers, on holiday with their mother in Germany, are shocked to realise their mum has died on a park bench. Dennis is distraught, but Michael sees the real issue: if she dies while abroad, the brothers lose their inheritance. If they can smuggle her body home, they can beat the lawyers and keep the money. They soon find out that escorting a corpse around Berlin and across the English channel isn't easy. In this outrageous black comedy about death and money, you can expect misguided attempts at tact, sibling rivalry and prolonged messing around with an electric wheelchair.'
The play is a Pinteresque black comedy about two bickering brothers, one daft and the other conniving, which mixes darker elements about power dynamics and death with slapstick and farce involving their mother's dead body (which periodically reanimates to haunt them) and the ways in which they transport it.
- February 2011
Arnold Wesker's One Woman Plays are brought to life in Cambridge by a talented array of female actors. Funny, moving and thought-provoking, come and hear their stories...
- January 2011
'Genuine smiles aren't actually about the eyes; they're about the muscles around the eyes. Train those and you can pretend to enjoy just about anything... like Travel Scrabble or physical contact.'
By turns both laugh-out-loud funny and tragic, The Study of Young Men is a new play written by Adam McNally. It centres on Anthony, a man caught up in the breakdown of his friendship with his schoolmates, Rob, Charlie and Jonah. Trying to write down all that has happened between his friends, Anthony's memories come to life around him. As the play progresses, he desperately tries to keep control of his renegade memories, which appear to be developing their own personalities and points of view.
The Study of Young Men gives the opportunity for four actors to work on an ensemble piece with four meaty parts, incorporating comedy, physical theatre and tragic moments.
Auditions will be held in THE BATEMAN ROOM at GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE (ask for directions in the main Porters' Lodge) on:
Wednesday: 12.00-14.30 Thursday: 14.00-16.00 Friday: 12.15-13.45
- January 2011
‘Have you ever seen the human heart? It looks like a fist wrapped in blood.’
Four people meet for the first time. They fall in love. Then they fall apart. Hailed by the Sunday Times as ‘one of the best plays about sex in the language’, Marber’s quick-paced script viciously exposes the violence inherent in desire, laying bare the connection between sex and war, between love and pain. Savagely honest and shot through with a comedy that is only ever cruel, Closer drives us straight to the heart of love without morality. At once torturers and victims, painfully vulnerable and frighteningly sadistic, the characters fight on two fronts: to conquer their targets and to humiliate the competition. When obsession is this overwhelming, rejection creates a destruction that can leave nothing intact.
- November–December 2010
A riotous reworking of the classic story in street theatre style, with five actresses (and a musician) playing all the parts in under an hour. Will Romeo successfully chat up Juliet? Will Balthazar's voice ever break? Will the nurse ever shut up? You all know the answers to these questions and more, so come along to see the original script (although slightly shorter) performed by five talented and deranged girls. That's right: GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS!! Guaranteed to make the Bard roll over in his grave.
- November–December 2010
Three sisters come together before their mother's funeral to drink, argue and reminisce. Yet while they try to reconcile their understanding of their mother they stir up long concealed secrets. For Mary, a doctor having an affair, the death brings up her resentment at giving away her child. She needs to come to terms with the past, but her past is not the same as Teresa remembers. While Teresa has married the image of their father, Mary must acknowledge her connection to her mother. Katherine just wants attention, even from her sister's husband. This Olivier award-winning play explores the way our family shapes us: how can we come to terms with the past if we cannot trust our own memories?
- November 2010
'Children. Teenagers. They're not easy to deal with, you know. They're like old people, but worse. And equally as bloodthirsty.'
Father Andrews, a priest and RE teacher, finds himself under unforeseen pressure when he takes up a new position in a boisterous inner-city school. Though optimistic at the outset, he soon finds himself unable to control his classes and at the mercy of his pupils' unwillingness to learn from him. Despite reassurance from his well-meaning but ineffectual friend Ruth, Father Andrews eventually finds his aversion to harsh discipline backfires on him, compromising both his reputation and his faith. 'Ecclesiastical Perks' is a darkly comic play that deals with the precarious place of religion in a school's curriculum, the damaging effect of a child's word against a teacher's, and the unforgiving nature of the British media.
- November 2010
Fifteen years ago Una and Ray had a relationship. They haven't set eyes on each other since. Now she's found him again.
2007 Lawrence Olivier award winner for Best New Play, David Harrower's 'Blackbird' is one of the most daring new plays of recent years. Neither condoning nor condemning, but always startlingly evocative in its treatment of a taboo subject, this is its Cambridge debut and is not to be missed.
- November 2010
Care of Douglas, six of Cambridge's most up-and-coming comedians (as seen in Footlights Smokers, King's Jest and the Wolfson Howler), bring you 'Now, Now', the brand new sketch show that is more than ready to get on with it. Now, now, chip, chop, come along...Alright then, take your time - but be sure to hurry yourself down here pretty darn vite for a speedy night of sharper-than-cutlery comedy.
- November 2010
In an ordinary flat, in an ordinary totalitarian regime, Hugo Pludek has finished school and is ready to set foot into the world. Just like any boy he has parents who are keen for him to 'get ahead', and with that in mind he is sent to The Liquidation Office Garden Party. It is a wonderfully exciting party. As long as you have submitted the necessary forms to the Secretariat of Humour and the Ideological Regulation Commission you can even exchange humorous stories with other guests. The Liquidation Office is so impressed with Hugo that they entrust him with the liquidation of the Liquidation Office as long as he wears his regulation novelty party nose. This absurdist comedy from the Czech Republic's most famous dissident/essayist/playwright/president will have you laughing, crying, pondering and all other things besides. After all 'one should never fire a blunderbuss into the nettles'.
This “monumental headfuck of an absurdist comedy” is a reflection on the nature of success, and the bullshittery it requires – something close to all our hearts here in Cambridge. Havel hilariously demonstrates how our language can control our thought and behaviour and how we ultimately are ruled by the bullshit we spout.
