- June 2008
'Hell is - other people.' In one of the 20th Century's most prominent and philosophical plays we see how three intriguing characters; a lesbian, a woman desperate for the touch of a male, and a man agonised by his cowardice; each face an eternity of cruel self-realisation. Set against the eloquent backdrop of a Second Empire style drawing room, Sartre's haunting depiction of Hell manages to stimulate the audience's thoughts, as we are forced to question our ideas on the meaning of life.
- June 2008
"But I remember you. I remember you dead. I remember you lying dead." "Old Times" exemplifies Pinter's sober skills in alienation, breakdown and silence. The intimate reunion of Kate and Anna after twenty years becomes a nightmarish revelation of all things past, in which then and now, love and power, and memory and fact become entangled and destructive. Anna engages in a vicious combat with Kate's husband Deeley for the control of Kate's mind. For them, the house becomes hell; for the audience, the theatre becomes threatening. Things fall apart until a terrible conclusion, which captures the tragic futility of their existence. After the horror created by old times, the characters can only enact Wittgenstein's maxim: "that of which we cannot speak, must be passed over in silence."
- May 2008
"Things are improving - less rocks are thrown - less cars completely overturned - less shots fired - there are fewer emergencies than there used to be - but all the same, there's an emergency on right now."
A group of people sit telling stories. Who are these storytellers? Actors improvising? Executives at a script conference? It is never clear if the storylines they are narrating are real events or simply imagined, events being roughed out for an unknown purpose. Crimp presents a world where happiness is sacrificed for a nice handmade table, truth for easy lies and we lock our children up when the real horror is really within. This is not an imagined world but our world today, where we are all content in our ignorance of a lifestyle threatened by violence and unspecified ‘emergencies’.
- May 2008
'You vicious little bitch! You think you can come in here with your political correctness and destroy my life?'
'I don't want revenge. I want UNDERSTANDING!'
An avucular professor; a naive student. An older man; a younger woman. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? David Mamet's OLEANNA pulls apart the stereotypes of gender and class to reveal two people, trapped together in an office, united only by their mutual hatred... and a longing for understanding. OLEANNA explores whether the sexes can ever really understand each other - and even if they do, do they only really want revenge?
- May 2008
The strangely pale-faced child of a gypsy whore, Scaramouche was always fated to be a clown. But from his birth, at midnight on New Year's Eve 1899 in a dingy Trinidad knocking shop, his life has been an odyssey through extraordinary adventures, crumbling empires and the darkest episodes on the 20th century.
Now, as the champagne corks fly on millenium eve, Scaramouche is about to give his last and most important performance. He steps out from the circus ring, peels away his outer disguises and reveals the loves, brutalities, ecstasies and tragedies that created the seven white masks of Scaramouche Jones.
- May 2008
- May 2008
"...It seems - uncanny. It makes me feel we're - we're all just waiting for something..."
The trenches of the Somme. A group of officers prepares for the greatest German attack of the war. Commanding Officer Stanhope drinks to forget. Hibbert feigns illness. New boy Raleigh thinks it's all a jolly exciting game. Each man has his own coping mechanism, and each takes its toll on the already strained relationships in a confined and claustrophobic space as the pressure builds and the waiting becomes harder and harder to bear.
A smash hit in the West End, this tense and intricately realised portrait of a few days in the lives of a few men is a poignant testament to the courage and resilience of humanity under the most horrendous conditions imaginable.
- April–May 2008
"Now the second thing you will do for me is visit my bedroom twice a week – Tuesdays and Thursdays will do very nicely I think, at midnight. There you will beat me for half an hour with a clothes hanger or a wet towel and afterwards run up and down on my bottom with cricket boots. I should like that."
Dominic Clarke has a terrible secret: he has been having a gay love affair with one of his thirteen-year-old pupils. Worse still, he has been found out by Herbert Brookshaw, a calculating old-hand of the school who is determined to beat Clarke to the headmastership by any means necessary.
What follows is a vicious and bitter power struggle between Clarke and Brookshaw, involving blackmail, bizarre sexual practices, religious dogma and crunchy peanut butter.
Stephen Fry wrote 'Latin!' in 1980 whilst at Cambridge, specifically for the Corpus Playroom. The play was a resounding success and went on to win the Edinburgh Fringe First award. Now it's making a very special return to the Playroom...
- April–May 2008
"There are women who believe all men are rapists. I don't believe that because if I did believe that how - as a woman - could I go on living with the label 'victim'? Because I am not a victim - oh no - that's not a part I'm willing to play - believe me."
Far away a battle rages and an entire city is turned to dust. Amelia can't sleep. She waits for news of her husband. He's a great General and this seems to be a decisive victory. But when the motives for war start to look disturbingly personal, his wife becomes desperate to hold on to his love.
Martin Crimp's new play takes Sophocles' ancient story of marriage and violence - The Trachiniae - and propels it into a modern world of political hypocrisy and emotional terrorism.
- March 2008
"Be careful - if you breathe, it breaks."
Laura, crippled by shyness, is as fragile as the collection of glass animals she spends her days caring for.
Tom, her brother, dreams of escaping the harsh fluorescent lights of the shoe factory, writing poems on shoeboxes when no one is watching.
And Amanda, their mother, trapped by memories of her glamorous youth, anticipates the arrival of Laura's first "Gentleman Caller", a visitor from the real world with the power to shatter all their illusions.
- March 2008
The world's greatest physicist, Johann Wilhelm Möbius, is in a madhouse, haunted by recurring visions of King Solomon. He is kept company by two other equally deluded scientists: one who thinks he is Einstein, another who believes he is Newton. It soon becomes evident, however, that these three are not as harmlessly lunatic as they appear. Whilst twisting and turning, the play additionally delivers a healthy, and rather dark, dose of farce. It's macabre, melodramatic, mad, and all with murdered nurses galore...
- February–March 2008
FREEDOM OR A LIFE-SENTENCE. WHERE WILL YOUR CONVICTION LEAD YOU? Richard's life went so wrong. He was a happily married man until his conviction drove his life apart. Who would have thought that a fur coat could cause so much damage? A ruined marriage, a strained relationship with his daughter and a desperate need for love and self-worth. Conviction explores the dark emotions underpinning political activism. By the end, you'll be presented with a pressing dilemma: what does conviction really mean? WHERE DOES YOUR CONVICTION REALLY LIE?
- February–March 2008
‘I’m burning your child. I’m burning the baby…’ Returning from honeymoon with her dull academic husband, aristocratic Hedda finds herself trapped by bourgeois domesticity. This is a world she cannot tolerate but lacks the courage to escape. She is driven only by her own deadly talent for boredom and destruction. Hedda fantasises about setting blonde hair on fire. She plays with loaded pistols but aims at the sky. Over the next thirty six hours she will learn to use her weapons. HATS and the Fletcher Players present a new, pared down, visceral interpretation of Ibsen’s drawing room tragedy of frustration, moral cowardice and casual cruelty. There is blood on the writing desk and someone’s child in the grate. Will Hedda do the unspeakable?
- February 2008
'If I could grow six inches and be as fat as I am now I'd be really tall and thin.'
Jo wishes she could be the object of men's desires. Mary wishes she wasn't. Celia just wants to use the bathroom. Low Level Panic examines in detail the emotions and opinions of three 20-something flatmates in an inspiring journey through insecurity, self-consciousness, and bitterness, eased by an accompaniment of wit and entertaining jokes.
This one act play is typical of the late 80’s drama of London’s Royal Court Theatre, as it demonstrates the tribulations of these three young women dealing with the issues of personality, partying and pornography. The script offers a wide creative scope for both cast and crew, as the audience is transported from the familiar setting of a bathroom, to the more obscure places of the characters’ memories and thoughts. The combination of naturalistic interaction between the characters, and the more abstract monologues and soliloquies provide an excellent showcase of the actors’ talents, whereas the abrupt transformation from the realistic to the not-so-real affords a fantastic opportunity for the technical side of the production to shine through.
This engaging production with its mature humour will amuse a later evening audience, and will be sure to be a resounding success.
- February 2008
Everyone knows the Cindarella story. But what actually happens next? Can true love really be based on a shoe fetish? Our tale follows the farcical disintegration of the not-so-happy couple's marriage, helped by an homicidal fairy godmother, a desperate divorce lawyer, a stereotypically camp male personal assistant, and of course, the ugly sisters. With the paparazzi frantic for a scoop, it will take drastic measures for anyone to make it to Happily Ever After. Happily Ever After could be considered a deeply satirical take on love in today's celebrity obsessed culture, which seeks to challenge dramatical conventions. But that would be stretching it. It is, however, full of jokes and less than an hour long. So go on, dare a trip away from your TV and let us take you to a land not so far away!
- February 2008
Two conversations between two people in two places. They talk about lots of things. They don't talk about lots of things. But what is said is less important than that it's said. Or not said. How much can we really connect to each other through words alone? Cynical/idealistic, funny/sad, something/nothing is bound to get you talking. Which is kind of the point, really.
A new play by the award-winning author of Coat:
"Genuinely touching" - The Guardian
***** - The British Theatre Guide
- February 2008
In a drowsy Spanish courtyard, Marguerita recounts the mystery surrounding the death of her child. Meanwhile another mother is caught in a battle of wills with her daughter who has fallen in love with a girl. Bryony Lavery’s surreal and atmospheric play explores the threshold between love and oppression, past and present and the complexity of motherhood. As the old woman’s tale unfolds, we learn the darker secrets of her past and are forced to reconcile disgust and pity.
- February 2008
Winner of ‘Best Play’ at the 1987 National Student Drama Awards, American Eagle follows the eponymous superhero and his creators at Miracle Comics through the turbulent years of the twentieth century. Drawn up in the aftermath of Pearl Harbour, American Eagle is created by Bob Hickson, and editor Weissmuller, to reignite patriotism. Eagle must first fight Nazism, and is then forced by a series of editors, each with their own agenda, to battle Communism, and then lead the troops into Vietnam. But can the American Dream, and American Eagle, survive intact? The Cambridge premiere of the revised version of this play sees a small cast portray dozens of characters in an action-packed comic-book adventure!
- January–February 2008
“This is what you want. Is it? This is what you’re making me do. This is what you’re making me do to help you. To help you Louise! No more nice. You like bastards? You like a bastard do you?”
Mark and Louise, workmates, live together for two weeks in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. Louise, the cute girl in the office, always thought Mark was quite sweet. Mark, from reprographics, always had a thing for Louise. Tins of chilli, Dungeons and Dragons and a knife: paramount until the bitter end. But After the End the story becomes a reality.
- January–February 2008
Spend time exploring the wonderful world of the Brothers Grimm, be entertained and enthralled by four cautionary tales and allow yourself to get sucked into the creativity of theatre and the wonders of the imagination. With talking sausages, rooms full of gold, heartbreak and a lute playing donkey these, more Grimm than fairy, tales are not to be missed.
- January 2008
Two of Chekhov's short farces. Perfect fare for a cold January evening.
"The Bear": Mrs. Popova has been in mourning for the last 12 months, ever since her husband died. The fact that he cheated on her is, perversely, a source of motivation for this. When she is rudely interrupted by Sminov, a bankrupt landowner who is calling in his debts, the tensions rise between these two uncompromising characters until breaking point.
"The Night before the Trial": Zaytsev arrives at an inn on a freezing night. He is due in court the next day, where he is to be put on trial for bigamy, fraud, and the attempted murder of a sporting goods manufacturer. If found guilty, he'll kill himself right there in the dock. Such thoughts of suicide evaporate when he catches sight of the lodger in the next room, but what can he do, with her husband also present?
- January 2008
"Do you remember the night we met? You stepped on the bottle shards between the cracks in the pavement...We danced in your bedroom, to the sound of broken glass."
Clare Actors presents two short plays unified under the themes of fragility and fragmentation.
"Losing Adonis" is a modern treatment of classical myth, exploring the consequences of a life lived through fairytale. "Song" recalls the chaotic memories of a troubled young man on the brink of self-destruction.
"Broken Glass" is a new and innovative project, drawing on the loves and losses so common to us all, yet so resolutely unique.
See www.brokenglassplay.co.uk for further details.
- November–December 2007
- November 2007
"Out there, where the sky shines, humans say: 'To thyself be true'. In here, trolls say: 'Be true to yourself - ish.'"
Caught in a place between reality and fantasy, Peer Gynt is searching for his identity- what is that? Who is he? What can he trust to tell him? Peer begins his quest through a landscape of time, place and mind. At times tragic, comic and fantastic, Ibsen fashions a world that is other to our own yet inextricably connected, a Borderland between here and now and other and elsewhere. Are we alone here? This imaginative and lively production creates the energy, bawdiness and innovation of Kenneth McLeish's National Theatre translation.
Book through the Cambridge Arts Theatre, St Edward's Passage on 01223 503333.
www.peer-gynt.co.uk
- November 2007
‘If thou dost love me Show me thy thought.’
One of Shakespeare’s very greatest plays, Othello’s stage is alive with scrutinies and suspicions. This stripped-down production will see six actors watching and being watched, enacting through intense, highly physical performance the tragic downfall of the Moor. Rarely staged in Cambridge, this production will bring to the text a genuinely exciting interpretation and innovative style. Be sure to see it.
- October–November 2007
“Gemma was fine. Political.” “She wasn’t political.” “She wanted to adopt a Vietnamese baby outside the Uffizi.”
Gemma has stopped speaking. Lorna thinks it’s because she’s been sleeping with Rob. Alastair thinks it’s because of his love-letter. Gail wonders how she is going to cope with a baby when her best friend won’t speak and her boyfriend keeps coming to bed in a tracksuit. Rob wants to come round later for sex.
Minghella’s sharply comic view of modern life questions why silence is such a threat. This onslaught of infidelity, intimacy and indifference will make you laugh, but also make you wonder what we’re doing with all these words anyway...
- May 2007
In a production that features four new short plays, a group of eclectic characters are assembled to offer us glimpses into their lives. Their stories are, by turns, tragic, farcical and truly bizarre. One woman resists the desperate attempts of her former partner to stake a claim on their unborn child; elsewhere a jealous ex pursues his beloved in an art gallery that has a life of its own; in a dressers shop two couples swap stories and clothes and on higher ground, a deceased priest finds heaven hijacked by the mafia; another. Corpus Christi’s finest new student writers present ‘Making Space’.
- May 2007
“And why does it always have to be the people like me who have to sacrifice, why are we always the one ones who have to make concessions when something has to be conceded, why always be who has to bite her tongue, why?”
Torture, confession and Schubert’s symphony.
“Oh, Paulina – isn’t it time we stopped?”
- March 2007
Join the Fletcher Players as they welcome the Owlets Theatre Group from their sister college of Corpus Christi, Oxford. This will be a unique one night only showcase of the best talent and new writing from two Oxbridge colleges who enjoy a strong, yet competitive relationship. Don't miss this unusual chance of seeing combined Oxbridge drama and comedy at its best!
- March 2007
This year sees the 10th annual production of Smorgasbord, THE festival celebrating the best of Cambridge's new writing and drama scene! Four original and varied plays by student writers will be performed, showcasing the best new writing talent that Cambridge has to offer!
- March 2007
A rainy Monday morning in London. Awkward chance meetings, instant attractions and casual betrayals characterise the crammed Tube trains and busy streets of the capital. Men and women follow their regular routines on a day that they can only assume will be dull and humdrum. Yet as grave news about the most powerful symbol of national unity breaks, the normal rules governing English reservation and reticence cease to apply, and six different people are offered a fleeting chance to embrace a life just a little less ordinary.
- March 2007
'If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly.'
One of Shakespeare's darkest works, Macbeth is also one of his most popular and has fascinated and disturbed audiences for centuries. This new fast-paced, minimalist production will use the intimate atmosphere of the Corpus Playroom to explore the tragic elements at the play's heart. Through exploiting movement and live music throughout the auditorium the production aims to throw the audience into the thick of the action, so that viewers will fully experience the immediacy of the fear and paranoia which grips the protagonists as events begin to spiral out of control.
- February–March 2007
"The main thing about broads is two things. One: The Way to Get Laid is to Treat 'Em Like Shit, and Two: Nothing, nothing makes you so attractive to the opposite sex as getting your rocks off on a regular basis."
Welcome to the world of the modern relationship, where sex is a commodity and love is just a word. Sexual hostility crackles through every scene of Mamet's dissection of human interaction in its various states of love, lust and dissatisfaction. An hour long, this is a play to make you cringe in your seat and cry with laughter, this is an unforgettable portrayal of sex and friendship, and what it really means to say "I love you"...
- February 2007
‘Salter’ messed-up with his first-born. He wanted a second-chance. But with the same child. A family tragedy meets futuristic fantasy, Caryl Churchill's 'A Number' confronts us with the potentially nightmarish consequences of a family experiencing the effects of reproductive cloning. Challenging us to reconsider what exactly ‘it’ is that individuates each one of us, and exploring how our senses of identity can be altered as we experience the effects of scientific advancement, ‘A Number’ is a poignant and timely play.
- February 2007
- February 2007
An Englishman, an Irishman and an American are locked up in a cell in the Middle East. McGuinness explores the way these individuals cope with their struggles and reveals the survival mechanisms inherent in human nature. The result is a humorous and deeply moving piece of theatre in which the character relationships and dynamics that develop are fascinating to watch. In our current political climate this play is not only poignant but it also offers an insight into the reality of what some prisoners might face. It is a compelling portrayal of three characters who show determination not only to survive but to retain their sanity and identity in the most challenging of circumstances.
