- December 2024
Shrek is a third year Mathmo who lives alone in Girton swamp, paying no rent to college except his obligatory contribution. He also happens to be an ogre. When the evil Bursar Farquaad triples rent to pay for the new development, Shrek’s swamp is suddenly invaded by a horde of students looking for a place to stay away from college - along with a talking Squirrel, whose rent in one of the Girton trees has also been raised. Meanwhile, Bursar Farquaad is advised by the Junior Bursar on the Wall that he should marry someone rich to fund a lavish new Bursar’s Apartment in the new court. He chooses Fiona, a third year muso tripos topper who is locked in the U.L. tower by her DoS, a vicious dragon, who wants to ensure that she tops in final year. Shrek and Squirrel journey to Girton and agree to retrieve Fiona in return for the rent going back down, but it may not be as easy as it seems…
- November 2024
Girton College Music Society presents a staged version of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors (1951). This hour-long, single-act chamber opera, full of humour and jollity, is guaranteed to get you in the festive spirit!
Amahl, a disabled boy who can walk only with a crutch, sees a shooting star while playing outside. Later that evening, the Magi ask to stay at his house. After a momentous night involving a failed attempt to steal their gold, the kings prepare to depart. Amahl, having no other gift, offers his crutch and his leg is miraculously healed. With his mother’s blessing, he leaves with the Magi to visit the Christ Child.
- November 2023
Wendy, John, and Michael are three Freshers at the college of St. John’s. Day in, day out, life is perfect there; nothing could possibly ever go wrong. Until one night, Wendy’s subconscious, dreamy desires of living at an out-of-town college begin to come true, as she starts to be visited by Peter PAMS. What she doesn’t realise is that this was the start of an adventure the three freshers would never forget...
Join Peter (Girton’s very own Protector of Allocated Money for Students (and no way in parallel to the JCR Treasurer)) as he takes the trio on a trip to GirtonLand to uncover the life led by those outside of the town centre. Along the way, we encounter 2 of St. John’s best chefs, the Lost Boys, Squirrabel, Hook the Bursar and the Junior Bursmee, as Wendy starts to question where she actually belongs in Cambridge, whether she’s truly at the right college, and what on earth is a ‘deep schlub’?
- October 2023
It’s the start of the new academic year. Students are moving in left, right and centre and the Freshers' Committee are really feeling the chaos. Gir’tons of Love follows what happens when two freshers very randomly and unexpectedly bump into each other in the corridor on their first day. Unbeknownst to them, they end up entangled in the plotting of the evil Mistress and Bursar - it’s classic GADS guys, come on! After making some friends, bumping into the Head Porter, and getting involved in some horrifically written song parodies, will they be able to save Freshers’ Week in time? Who knows! Our incredibly stressed out Freshers’ Week President really hopes so…
- November 2022
Girton Amateur Dramatic Society’s annual pantomime is back and better than ever.
Girtonian Nights is a fresh take on the story of Aladdin with our usual Girton twist.
Having lost her job for "tardiness and inappropriate use of social media" the former Mistress of Girton College is down on her luck but when her closest advisor tells her of a secret Health and Safety Manual that could be the key to her regaining power, she'll somehow become embroiled in Spring Ball Committee romance, Laundry Room shenanigans and whatever the hell is going on in the Bike Sheds...
- October 2022
From the mind of Zac Copeland-Greene, comes another attempt at “comedy” and “gripping Girton-based drama”, with a few musical parodies and all the old GADS tropes thrown in. Another year at Girton means another batch of Freshers ready to shake things up, but when the brand new Mistress fails to show up at the start of the new year our heroes find themselves tangled in a web of questions:
Where is this New Mistress? What is the College Bursar plotting? And why does one of the Freshers’ Reps keep hanging out with them acting like they’re friends? Expect puns, dancing and an epic (read ‘frantic’) lip-synced bike ride into town.
- October 2022
The Junior Bursar, Ms Maureen Hackett, was busy working in Stanley Library one night when she saw something in her papers that shook her to her core. She nipped to the loo and came back to take a sip of her Girton Gin and Tonic only to fall straight back down- she had been poisoned! Oh no! Freshers’ must embark on a journey of twists and turns around the college grounds, meet with witnesses and potential suspects to discover… WHO POISONED THE JUNIOR BURSAR? WHAT DID SHE FIND IN THE PAPERS? WHY DID THEY DO IT?
- March 2022
Talented but rough-edged British schoolboys have their worlds changed forever when two teachers with opposing viewpoints on education engage in a battle to get them into Oxford and Cambridge. Set in a Sheffield Grammar School in the 1980s, the show also grapples with the complexities of class, sexuality, gender, and coming-of-age.
- March 2022
It's 1972. An era of possibility and polyester and pubic hair. While Ziggy Stardust is on Top of the Pops, Penny is writing an essay on Lady Chatterley's Lover, Christine is watching Deep Throat and Brian is confused.
Devised by The Wardrobe Ensemble, 1972: The Future of Sex incorporates the company's trademark theatricality, irreverent humour and ensemble ingenuity to tell the story of three couples having sex for the first time – and a country on the brink of a sexual awakening.
- November 2021
The GADS Christmas Panto is back in traditional Girton fashion!
‘Max in Top Boots’ is a brand new, student-written take on Puss in Boots, featuring musical parodies. Watch as undergraduate Colin attempts to woo the Senior Tutor's daughter with the Mistress' cat as his wingman while somehow getting caught up in a plot to save the Spring Ball. Hilarity, dancing, foiled evil genius, and wholesome Girton chaos of course ensue.
- November 2021
After the success of our first Girton's Got Talent, which demonstrated many impressive talents (from guitar skills, to autoral poetry, to avant-garde comedy) we are back for more!
The creative skills of Girton's grad community will be presented in a completely laid-back, welcoming environment, in our beloved Open-Mic Night!
- December 2019
The GADS Bridgemas Pantomime about the incredibly true history of Emily Davies and the founding of Girton College! Featuring Max the college cat, the evil Master of Trinity College and the Girton Co-op.
- October 2019
It’s dangerous being a fresher. Welcome to Girton, a college populated by fiendish bureaucrats, feisty cats and some rule breaking initiative taking freshers. They become disorientated on arrival when they mistake the bureaucratic, spirit-draining, 5-minute chore that is Matriculation for "The Hunt": an ancient, fiendish set of silly tasks to welcome the freshers. What was supposed to be a simple show up, sign in, shuttle out ceremony becomes a high-stakes clutch of life-defining challenges. They firmly believe that if they don't find the right booze, books and cat-photos they won't enrol in the college or receive a penny of their allowances. By the time the night ends will they finish the tasks in time? Or be left struggling without their student loans, and with their amassed debts from phone game add-ons.
- May 2019
The GADS Freshers' Play team is happy to present 'Black Comedy'!
Set in a South Kensington flat, it follows artist Brindsley Miller and his fiancée Carol as they prepare for a very important night. Carol's boisterous father Colonel Melkett is paying a visit, as is the elderly German art collector Georg Bamberger, and Brindsley is desperate to impress the both of them. He thinks he's ready for the night ahead… right until the power cut. As the building plunges into darkness, all manner of uninvited and unwanted guests converge on Brindsley’s home - can he keep them entertained until the fuse is fixed?
Tickets @ https://gads.tessera.events/tickets/black-comedy
- March 2019
All-Girton cast Smoker.
- November 2018
Pinocchio is coming to Girton.
Girton appoints an Academic Strategic Supervisor, Valerio, whose ambition is to get the college to the top of the college rankings. As Valerio is struggling to reform the college, an international student called Pinocchio is making a name for himself. Spying the boy: half human, half puppet, the Valerio plans the production of puppet-pupils that only know how to do chores and get firsts in their exams. But before this, he needs to identify what makes Pinocchio work?
- October 2018
It’s dangerous being a fresher. Welcome to Girton, a college populated by fiendish bureaucrats, feisty cats and some rule breaking initiative taking freshers. They become disorientated on arrival when they mistake the bureaucratic, spirit-draining, 5-minute chore that is Matriculation for "The Hunt": an ancient, fiendish set of silly tasks to welcome the freshers. What was supposed to be a simple show up, sign in, shuttle out ceremony becomes a high-stakes clutch of life-defining challenges. They firmly believe that if they don't find the right booze, books and cat-photos they won't enrol in the college or receive a penny of their allowances. By the time the night ends will they finish the tasks in time? Or be left struggling without their student loans, and with their amassed debts from phone game add-ons.
- May 2018
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the admission of women to degrees at the University of Cambridge, GADS will be putting on dramatised readings of select scenes from Blue Stockings.
Girton College, 1896. Women study alongside men, but when they graduate are not awarded degrees - and are instead labelled as unnatural, unmairrageble, educated women. However, the move towards change has begun, and over the course of the academic year four young women fight for the right to graduate with degrees.
- October 2017
Girton: The Musical tells the tale of a rag-tag group of students as they face the trials and tribulations of starting life in the far-flung frontier of Girton College. Featuring hit songs such as 'I'm Ditching You', 'The Lesbians of Newnham' and the classic 'We are Girton', Girton: The Musical is not a show to be missed
- October 2016
A raucous tale of a misfit bunch who come to the hallowed halls of Girton, and the trials and tribulations they face on the way. Girton: The Musical features such hit songs as "I'm Ditching You", "The Lesbians of Newnham", and the seminal classic "We Are Girton".
- October 2015
- February 2015
'The Lark' by Jean Anouilh (translated by Christopher Fry), based on the story of Joan of Arc.
The play is set during her trial, and short episodes from her life and journey are played out chronologically. Joan of Arc manipulates, flatters and commands her way from father, to lord, to king, to battle but ultimately submits herself to her execution. It is an intense and earnest play, often quieting and sometimes vicious, but not without moments of dark humour. Diverse, high energy characters (ranging from perverted priests, abusive fathers, battling Queens and mistresses, and petulant boy-kings), operate in conjunction with the fast pace of an episodic structure to create variety and intoxicating escalation of events.
- December 2014
This year, GADS are bringing you the whimsically wonderful tale of Jack and the Beanstalk for your Christmas pantomime! Handsome Fresher Jack is longing to take the girl of his dreams, Jill, to Selwyn Snow Ball. However, there is one problem - as Matilda, Jack's best friend and college wife points out, our dear Jack has spent all his student finance already! How will Jack make the money to take Jill to the Ball? And with the troublesome ugly sisters, Stacey and Samantha, seeming set on keeping Jack and Jill apart, will the fairytale couple ever come together at all? With the help of a magic beanstalk and a Good Fairy, anything is possible!
- November 2014
Come along to see the brand new sketch show, created by Girtonians for you. Yes, YOU! There'll be laughs, bad puns, Russian accents, time machines, basically anything you could ever want from an evening.
- October 2014
- June 2014
- February 2014
- November 2013
Description As Michaelmas Term draws to a close, one cannot go home for the holidays without witnessing a quintessential Girton tradition...
The GADS Michaelmas Panto of course!!
Get ready for a night of masquerade madness, southern secretaries, overbearing college parents, and a magical Christmas Ent. Will Ella get to go to the Christmas Ent and meet her handsome prince, or will her evil supervisor stop her in her tracks? Maybe with the help of the Mistress Fairy Godmother, everything will fall into place?
- June 2013
Come up to Girton and 'loosen they bursting udder' with GADS this May Week, as we perform E.P. Coleridge's comic translation of this classical tale, with nothing but some sheets of cardboard and a marker pen!
Tickets £2 on the door.
- March 2013
It is the year 500 BC. Rome is at war. In an army camp on the outskirts of the city, the Generals Collatinus and Junius have been drinking with the Etruscan Prince of Rome, Tarquinius. But whilst the men fight and drink, what are their wives up to? Earlier, some soldiers had been sent back to Rome to see whose wife had remained the most faithful, with disastrous results. Now as wine flows and tempers rise, the resentment towards Collatinus, the only one whose wife was loyal, begins to boil over. Collatinus' chaste and beautiful Lucretia is more of a temptation than the hot-blooded Tarquinius can stand. What follows is the deeply disturbing psychological portrait of Lucretia's downfall.
Double-Olivier award winning actress Samantha Spiro and Britten scholar and broadcaster Dr Kate Kennedy have come together to direct "The Rape of Lucretia" with a thrilling ensemble of Cambridge University's most talented young singers and musicians.
- June 2008
