ADC Theatre: Diary

Footlights presents
Footlights Smokers
Tuesday 31st January - Tuesday 13th March
£7/£6

Footlights bring you the funniest songs, sketches, monologues and stand up in an hour of nonstop, 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).

They’ve sold out the ADC Theatre for so many years that we’ve stopped counting, so book early to avoid disappointment!

Thyestes
Seneca (trans. Frank Justus Miller, adaptation Phil Howe)
Wednesday 1st February - Saturday 4th February
Wed £5/£4, Thu-Sat £6/£5

The raw brutality of Seneca’s Thyestes has shocked and horrified audiences for almost two thousand years, even inspiring one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, Titus Andronicus. Exiled Thyestes begs his brother Atreus’ forgiveness and seeks to end the curse on their household, but Atreus is not ready to let go quite yet.

With characters locked in a never-ending struggle for control, the furious pace and outrageous spectacle of this play is brought from the court of Nero to the heart of Cambridge. Blurring the boundaries between theatre and reality, this production of Seneca’s classic tragedy brings its raw brutality full circle, right round to the dark comedy and intricate meta-theatre inherent in the text.

Taking the staging of revenge to its logical conclusion, this tragic villain knows no act of retaliation is complete without the right audience.

Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club presents
Canterbury Tales
Chaucer (adapted by Mike Poulton)
Tuesday 7th February - Saturday 11th February
Tue & Wed £8/£6, Thu-Sat £10/£8

Come and join the revelry as a group of pilgrims entertain one another with stories as they journey to Canterbury Cathedral. There are tales of morality and warning from the Prioress and Physician; bawdiness and comedy from the Miller and Reeve and watch out for the Monk, who never ceases to ‘bewail in manner tragical’!

Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ may be familiar to a few English students ... But have you ever considered them expressed through a variety of genres including puppetry, physical theatre and operetta style? You may be surprised (and delighted) to discover that people in the 14th century were not all that different from us!

Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra presents
Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra
Tuesday 7th February
£6/£5

Cambridge's premier vehicle for promoting and performing jazz in the University and beyond returns to the ADC for one night only. They have won gold awards in UK-wide big band competitions and have collaborated with world-famous musicians, composers and arrangers such as Mark Nightingale, Gareth Lockrane, Steve Waterman, Issie Barratt and Mike Gibbs. The band regularly tours abroad, having played in top venues such as the Casa del Jazz in Rome, the Budapest Jazz Club, and the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival.

CUMTS presents
Bereavement: The Musical
Jeff Carpenter and Máirín O'Hagan
Wednesday 8th February - Saturday 11th February
Wed £5/£4, Thu-Sat £6/£5

Bereavement is a song and dance. Watch people singing and dancing about it.

In this brand-new comedy musical, the big secret about bereavement is revealed: no-one really knows what they should be doing. Curtain up and spotlight on six characters as they blunder through bereavement’s funny little cabaret, trying to make sense of grief and the unexpected extras it throws up. But once you’ve survived the barrage of tasteless funerals; needless guilt; ‘helpful’ advice and useless clichés, is anyone any the wiser about what it really means to lose someone? Following the success of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; Jet Set Go! and Jerry Springer the Opera, CUMTS is proud to present its first new-writing musical.

From the writers of The Orphanarium of Erthing Worthing (*****, The Tab), A Children's Guide to the Birth of Christ (“Fantastic” TCS) and the ADC/Footlights Pantomime: Treasure Island (*****, Varsity), this musical promises to teach you nothing at all.

Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club presents
The Boys in the Band
Mart Crowley
Tuesday 14th February - Saturday 18th February
Tue & Wed £8/£6, Thu-Sat £10/£8

“It’s like watching an accident on the highway – you can’t look at it and you can’t look away.”

Harold’s closest friends are throwing him a birthday party. Before the end of the night, the friendships and relationships of nine male friends and lovers are tested to their extremes as the group deals (or not) with its demons. Realised with startling naturalism, Boys in the Band is by turns uproariously funny and deeply moving, laced through with the tragedy of young men struggling to make sense of themselves and each other. With an all-male cast, Mart Crowley’s hard-hitting drama about homosexuality in the 1960s comes to the ADC stage for the very first time.

Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club / Fletcher Players presents
Moments
Hellie Cranney
Tuesday 14th February - Saturday 18th February, ADC Theatre, Larkum Studio
Tue-Wed £5/£4, Thu-Sat £6/£5

Ava and Daniel are strangers living in Liverpool. Quietly, seemingly without anyone noticing, their lives have begun to fall apart. Finding solace and a little social embarrassment in a few chance encounters, they begin to tell each other their stories.

Described by the author as 'a play about what we're willing to share, and what we keep to ourselves', Moments will leave audiences divided over what the play has really revealed about its characters.

A captivating debut from a writer of serious impact and obvious promise, Hellie Cranney was the winner of 'Best Script' in the Cambridge 24 Hour Plays 2011.

The Outside Joke presents
G.G.T.H.
Jonny Lennard, Ali Lewis, Pierre Novellie
Wednesday 15th February - Saturday 18th February
Wed £5/£4, Thu-Sat £6/£5

The Outside Joke presents ‘G.G.T.H.’, a brand new, multimedia sketch comedy from the creators of ‘The Mexican Standoff’ (Newnham Old Labs, Lent 2011, **** The Tab). Combining experience from ‘Now, Now’, ‘The Mexican Standoff’, ‘Nonsense’ and the Footlights Pantomime, large joke-merchant Pierre Novellie, tiny pun magnate Ali Lewis, and alabaster raconteur Jonny Lennard team up with director Phil Wang to bring you a mysteriously-titled hour of dark, sexy comedy.

Praise for The Outside Joke:

“quite simply brilliant... even if you hate comedy, you’ll like this” (The Tab)

“a gifted comic company... thoroughly entertaining... an obviously accomplished and greatly enjoyable sketch show from some of the best in Cambridge” (Varsity).

WRiTEON presents
From Script to Screen - A Workshop with Tim Fywell
Sunday 26th February, ADC Bar
£28/£25

Please note that this is an all-day workshop which will last for six hours, finishing at 5.00pm

Television and film director Tim Fywell (Cambridge Spies; I Capture the Castle) takes aspiring film writers through their paces in this hands-on one day workshop on the process of writing for the big and/or small screen.

What makes a script shine?

How can a writer produce "camera ready" scripts that potential producers will want to buy?

What does a producer/director do with a script?

What's the role of the script editor?

How much detail should your script contain?

What's the difference between a reading and a shooting script?

Does the writer have a role in production?

Bring along a scene from a script you've already written/are working on - a few of which we will workshop during the day. This will be a practical as well as a theoretical day with a successful working writer/director - a chance to share experiences, ask questions, and gain invaluable inside knowledge of the process. Also suitable for directors.

Tim Fywell is a working television and film director whose credits include the acclaimed mini-series Cambridge Spies and features I Capture the Castle and Ice Princess. He has directed Waking the Dead, the last series of "Mistresses", the Barbara Vine Trilogy, Cracker, Madame Bovary, Affinity, Half-Broken Things, Norma Jean and Marilyn and No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (for HBO) and, most recently, a new ITV thriller starring Anna Friel, based on the Nicci French novel "What to do When Someone Dies." He is currently developing his own co-written script for a new feature film.

Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club presents
The Priory
Michael Wynne
Tuesday 21st February - Saturday 25th February
Tue & Wed £8/£6, Thu-Sat £10/£8

A few friends. People we like. No craziness. The days of the big blow out are over.

Kate is thrilled when she finds a house in the country to escape to for New Year’s Eve. After a rough year, this next one is going to be great. What could be better than beginning it with a select group of her closest friends? A famous travel writer and his wife-to-be (who met him the day before), a failed actor ex-boyfriend and his insufferable BBC exec. wife, an architect suffering the highs and lows of e-Love...these permanently stressed, (mostly) successful thirty-somethings in search of a good time combine in one hilariously lethal cocktail.

This sharp, biting comedy comes to the ADC fresh from its London premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, where it won the Laurence Olivier Award for 'Best New Comedy'.

Laughter, tears, dancing, dressing up, cake, cocaine...a farcical recipe for a tragicomic masterpiece.

CUMTS presents
Some Enchanted Evening: One Night at the Musicals
Tuesday 21st February
£6/£5

Following a year of exceptional musical theatre, CUMTS is proud to present its Gala Night of songs from the musicals. Prepare to be dazzled by some of the brightest and best of Cambridge's musical theatre talent. Whether you love the big showstoppers, or the heartfelt ballads, we can guarantee that there will be something to entertain you at this one night extravaganza!

Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club presents
The Seventh Seal
Ingmar Bergman
Wednesday 22nd February - Saturday 25th February
Wed £5/£4, Thu-Sat £6/£5

The Knight and his Squire have returned from ten years crusading. Yet, on their homecoming, they find their town devastated by plague, poverty and persecution.

Travelling through the ravaged country, they join forces with an actor, his wife and their babe-in-arms for the final leg of their journey. As the sun sets, they wander into the forest, knowing Death himself follows behind, ready and waiting….

This theatrical re-working of Ingmar Bergman’s influential film dangles between dream and reality, life and death, and tragedy and comedy.

Footlights presents
Footlights Spring Revue 2012: Donors
Tuesday 28th February - Saturday 3rd March
Tue, Wed and Mat £10/£8, Thu-Sat £12/£10

"Wh - wh- where am I? A hospital? Northwestfield Hospital Ward B Room 26? Wh - why?"

Brian's had a terrible accident, and an even more terrible operation. He's been left with a mind that's not quite his own... genetic tissue: a muddled medulla; a patchwork posterior; a hippocampus hodgepodge.

Since dying is boring, and you've seen your own life before, wouldn't it be better if other people's lives flashed before your eyes? Yes. It would be hilarious.

The Footlights' Spring Revue 2012 brings you a comedy sketch show that's "so funny it's inaccurate", say The Association of British Neurologists. 'Donors' promises to flood your brain with laughter-induced endorphins.

Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club presents
Aria da Capo
Edna St Vincent Millay
Wednesday 29th February - Saturday 3rd March
Wed £5/£4, Thu-Sat £6/£5

“Can’t act! Can’t act! Listen to the woman! You’re blonde, are you not? You have no education, have you? Can’t act! You underrate yourself, my dear!”

Pierrot and Columbine have been performing their scene for a long time. Pierrot is the sad clown, pining for the love of the clever serving wench Columbine. They sit at a long table decked out with a splendid banquet of plastic food and deliver their lines. Tonight, though, their little comic scene is interrupted. They are kicked off the stage, replaced by a pastoral scene starring two shepherds who can’t quite remember their lines. When the script moves towards an unpleasant climax, however, they can’t seem to stop acting it out.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, a bisexual, chain-smoking lyric poet, was the first female ever to win a Pulitzer Prize. First staged just after the end of the First World War, this unusual play, never before performed in Cambridge, conceals a searing appraisal of the human condition. It is "amusing, brutal, and brief."

Festen
Adaptation by David Eldridge
Tuesday 6th March - Saturday 10th March
Tue & Wed £8/£6, Thu-Sat £10/£8

A family gathering. A time for celebration. A time to mourn those recently bereaved. A time for secrets and conga lines and songs, and for Christian to present his father Helge with a choice: two envelopes, two speeches, and one harsh truth that will shatter proceedings.

From the director of last year’s critically acclaimed ‘All My Sons’ comes one of the finest plays of the twenty-first century: ‘Festen’, adapted from the Lars von Trier film by David Eldridge, a challenging and harrowing story of a family no longer able to lie to each other or themselves.

Cadenza presents
Cadenza
Tuesday 6th March
£6/£5

Cadenza are the British champions of a cappella and Cambridge’s premier mixed a cappella group. They performed on Broadway in 2011 and are now back on the ADC stage for one night only, with outstanding soloists, magnetic harmonies and the best in what cheesy choreography has to offer.

A brand new, exclusive show, packed full of the best arrangements of all your favourite tunes. With a completely original and never-heard-before set, Cadenza are back and are ready to take Glee to a whole new level - this is a night not to be missed!

Coda
Tom Powell
Wednesday 7th March - Saturday 10th March
Wed £5/£4, Thu-Sat £6/£5

Witness the darkest side of love.

CODA is a bold and compelling depiction of what happens when an ordinary relationship is thrown into extraordinary relief.

Jess and Cal have moved in together. But just as they are beginning to unpack their belongings, a disappearance threatens to shatter their new-found happiness. As memories thought submerged in the past re-emerge with disturbing resonance, we see their world fall apart when they try to dissect each other’s motives. Proceeding at breakneck pace, CODA twists and turns with revelatory force and laugh-inducing moments that will leave you unsettled and unsure. Come and be a witness to its first ever production.

Be moved. Be changed. But don’t leave your seat until you’ve seen the final CODA.

Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club presents
Footloose
Book by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie, music by Tom Snow, Jim Steinman and Kenny Loggins
Tuesday 13th March - Saturday 24th March
Mon, Tue, Wed & Mat £10/£8, Thu-Sat £12/£10

City boy Ren is forced to move from Chicago to the small southern town of Bomont, where he experiences a considerable culture shock.

A few years before, a tragic accident killed five teenagers causing local councilmen and the beloved Reverend Shaw Moore to place a ban on dancing and rock music. With his rebellious spirit and love for dance Ren challenges the status quo, attracting the attention of the minister’s troubled but beautiful daughter Ariel.

Will Ren succeed in bringing some life back to this repressed town?

With a cast and crew of Cambridge’s finest musical theatre talent and songs such as the title-track, “Holding Out for a Hero” and “Let’s Hear it for the Boy”, this show guarantees to have you dancing in the aisles and kicking off your Sunday shoes.

Footlights presents
Winner of the Harry Porter Prize
TBA
Wednesday 14th March - Saturday 17th March
Wed £5/£4, Thu-Sat £6/£5

The Cambridge Footlights present the winner of this year’s Harry Porter Prize for a one hour comic play. The prize was set up in 2003 in honour of the late Dr Harry Porter, who served as the Footlights’ Senior Archivist until his death, and was the longest standing member of the Footlights Committee.

Join us to herald the realisation of the latest Porter-winning playwright’s comic vision.

Combined Actors Of Cambridge presents
The Weir
Conor McPherson
Tuesday 27th March - Saturday 31st March
Tue & Wed £8/£6, Thu-Sat £10/£8

Written by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, The Weir won the Laurence Olivier Best New Play Award in 1998 and gained much critical acclaim. The play is typically Irish - one moment funny and the next poignant, one moment whimsical, the next tragic.

Set in a one-room pub, attached to a farm in a backwater area near Sligo, Brendan, the publican, and his two regulars, Jack and Jim, are challenged by the arrival of Finbar, local boy-made-good, bringing with him an attractive young woman, Valerie, who has come to live locally. The four customers are provoked into relating personal experiences that are inexplicable. The story-telling with its idiomatic Irish weaves a magical spell that will hold audiences in thrall as it moves from whimsy to tragedy.

The Weir contains strong language and is not suitable for children.

The Pied Pipers presents
The Sound of Music
Rodgers & Hammerstein
Tuesday 3rd April - Sunday 8th April
Tue-Wed £10/£8, Thu-Sat £12/£10

A captain with seven children – what’s so fearsome about that?

In 1930s Austria a rebellious young woman named Maria is failing miserably in her attempts to become a nun. When the widower Georg Von Trapp writes to the convent asking for a governess to teach his seven children, Maria is given the job. She is initially met with hostility, but her kindness, understanding and sense of fun soon draws them together and brings some much-needed joy into all their lives, including the Captain's. When the German invasion threatens all of them, can they be saved by the sound of music?

The company that recently brought you ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Honk’ is delighted to present the Sound of Music - the perfect family show for Easter time.

Singing nuns, mischievous children, and a song about a goatherd – what could be better?

Ballet Central presents
Ballet Central
Wednesday 11th April
£12 / £10

Ballet Central’s 2012 tour features new works from Mikaela Polley (Rambert Dance Company), Sharon Watson (Phoenix Dance Theatre) and Sara Matthews, as well as revivals by Matthew Hart, the late David Fielding, and Ballet Central’s founder, the late Christopher Gable.

This exciting programme of ballet, contemporary, jazz and narrative dance will also feature live accompaniment by Musical Director Philip Feeney. Don’t miss this opportunity to see some of the world’s most talented young dancers.

The company reserves the right to alter the programme, and the final repertoire will be confirmed on the day of the performance.

www.balletcentral.co.uk
Follow Ballet Central on Twitter @balletcentral

BAWDS presents
Terra Nova
Ted Tally
Tuesday 24th April - Saturday 28th April
Tue, Wed & Matinee £9/£7, Thu-Sat £10/£8

Ted Tally’s Terra Nova commemorates the centenary of Captain Scott’s last expedition to the South Pole.

Mon 30th Jan	Tue 31st Jan	Wed 1st Feb	Thu 2nd Feb	Fri 3rd Feb	Sat 4th Feb	Sun 5th Feb
	11:00pm Footlights Smokers	11:00pm Thyestes

Mon 6th Feb	Tue 7th Feb	Wed 8th Feb	Thu 9th Feb	Fri 10th Feb	Sat 11th Feb	Sun 12th Feb
	7:45pm Canterbury Tales
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	11:00pm Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra	11:00pm Bereavement: The Musical
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Mon 13th Feb	Tue 14th Feb	Wed 15th Feb	Thu 16th Feb	Fri 17th Feb	Sat 18th Feb	Sun 19th Feb
	7:45pm The Boys in the Band
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	8:00pm Moments (ADC Theatre, Larkum Studio)
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	11:00pm Footlights Smokers	11:00pm G.G.T.H.
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Mon 20th Feb	Tue 21st Feb	Wed 22nd Feb	Thu 23rd Feb	Fri 24th Feb	Sat 25th Feb	Sun 26th Feb
						11:00am From Script to Screen - A Workshop with Tim Fywell (ADC Bar)
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	7:45pm The Priory
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	11:00pm Some Enchanted Evening: One Night at the Musicals	11:00pm The Seventh Seal
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Mon 27th Feb	Tue 28th Feb	Wed 29th Feb	Thu 1st Mar	Fri 2nd Mar	Sat 3rd Mar	Sun 4th Mar
					2:30pm Footlights Spring Revue 2012: Donors
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	7:45pm Footlights Spring Revue 2012: Donors
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	11:00pm Footlights Smokers	11:00pm Aria da Capo
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Mon 5th Mar	Tue 6th Mar	Wed 7th Mar	Thu 8th Mar	Fri 9th Mar	Sat 10th Mar	Sun 11th Mar
	7:45pm Festen
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	11:00pm Cadenza	11:00pm Coda
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Mon 12th Mar	Tue 13th Mar	Wed 14th Mar	Thu 15th Mar	Fri 16th Mar	Sat 17th Mar	Sun 18th Mar
					2:30pm Footloose
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	7:45pm Footloose
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	11:00pm Footlights Smokers	11:00pm Winner of the Harry Porter Prize
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Mon 19th Mar	Tue 20th Mar	Wed 21st Mar	Thu 22nd Mar	Fri 23rd Mar	Sat 24th Mar	Sun 25th Mar
					2:30pm Footloose
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7:45pm Footloose
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Mon 26th Mar	Tue 27th Mar	Wed 28th Mar	Thu 29th Mar	Fri 30th Mar	Sat 31st Mar	Sun 1st Apr
	7:45pm The Weir
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Mon 2nd Apr	Tue 3rd Apr	Wed 4th Apr	Thu 5th Apr	Fri 6th Apr	Sat 7th Apr	Sun 8th Apr
				2:30pm The Sound of Music
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						5:00pm The Sound of Music
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	7:30pm The Sound of Music
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Mon 9th Apr	Tue 10th Apr	Wed 11th Apr	Thu 12th Apr	Fri 13th Apr	Sat 14th Apr	Sun 15th Apr
		7:45pm Ballet Central
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Mon 23rd Apr	Tue 24th Apr	Wed 25th Apr	Thu 26th Apr	Fri 27th Apr	Sat 28th Apr	Sun 29th Apr
					2:30pm Terra Nova
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	7:45pm Terra Nova
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