ADC Theatre

It's Night 1 of the Cambridge Festival of Drama! This evening's programme is as follows:

PAPER TRAIL by Sean Lang
presented by Based on a True Story Theatre

A play about the dangers of delving into the past. Angie, a middle-aged Australian lady, visits a north London hospital archive in an attempt to discover who her mother was. The truth proves much more terrible than she expects.

This is the first of two pieces of Sean's writing being presented at the Festival this year. You might recognise his name as the playwright behind April's 'The Ghostly Gift of Miss Constance Couper' at the ADC.

THREE WOMEN AND SHAKESPEARE'S WILL by Joan Greening
presented by Stretham Players

After the death of her husband, Anne Shakespeare is visited by two women with shocking revelations. Both claim to have known her husband intimately, and each want a piece of Will's will.

In recent years Stretham Players have performed pantomimes only but believing they were now too old for panto (is there such a thing?!) they decided to find a short play to enact and enter as part of the Festival this year.

Today is your last opportunity to take advantage of the Festival Season Ticket and book all three Festival of Drama sessions for just £25.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/festival1
📆 12 - 14 September 2024, 7.30PM

FUN HOME 2FOR1 TICKET OFFER - TODAY ONLY

🎂Today is Alison Bechdel's birthday - creator of the Bechdel Test and the graphic memoir on which Fun Home is based!🎂

🎉We are celebrating the occasion with a 2FOR1 ticket offer for Opening Night tickets to Fun Home using the code FUNHOME241🎉

🎈Act fast! This offer is only valid today (10/09/24) for 24 hours 🎈

To hear more about this upcoming production you can read director Cat Nicol's recent blog post on our website: https://www.adctheatre.com/blog/posts/funhomeinterview/

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/funhome
📆 24 - 28 September 2024, 7.45PM & 28 September 2.30PM

It's just one week until the ADC goes to Dibley!

Hilarity Theatre Group are putting the finishing touches to their debut production, 'The Vicar of Dibley'. Sets are being painted, comedic timing perfected and there's been a trip to the hairdressers for a particular iconic bob cut... So here is a sneak peak inside their programme to give you an idea of what is in store for your favourite members of Dibley Parish Council.

Tickets are selling fast, especially for our matinee performance, so don't miss this opportunity to celebrate a timeless classic.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/dibley
📆 17 - 21 September 2024, 7.45PM & 21 September, 2.30PM

Rehearsals are well on the way for Between the Bars' production of 'Fun Home', the musical adaptation of Alison Bechdel's graphic novel/memoir of the same name, coming to the ADC Stage in just two weeks!

When her father dies unexpectedly, Alison dives deep into her past to tell the story of the volatile, brilliant, one-of-a-kind man whose temperament and secrets defined her family and her life.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/funhome
📆 24 - 28 September 2024, 7.45PM & 28 September 2.30PM

Photography by Paul Ashley

Following their recent successful run of summer shows (The Producers, Urinetown, Kinky Boots), the Festival Players are back at the ADC Theatre this June with one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's most iconic musicals, in its fiftieth anniversary.

'Jesus Christ Superstar' is the celebrated rock opera that centres on the final days of the life of Jesus Christ.

The first release of tickets are now on sale. Running for just ten performances, don't miss out and reserve your seats now!

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/jcs
📅 05 - 14 June 2025

There's not long to go now until this year's Cambridge Festival of Drama kicks off at the ADC! Don't miss performances from Based on a True Story, the Stretham Players, Wilburton Theatre Group, the Combined Actors of Cambridge, Swavesey Village College and the St Monica Players.

Tickets are just £10 per session, or buy tickets to all three performances to get an exclusive £25 season ticket price for the whole festival!

Will you pick this year's winner?

🎟 www.adctheatre.com
📅 12 - 14 September 2024

Step into a world of magic and wonder with 'Pippin', presented by the Pied Pipers in April next year!

Young prince Pippin is on a quest to find his true purpose in life: a journey filled with adventure, love, and the search for extraordinary meaning. As he navigates the pressures of royal expectations and the allure of a simple, happy life, Pippin discovers that fulfilment might lie in the most unexpected places. Moving through a world of dazzling magic, captivating performances, and heartfelt emotion, Pippin explores the complexities of ambition, identity, and what it truly means to be extraordinary.

Winner of four Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival, 'Pippin' is a timeless and visually stunning musical that combines whimsy with a deeper exploration of life’s most pressing questions.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/pippin
📅 29 April - 03 May 2025

We have another new show on sale! The Combined Actors of Cambridge are delighted to present Tennessee Williams' 'The Glass Menagerie'.

Tom escapes a suffocating home life in 1930’s St Louis through long visits to the movies while his sister, Laura, withdraws into her records and collection of glass animals. But their mother, Amanda, clings to dreams far beyond their shabby apartment. When Tom brings home a potential suitor for Laura, Amanda seizes the opportunity to try and change their fortunes forever.

'The Glass Menagerie' is a poetic portrayal of a family on the brink of change. This intimate and engaging memory play explores the complex web of love and loyalty that binds families together and may, eventually, drive them apart.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/glass
📅 15 - 19 April 2025

BAWDS are excited to be bringing Laura Wade's 'The Watsons' to the ADC Theatre in April 2025!

Emma Watson is nineteen and new in town. She's been cut off by her rich aunt and dumped back in the family home. Emma and her sisters must marry, fast.

If not, they face poverty, spinsterhood, or worse: an eternity with their boorish brother and his awful wife. So far so familiar.

But there's a problem: Jane Austen didn't finish the story. Who will write Emma's happy ending now? Based on her incomplete novel, this sparklingly witty play looks under the bonnet of Jane Austen and asks: what happens to characters abandoned by their author?

Tickets are on sale now!

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/watsons
📅 08 - 12 April 2025

On sale now: 'Amelie: The Musical', presented by Between the Bars!

Amélie is an extraordinary young woman who lives quietly in the world but loudly in her mind. She covertly improvises small but surprising acts of kindness that bring joy and mayhem. But when a chance at love comes her way, Amélie realizes that to find happiness she'll have to risk everything and say what's in her heart.

With a romantic score, colourful characters, and a world of fantastical fun, Amélie is a beautiful tale for the dreamers in everyone.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/amelie
📅 01 - 05 April 2025

Rehearsals are well underway for Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori's refreshingly honest musical about what it is like to see your parents through grown-up eyes.

Adapted from the graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel, 'Fun Home' is the moving five-time Tony award winning musical about love, family and sexuality.

Coming to the ADC this September and presented by Between the Bars (Once, Dogfight), grab your tickets now!

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/funhome
📅 24 - 28 September 2024

Photography by Timothy Winn

The CUADC/Footlights Pantomime is a tradition that stretches back to the 1970s, where a talented ensemble of Cambridge's finest comedians and musical theatre creatives put together an entirely new pantomime with an original script and score!

Check out some of these photos from the archive of recent pantomimes and then head on over to www.adctheatre.com/panto to grab your tickets to this year's festive treat: 'Snow White'!

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/panto
📅 27 November - 07 December 2024

Archive photographs: Treasure Island (2011), The Snow Queen (2012), The Princess and the Pea (2013), The Emperor's New Clothes (2014), Robin Hood (2015), Rumpelstiltskin (2016: Jack Rowan), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (2017: Jana Panakova), Red Riding Hood (2019: Gabriel Humphreys), Treasure Island (2022: Sarah Anderson), Dick Whittington and his Cat (2023: Amy Riordan).

Have you seen the new banner outside the front of the ADC?

We can't wait to welcome Hilarity Theatre Group to the ADC this September for their debut production: 'The Vicar of Dibley'.

Tickets are selling fast, especially for our matinee performance, so don't miss this opportunity to celebrate a timeless favourite with all of the best-loved characters from the Dibley Parish Council.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/dibley
📅 17 - 21 September 2024

From writer John Caird (Les Miserables, Spirited Away) and composer Paul Gordon (Jane Eyre) comes an epistolary musical based on Jean Webster’s classic 1912 novel, sure to prove a delightful addition to your festive season.

Plucky orphan Jerusha Abbott is about to have her life turned upside down by the appearance of an anonymous benefactor. Jerusha’s horizons broaden as she steps into an undreamt world of society and education, under the patronage of the mysterious figure she knows only by the moniker she gives him: Daddy Long Legs. But will she ever meet her patron, and what mark will he leave upon her life?

Starring Matt Wilkinson (The Producers, Urinetown) and Eleanor Thompson (Urinetown, Little Women), don't miss 'Daddy Long Legs', for one week only this December at the Corpus Playroom.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/daddy
📅 18 - 21 December 2024

Fresh from its run at the Camden Fringe, new musical 'The Chaplain' tells of a prison chaplain in 1850s Victorian England, tasked with cleansing the souls of those sentenced to death or transportation for the most heinous crimes.

In a dirty prison cell, the Chaplain meets three convicts. Throughout, he is also plagued by the voice of a mysterious woman who lurks in the cell's shadows, and the Chaplain is certain he has met her somewhere before. As the musical unfolds and the Chaplain's mental state deteriorates, it becomes clear that he too has sins he must confess.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/chaplain
📅 03 - 07 December 2024, 7PM

A famous artist invites her old friends to her luxurious new home. For one night only, the group is back together. But celebrations come to an abrupt end when the host suffers an horrific accident. As the victim lies in a coma, an almost unthinkable plan starts to take shape: could her suffering be their next work of art?

'pool (no water)' is a visceral and shocking play by Mark Ravenhill about the fragility of friendship, devotion to jealousy, and the resentment inspired by success.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/pool
📅 26 - 30 November 2024, 7PM

Congratulations to all the students who received their A Level results today! We look forward to welcoming a whole new cohort of Freshers into the ADC Theatre from October.

Whether you are new to the University, or just new to theatre in Cambridge, the ADC will be running a number of events alongside the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club during Freshers Week in order to show you the many ways you an get stuck in with the arts whilst at University. Whether you are a performer, technician, designer or director, everyone at the ADC is here to enjoy and produce high quality amateur theatre.

New and returning students of the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University are welcome to visit the theatre on 'Freshers' Friday' on the afternoon of the 11th October to meet student representatives and the management team, experience a tour of the building, and register interest in the annual Freshers' shows.

More information about our Freshers' campaign, including our 2024 guide to Cambridge Theatre will be available on the Get Involved pages of our website in the coming weeks.

We look forward to welcoming you soon!

Welcome To Cambridge Theatre For more information visit cuadc.orgFilmed and edited by Sophie TaylorWith thanks to Frank MartinFeaturing:Oscar Yang – CUADC President 2017William Bishop – ...

Rosalind and Celia have spent their childhoods telling stories, dressing up, putting on puppet shows, and creating plays. But when Rosalind is banished to the Forest of Arden, play is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Their toy puppets become a means of disguise, and a chance for freedom.

A charming new take on Shakespeare's comedy of youth, love, and finding yourself, 'As You Like It' will whisk you a way into the whimsical world of the Forest of Arden, where anything is possible. Perhaps you'll fight a lion, or marry a clown, or even fall in love with a puppet!

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/asyoulikeit
📅 12 - 16 November 2024, 7PM

Can we ever control how we feel? Are our feelings an emotional or physical sensation? Are love and sadness anything more than a chemical reaction?

Lucy Prebble's gripping play 'The Effect' delves into the lives of four individuals in a clinical trial for a potent new antidepressant, RLU37. Doctors Lorna and Toby, once lovers, find themselves in a heated scientific debate about ethics and the extent to which we should seek to manage human emotion. Volunteers Connie and Tristan are quickly find themselves ensnared in a turbulent love affair where every developing affection is tarnished and they question if their love is true, or simply a side effect.

This expansive and exhilarating play willingly asks us a multitude of questions, but does it provide the answers?

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/effect
📅 05 - 09 November 2024, 7PM

Rehearsals are well-underway for Corkscrew Theatre Company's next production: 'The Man Who Argued Himself to Death' by Colin Swash (The Queen, Have I Got News For You).

The Big Olive. Athens. Before B.C. existed. The populists are on the rise and they’re looking for a scapegoat. Sound familiar? Any old goat will do. Enter Socrates. He opens his mouth and soon he’s on trial for his life.

This blisteringly funny satirical comedy tells us all what it’s like when it becomes a crime to say ‘I Don’t Know’

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/death
📅 01 - 05 October 2024, 7.45PM

Look out! We have a new show on sale!

'Little Shop of Horrors' is the ever popular dark comedy from Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, produced by the award-winning Festival Players Cambridge (The Producers, Lucky Stiff, Urinetown).

Seymour Krelborn lives in the bad part of town in Mushnik’s Flower Shop, wishing to protect his beloved Audrey from her evil dentist boyfriend, when his luck changes. He becomes the owner of a strange and interesting plant that will change all of his fortunes and make him famous, but what if the plant has plans of its own?

The first release of tickets is on sale now, and remember, whatever they offer you, don’t feed the plants!

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/littleshop
📅 14 - 18 January 2025

"Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying ‘I will try again tomorrow’”

School is a nightmare, boys are infuriating and Maccies is the only place open after 6pm. Growing up isn't easy, but it's even harder when you're from a place where no one expects anything of you - and especially if you're q***r or the new girl at school. Beth, Rachel, Zahidah, Ellie and Chloe are stuck. Stuck in their drama group, stuck in school and stuck in their small town which doesn't even have a Nando’s.

First premiered in 2022, don't miss 'Our Town Needs a Nando's', an endearing new play by Samantha O'Rourke.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/nandos
📅 29 Oct - 02 Nov 2024, 7PM

Hilarity Theatre Group proudly present 'The Vicar of Dibley', adapted from the original TV scripts by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer. With all of your favourite characters from the hit show, this fun-filled production will have you rolling in the aisles!

When Alice and Hugo return from their Honeymoon, Geraldine realises the true reason why their photos are so hard to decipher. What could possibly go wrong when Geraldine gets involved in the parish's new live radio show. And when the Bishop wants to know the plans for this year's Christmas show, the whole council have to rally behind Geraldine to bring some festive cheer.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/dibley
📅 17 - 21 September 2024, 7.45PM & Sat 21 September, 2.30PM

Rose Beedle's new play 'A Comedy About a Priest', heads to the Corpus Playroom this October.

Father John has chosen a life of tranquillity as a country vicar; or so he thinks. The Parish of St Anne's quickly proves to be a minefield of warring matriarchs, questionable scones, and women who are much too excited by the prospect of a young priest. As Father John navigates his new domain, there is one question on everyone's mind: how long will he last?

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/priest
📅 22 - 26 October 2024

On a cold night in North-West London, school teacher Kyra's former lover arrives unexpectedly at her flat. The pair reminisce about their past and try to rekindle their relationship as they bond over shared memories, yet their moral oppositions to each other's lives lead to tensions. The two become locked in a clash of conflicting ideologies and desires as they retell the story of their love affair. Complex emotions, that had been left untouched for three years, re-emerge as resentment is tangled up with lust and antagonisms escalate over the course of the night.

David Hare's 'Skylight' comes to the Corpus Playroom in October.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/skylight
📅 15 - 19 October 2024

The European Theatre Group return in January with Shakespeare's iconic comedy, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. This chaotic tale unfolds in the magical midnight world of the Athenian forest where the air is pierced with jealousy, unrequited love, and delicious confusion. As they enter the forest, the Athenians are caught in Titania and Oberon's quarrel over a child, both fairies desperate to follow their dreams of motherhood. Determined and yet disoriented, the humans are left to grapple with new identities and unexpected declarations of love.

In the midst of tree and moss, dreams and reality blur and merge. Who do these individuals dream to be, and at what cost?

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/midsummer
📅 21 - 25

Exit pursued by a bear. Corkscrew Theatre bring Shakespeare’s classic tale of jealousy and redemption to the ADC this Christmas: featuring this rather difficult stage direction...

The beast inside the room is of course Leontes, King of Sicilia, who pursues his wife Hermione to an early grave (it seems), suspecting her of an affair with his best friend. A heady mix of dark and light, tragedy and comedy, and finally redemption (with a sprinkling of snow). The team that brought you Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, A Few Good Men, Horrox and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf return this December with Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale'.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/winter
📅 17 -21 December 2024

This Christmas, BAWDS present another festive tale, adapted by Barry Brown!

Ebenezer Scrooge is a grumpy, miserly man who hates Christmas. His reaction to the festive season is “Bah Humbug!” One freezing cold Christmas Eve night he’s haunted by three ghosts. Will they change his life forever and will he eventually learn the true meaning of family and Christmas?

Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' is a well-established part of Christmas and has played a large part in inventing the Christmas that we know today. A parade of much loved characters lives on in a story that combines ghostly events, moral encouragement, whimsical fantasy and lively comedy.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/carol
📅 10 - 14 December 2024

The Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club present this year's three Freshers' plays: staged entirely by students new to Cambridge theatre!

At the Corpus Playroom we will have Sarah DeLappe's 'The Wolves' and Chris Thompson's 'Dungeness'. Meanwhile at the ADC we have Anna Washburn's '10 out of 12': welcome to the tech rehearsal. Around you, a company of fourteen is engaged in the very peculiar task of creating a new play.

Take a seat next to the sound designer as he mixes cues. Eavesdrop on backstage gossip as it happens in real time. And watch the director struggle to contain the uncontainable...

'10 out of 12' is a wry and absorbing look at how work forms and deforms us.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/ten
📅 19 - 23 November 2024

A dramatized and partially fictionalised story of the Salem witch trials, Arthur Miller's classic 'The Crucible' follows the troubled lives of the people of seventeenth century Massachusetts. John Proctor, a farmer, and his wife Elizabeth are haunted by Proctor's affair with seventeen-year-old Abigail Williams. When Reverend Hale arrives to investigate accusations of witchcraft, the voices of desperate children are lifted above reason.

In a town crying witchcraft, everyone must make a choice between integrity and self-preservation.

🎟 www.adctheatre.com/crucible
📅 12 - 16 November 2024