Theatre Sniffer Dog: Week 3

In light of recent events, I joined PC Tab for a cursory sweep of the UL (I’m a dog of many talents). And look what we found. I’m as shocked as you are; perhaps hearing about the week’s theatre will calm you down.

That’s not snow

Res Gestae 8th-12th February

Not enough titles pun on Roman imperial propaganda, so this show has already taken a step in the right direction. New writing about Emperor Augustus’ granddaughter, who keeps doing naughty things in public and embarrassing grandpa. It’ll be a bit like when Prince Harry wore a Nazi costume, but with more togas, and lifelong exile instead of outraged articles in The Sun.

Corpus at 7  £5-6

Verge 8th-12th February

More new writing – this time on the less whimsical subject of your coach breaking down in one of the USA’s big stretches of naff all. While public transport delays are an under-represented area in drama, this is probably just an elaborate excuse to tap in to the Big Brother ethos of ‘trap some twats in a place and see what happens’.

Corpus at 9.30  £5-6

Noises Off 9th-19th February

In what hopefully isn’t the mixture of navel-gazing and hubris it appears, the ADC are doing a two-week run of a show about putting on a show. That said, the last Cambridge outing of a Michael Frayn farce squeezed ample humour from a very niche subject, so perhaps the secret lives of the thespians will be worth a watch after all.

Oh, and if you want to pay a fiver to watch their dress rehearsal, you can. Why you would do this is beyond me.

ADC at 7.45  £6-10

Jet Set Go! 9th-12th February

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to work on a plane, this tongue-in-cheek musical about a transatlantic cabin crew probably isn’t the way to find out. But real life is boring – I’d much rather watch oversexed airborne caricatures sing about my nearest emergency exit and duty-free cigarettes for an hour, and this is what it looks like we’ll get.

ADC at 11  £5-6

Volpone 10th-11th February

The Magdalene Drama Society resurrects itself to breathe new life into Jonson’s comedy. To any who caught The Alchemist last term, the basic idea is the same: cheeky opportunists do lots of pretending to try and trick a rich someone out of lots of money (it doesn’t work). Happily, Magdalene don’t seem to have a particular ‘interpretation’ of the play to peddle, so Jonson should be able to do what he does best.

Cripps Auditorium – Magdalene at 7.30  £3-5

Footlights and Friends 8th February

The Footlights have invited their Bristol and Leeds equivalents over to help them do a smoker, presumably with the aim of showing them up. Whether that’ll work or not remains to be seen, but since they have guests round, expect to see the Footlights on their best behaviour.

ADC at 11  £5-6

The Fo’Show 7th February

If you can stomach the walk, this is a safe bet given the Fo’Show’s recent successes and the affordable entry-price. On the other hand it changes location every week, so sit tight and eventually it’ll come to you.

Murray Edwards at 7.30  Free