Theatre Guide Dog: Week 7

Unless you’ve read our reviews, going to the theatre is gambling. You could win the most exquisite joy. You could waste your money and also be obliged to sit through an entire performance as penance. The exception to this are TCS reviewers, who suffer no such constraint.

Lots to bet on this week anyway – size up your odds (topical) below. Or wait for the reviews, read them, then attend in safety.

Odds – Footlights Spring Revue 8th- 12th March

Effectively a super-smoker, but without the cancerous undertones. Perhaps finally latching onto the financial crisis zeitgeist, or perhaps because schadenfreude is the purest of all comedy, this sketch-show centres on someone who’s lost his house, all his money and his wife. Sounds like my kind of funny.

ADC at 7.45  £8-12

Babushka 9nd-12th March

This piece of Russified new writing rides the crest of a moderately successful promotion campaign which confused people who don’t know the different between ? and 6. Had it been on last week, that could have been a pun. Oh well. It looks to have a rather more literal bag of tricks than we’re used to, but such honesty can only count in its favour.

ADC at 11  £5-6

True West 8th- 12th March

Cambridge’s last crack at the American Dream didn’t go all that well, so its fittingly (or ironically) optimistic for this show to get back in the saddle so promptly. As you may guess from the title, it’s is a gritty take on the west of the USA (relations to True Grit purely coincidental). As you probably won’t guess from the title, it centres around the conflicts of two brothers: one is a drunk and a thief, the other works in Hollywood. The issue of which is the more depraved will likely remain unsolved.

Corpus at 7  £5-6

Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me 8th- 12th March

Inspired by messy goings-on in ’80s Lebanon, Cambridge’s weekly dose of Irish writing is administered in the form of watching three unluckies held hostage in the Corpus Playroom. I can sympathise. Given that the hostages are the only three characters, nothing too grim can happen on-stage, so the theatrical thrills will come from dialogue rather than live waterboarding.

Corpus at 9.30  £5-6

Amadeus 10th-13th March

A play about being jealous of Mozart, which is fair enough to be honest. He had great hair. See ol’ Wolfgang be a debauched genius while try-hard square Salieri wrings his angsty paws and tries to piss on the eponym’s parade. In the unlikely event that you aren’t the most talented person you know (the fact that you’re reading this counts in your favour), this will be at least a bit familiar. If this is good it’ll sidestep snidely ironic reviews pointing out how the play about a guy who couldn’t escape mediocrity couldn’t escape mediocrity. So let’s hope for that.

Newnham Old Labs at 7.30  £4

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 7th- 8th March

I hope they know what they’re doing – past stabs at Stoppard’s stab at Shakespeare have ranged from flawless to clueless. But let’s not be pessimistic to the Petreans – there’s oodles of potential here to revel in the wit of Sir Tom’s metatheatrical masterclass – it’s also the closest Cambridge is likely to get to a performance of Hamlet.

Friends of Peterhouse Theatre at 7.30 £5-6

The Physicists 8th- 12th March

Despite Theme-laden publicity, seeing an ‘insane’ scientist pretend he’s Isaac Newton will be at least a little bit entertaining. The sceptic-quotes just above hint at the fact that this play has a Complex Plot, which this handy little site will explain better than me. Suffice it to say that there are an adequate number of twisty-turny bits and you’ll have all sorts of fun working out what’s going on. Maybe.

Fitzpatrick Hall – Queens’ at 7.30  £5-6

Medics’ Revue – The Fantastic Forceps 9th-12th March

You don’t need to be a medic to enjoy this – anyone intimately familiar with the inside of a corpse will be fine. They’ve found their apostrophe this year too. The pun in the title should tell you all you need to know about the tone and calibre of humour on offer by the people who in a few years will be entrusted with people’s lives. Laugh it up in the theatre in Queens’ rather than the (less cheery) theatres in Addenbrooke’s.

Fitzpatrick Hall – Queens’ at 11  £4-5

If your contemptible little show has been overlooked and you would like it included, e-mail [email protected] and we’ll give you what you want. Maybe.