Lottie Unwin: Drama Queen

What a week. In only seven days my menstrual cycle has been discussed on the internet, a poll has been set up asking whether Toby Parker Rees is an idiot and amongst a heated debate after The Smoker review someone usefully informed us they are ‘so OVER Chloe Mashiter, you are not a writer darling.’  She is a writer – she has written a review and that is all there is to it.

Anyone that wants to be ‘a writer’, drop me an email.  It really is that simple.  The bad news is you will have to give me your real name.

Last week's highlight was The Vagina Monologues and the lowest of the low, The Heartbreaks We Embrace with very little that was middle of the road.

This week’s line up is as follows:

Timon of Athens – 7.00 – Tuesday 16th – Saturday 20th at Corpus Christi Playroom. £5-6.

Moran Ring’s production seems to be something of a credit crunch tale.  When Timon’s ‘lavish spending lands him deep in debt and he is forced to seek the aid of his companions, he discovers that their friendship extends only as far as his credit line.’ Then he goes to become a seaside hermit, as any respectable overdraft dependent should do.

The Invention of Love – 7.45 – Tuesday 16th – Saturday 20th at ADC Theatre. £6-9.

Jacob Shephard is putting on this Tom Stoppard play exactly the same time someone at Oxford is doing the exact same thing.  It must be a very clever play and maybe we will all become cleverer if we go and see it.  ‘As the young’ poet ‘Housman longs after his unrequited love, and finds his poetic voice, everything else is changing around him’ which does sound very wondrous.

Twelfth Night – 7.45 (2.30 on Thursday and Saturday) – Tuesday 16th – Saturday 20th at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.  £10-£20.

‘Shakespeare's stark, brilliant comedy of survival, loss and the mind-blowing cruelty of love is among the most haunting of all the playwright's masterpieces’.  While the Cambridge Arts Theatre’s high quality few weeks does not necessarily mean anything I am a firm believer that it’s worth paying a bit more for your chance to cram for the Shakespeare paper.  Your education is a worthy investment.

The Occasional Student – 9.00 – Tuesday 16th and Friday 19th-Saturday 20th at Christ’s New Court Theatre. £4.

‘James Garner and Thom Jenkins have read Maugham's entire canon, even the lurid and unpublished personal correspondence locked in his granddaughter's library (mahogany desk, third draw on the right; force the lock). This can only bode well as they present 'The Occasional Students', Cambridge's newest comedy sketch show!’  Sounds fun.

In Camera – 9.00 – Tuesday 16th – Saturday 20th at Corpus Playrooms.  £4-6.

In Satre’s play ‘despite the perceived normality of the situation, it soon dawns on each character that their punishment is devilishly simple. Their punishment is each other’ which is much like the experience I have so often at the theatre when a very tall man sits in front of me in the theatre, but I suspect a bit more sinister.

Cadenza – 11.00 – Tuesday 16th and 5.00 Saturday 20th at the ADC. £5-6.

Finally I come across a blurb that truly sells itself.  ‘Cadenza have been wowing audiences across Britain, appearing on BBC's Last Choir Standing, as semi-finalists in BBC3 Choir of the Year Competition, last year reaching the Voice Festival UK final’.  They sound impressive and the sell out for Tuesday’s show means I will have to wait to May Balls, where I will be too drunk to be proved wrong.

Over the Rainbow – 7.30 – Wednesday 17th at The Corn Exchange. £18.50, £16.50

‘Starring’, wait for it, ‘Sarah Jane Buckley (Hollyoaks), David Paisley (Holby City) and Donna Hazleton (Chicago).  Over the Rainbow is a compelling award-winning musical, which tells the life story of this legendary artist, following Eva’s life through dramatic scenes and stunning live renditions of her music’.  I really don’t know whether to laugh, cry or buy tickets now for the spectacular gracing Cambridge for one night only.

Eight – 8.30 – Wednesday 17th – Friday 19th in the Homerton Small Studio. Free.

Written by Ella Hickson ‘Eight monologues.  Four actors.  One hour’ seems delightfully simple.  Do come down to Homerton – frolic in our orchard, check out the biggest collection of children’s books in the U.K (hell yes) and leave full of strengthened love for your own college.  I would rather not speak to you at that point.

Steel Magnolias – 8.30 – Wednesday 17th (open dress) – Friday 19th at the Homerton Auditorium. Free.

Never have I read such enviable confidence: ‘A heart-warming play with a sassy script that will move you to tears of joy as well as sorrow… You'll love every second of it!’  If it is that good I bagsee managing the world tour, and if not their promises have made me want to go, if only to assess business opportunities.

Pelléas et Mélisande – 8.00 – Wednesday 17th – Saturday 20th at West Road Concert Hall. £9-15.

Excuse me for relishing my absence of word limit, but I feel this Wikipedia summary is worth sharing in its entirety.

‘Golaud discovers Mélisande by a stream in the woods. She has lost her crown in the water, but does not wish to retrieve it. They marry and she instantly wins the favor of Arkël, Golaud's grandfather and king of Allemonde, who is ill. She falls in love with Pelléas, Golaud's brother. They meet by the fountain, where Mélisande loses her wedding ring. Golaud grows suspicious of the lovers, has his son Yniold spy on them, and discovers them caressing, whereupon he kills Pelléas and wounds Mélisande. She later dies after giving birth to an abnormally small girl.’  I should have guessed it would be along those lines.

Three Tales – 11.00 – Wednesday 17th – Saturday 20th at ADC Theatre. £4-6.

‘Three Tales is a documentary digital video opera that recalls three events from the early, middle and late 20th century: the crash of the Hindenburg Zeppelin, the nuclear bomb testings at Bikini Atoll, and the cloning of Dolly the Sheep.’  The show combines vocalists, a music group, film and interview to make something that is going to one of two ways: pretentious and self-indulgent or refreshing and exciting.  I will leave you to place your bets.

Macbeth – 7.00 – Thursday 18th – Saturday 20th of February in the Judith E. Wilson Studio. £4-5.

The poster and trailer for this show are pretty impressive.  At least the cosy haven of the English Faculty will be warmer than Corpus Playrooms, I will inspire some death threats with a compare and contrast article of this week’s show with last.  Or not, I am too scared.

Lee Mack – 7.30 – Thursday 18th at The Corn Exchange. £18.50.

‘Lee will be bringing his trademark brand of high energy banter’ yes, banter – what a word – ‘well crafted gags and sharp one-liners to venues across the country on his biggest ever live stand-up tour.’  A perfect late Valentine’s Day present for anyone with a celibate week ahead in punishment for forgetting today.

Alex Horne, Word Watching – Friday 19th at The Junction. £10.

‘The show charts Alex’s hilarious quest to get an invented word into the dictionary. After making considerable progress his verbal inventions have appeared on several grown up TV shows, in almost all of the national newspapers and page 2 of Eurofruit, the leading trade magazine for fresh produce buyers in Europe.’  I am excited already at the prospect of niche humour apparently designed specifically for me.  Eurofruit alone made me giggle.

Involved in a Cambridge event you would like mentioned?  Email me at [email protected].