Theatre Guide Dog: Week 7

Blackbird 23-27th

This is the Cambridge premiere of an Olivier Award-winning play by David Harrower, a man with a curiously apposite name (apart from the David bit). It may be too late in the term for much intellectual engagement but if you can overcome your ennui it could be worth hobbling over to the Corpus Playroom at 7.

An Evening of Pinter 23-27th

There’s been a healthy dose of Pinter this term at Corpus, but this show at the Pembroke Cellars is doing something refreshingly different with it, and grouping some of his sketches with a short play. This is therefore the only Smoker this term written by a Nobel Laureate. 7.45.

Footlights Panto 23-27th

It’s sold out, so if you’ve bought tickets, remember to go. If you didn’t get tickets, either kindly hope that it’ll be like Jerry Springer the Opera or cruelly hope it’ll be like an evening with Tim Minchin. Schadenfreude or Mudita, you decide.

Ecclesiastical Perks 23-27th

Apparently,  ‘a darkly comic play that deals with the precarious place of religion in a school’s curriculum, the damaging effect of a child’s word against a teacher’s, and the unforgiving nature of the British media.’. If it manages to avoid being a sack of themes with nowhere to go, it could be very interesting – especially so if you were frustrated by the incessant tedium of knee-jerk paedo jokes on Facebook during the Pope’s visit. It has George Potts on the poster, and the last thing that he did was good. Corpus at 9.30.

Passing By 24-27th

Simon Callow and Ian McKellen have both praised this play according to its publicity. If you trust them, go and see it. If you are loath to take the advice of two men who act at acting then continue reading. It is about ‘a love between two men whose hearts pull them together as their lives pull them apart’. It will hopefully not be a gay version of The Notebook. Not that there’s anything wrong with The Notebook. Apart from everything. Since I am indecisive. enter with an open mind, ADC at 11.

A Question of Attribution 27-28th

Upside: an Alan Bennett play about the Pitt Club’s greatest bounder Anthony Blunt. Downside: Freshers are doing it; dangerous, unproven freshers. Not the most suited to a play about the last years of a very eventful life, not like people who’ve been in Cambridge for two years longer than them and lost some lustre. But the choice of play is a very good sign, and it could well augur a thoughtful production worth a wander to the Bateman Auditorium at 8.45.