The work of Alan Ayckbourn, the acclaimed playwright who has written over seventy plays, is soon returning to our stage with the laugh-out-loud futuristic comedy Henceforward... (Wed 22 - Sat 25 Feb). Alan Ayckbourn chatted to Simon Murgatroyd about his play and the difficulty of producing a production that was deemed futuristic in 1987... in 2017! 

Henceforward… is this year’s Ayckbourn revival at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, tell us a little about the play.

Next week brings the welcomed return of Cambridge University's The Marlowe Society, one of Cambridge's oldest and most prestigious theatrical groups. This week we chatted to director of Edward II Caroline Steinbeis, all about the production and her time with the illustrious company...  

Firstly, what is your background in theatre?

This weekend marks our final performances of Dick Whittington and his Cat, so with panto season sadly drawing to a close for another year, we thought we'd offer you something slightly different... Panto by numbers!

Our spectacular cast have performed Dick Whittington 62 times - that's 155 hours!

15,000 words make up the pantomime script.

30 Front of House staff have worked hard to make your trip to the theatre as special as possible...

Making theatre accessible to all is incredibly important to us, as we believe that everyone should experience the magic of the arts!

Each year we put on over 40 accessible Performances, including British Sign Language interpreted, Audio Described and Relaxed Performances. Tomorrow we have our Relaxed Performance of our pantomime Dick Whittington, one of our favourite shows of the year!

This year's spectacular pantomime Dick Whittington and his Cat is in full swing and the reviews are in! Take a look at what the critics thought here...

The Stage:

★★★★

'Verve, humour and inventiveness' 

Here's an old photograph of the British actor and comedian Cyril Fletcher, and his wife Betty Astell, that we discovered in our archives.

We've delved head first into our extensive theatre archives, a mysterious place jam-packed with glittery costumes, old photographs, stage sets and everything in-between, to show you the theatrical gems in the Arts Theatre history...

Now that curtain-up for our spectacular family pantomime Dick Whittington and his Cat is just one day away, all the writers can do now is wait! This week we sat down for a chat with the script writing duo Matt Crosby and Al Morley, and found out what it's really like writing for the joyful, hilarious and bizarre art-form of panto...

Firstly, what kicked off your respective careers in writing panto scripts?

You might know your HE'S BEHIND YOU's and your OH NO YOU'RE NOT's, and you may well know the difference between the lovable Buttons and dear old Wishee Washee too, but we have gathered some truly festive pantomime facts to broaden your theatrical knowledge this Christmas...

So read on and you'll soon find yourself a certified panto aficionado when you take your seats for Dick Whittington this year. 

P.S. Flaunting new-found pantomime knowledge to adjacent theatre-goers is optional. 

Earlier this week the cast, creatives and company of this year's traditional family pantomime Dick Whittington and his Cat gathered for the script read-through, an annual tradition for Cambridge Arts Theatre, and always a wonderful way to kick off the rehearsal period.

Everyone from the cast, director and choreographer, to the musical team, producer and Cambridge Arts Theatre staff all joined to meet the team who make our pantomime happen and hear the hilarious words of writing duo Al Morley and Matt Crosby brought to life.