Cambridge Arts Theatre

On Wednesday 6 June, on the 74th anniversary of D-Day, the Arts Theatre team travelled to London to launch our production of David Haig’s fascinating wartime drama Pressure, following its hugely successful UK tour that started in Cambridge earlier in the year.

Pressure is the thrilling play about Group Captain James Stagg, the Scottish meteorologist tasked with predicting the weather conditions for the D-Day Landings. 

Rehearsals are now underway for the national tour of This House, James Graham's smash-hit political comedy examining the 1974 Hung Parliament. 

I was thrilled to travel to central London last Friday to get a first look at the show and to hear from the director, writer and other members of the cast and creative team.

We're extremely excited to be co-producing the intense real-life thriller Pressure, an acclaimed new play centred around the D-Day landings and the most important weather forecast in the history of warfare. 

Written by and starring the award-winning actor and director David Haig, Pressure is the extraordinary and little known story of one man who helped change the course of war, and our lives, forever. 

This week is a very exciting week... Pantomime season is almost upon us and our spectacular family pantomime, Jack and the Beanstalk, opens on Thursday!

This week marks the start of our in-house tech rehearsals, where our technical and stage team work tirelessly to piece together the stage and set, assemble lights, place instruments in the orchestra pit and bring all of the props and costumes together under the theatre roof. 

On Monday morning Jack and the Beanstalk rehearsals kicked off with a bang! The cast, crew, production team and Arts Theatre staff joined together for the first read through of the script - a favourite date in the pantomime calendar for many of us!

The script read through begins rehearsals every year, and it's a great chance for the whole Arts Theatre pantomime company to meet (over some classic panto jokes!) before a busy, fun and joyful festive period!

If there's one sure-fire way to get the Arts Theatre team well and truly geared up for the festive season... it's the annual pantomime photo shoot! 

Last week we invited a few of the brilliant Jack and the Beanstalk cast to the theatre, stitched them into (very sparkly) costumes and our photographer, Tony Meehan, snapped away. 

Calling all film fanatics! Federico Fellini's Oscar winning 1954 Italian cinematic masterpiece La Strada has been adapted into a stunning stage production, and it's with us Monday 17 March - Saturday 8 April! 

Here's a sneak peek of the beautiful production, featuring live instruments, circus arts and incredible physical 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...

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.

With 50 days and counting until our festive extravaganza Dick Whittington kicks off, here at Cambridge Arts Theatre we are well and truly gearing up for the festive period and getting into the Christmas spirit… (*Oh yes we are!*)

EastEnders star Paul Nicholas is set to star as the dastardly evil King Rat alongside Cambridge’s number one Dame Matt Crosby, Robert Rees as Idle Jack and Holly Easterbrook in the title role.

Now our brilliant cast is announced, we thought we’d share some behind the scenes glimpses from the photo shoot with you all…