Cambridge Footlights boost ADC Theatre Appeal

The Footlights are boosting the appeal by performing a ‘benefit’ performance of their 2003 tour show ‘Non-Sexual Kissing’, fitting it into a tightly-packed tour schedule, which includes the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The performance will take place at Kilburn’s Tricycle Theatre on Sunday 21 September.

The ADC Theatre, owned by the Amateur Dramatic Club and managed by the University was launched in 1855 and is now the oldest student theatre in the country. Performances took place in back rooms at the Hoop Hotel on Jesus Lane and following a fire in 1933, a new theatre was built on the site.

Since then it has been the centre of drama at the University and home to the Amateur Dramatic Club and more recently the Footlights. Some of the country’s finest actors and directors have trodden the boards at the ADC, including Sir Peter Hall, Sir Derek Jacobi, Emma Thompson and Sam Mendes.

Today, the foyer and front-of-house facilities are cramped and dingy, there is insufficient rehearsal space, the offices are a maze of corridors and there is no disabled access to the first-floor auditorium and recently refurbished bar.

The number of performances and patrons has significantly increased over the years and the building is bulging at the seams. In order to safeguard its future, the theatre has embarked upon an ambitious programme of improvements to modernise the facilities while still maintaining its unique character.

Planned to take place in three stages, phase one is currently underway and involves underpinning, piling and other structural work which should enable the next phases to go smoothly.

The theatre will close for six months in April 2004 to begin the second phase, a new foyer, toilets, box office and offices; it will re-open in October. The last phase is planned for 2006 and includes a lift, new dressing rooms, a rehearsal room and new auditorium access.

In the ADC Theatre Appeal Launch brochure, Sam Mendes said,