Welcome to CULES!
We’re a student-run group who bring theatre (typically daft theatre) to those who don’t normally get the chance to see it, like special needs schools and retirement homes. We also do public shows to raise money for various charities.
We generally perform one or two comedy shows a term, whether plays, musicals, or sketch shows. All of these are written, directed and produced by members of the society, often first-timers. And, rather uniquely in the Cambridge theatre scene, we give a part to everyone who auditions so everyone can get involved, regardless of experience!
Are our dramatics amateur beyond belief? Yes. Was the last Varsity match called a draw due to a lack of line learning? Yes.
Sam Raby, The Cambridge Student
In 2020-2022 we’ve been busy discovering the delightful online medium of radio plays (all of which you can enjoy on our YouTube and Spotify channels!), but we are now returning to live theatre, a glorious endeavour that began with the spectacular two-act fantasy musical “The Prophecy Of Destiny” in Lent 2022.
We also just like hanging out with each other, and are as much a social group as a drama society! We play board games, have film nights, picnics, pub outings, and all sorts of things alongside working on plays.
Not only that, but we mingle with our sister societies OULES (Oxford) and USLES (Sheffield). Back when in-person gatherings were commonplace and uncomplicated, we’d go to see their shows, and they’d come to see us. Rumour has it, there even used to be camping trips in the summer, and a three-day-long New Year’s party together. And in August, a bunch of [.]LES would head up to the Edinburgh Fringe to do a more professional show, with things like actual theatres, budgets, sometimes even (!) rehearsals.
But if the Universe thought our mingling drive could be encumbered by Certain Events, it was wrong because we just went and made a joint radio musical in Summer 2021 together, followed by a radio sketch show in 2022, with all three societies collaborating!
