Menagerie Theatre Company

Menagerie Theatre Company is the leading independent new writing theatre company in the East of England. Based in Cambridge, we have been creating theatre for over sixteen years and have a regional, national and international reputation for the development of first class new writing for the stage. We seek out and support talented writers in order to develop and produce innovative new theatre. As well as touring widely, we run workshops, writer development courses and produce the annual Hotbed Festival in Cambridge.

‘Bliss’ and ‘Bloom’

Great reviews for Bliss, by Fraser Grace, at the Finborough Theatre from May 17th t0 June 11th.

Final performances of bloominauschwitz at the New Theatre, Dublin as part of the Bloomsday Festival, June 14-18th. The script is now published and available to order for £5 plus P&P directly from Menagerie.

The Ideas Stage

The Ideas Stage is an initiative from Menagerie to develop creative partnerships with universities. Projects use theatre to explore the scientific, historical, political and cultural ideas which shape our world. Our current collaboration is with The Good Death Project at Cambridge University. Follow the link for More information

Trumpington Voices

A Public Art project featuring theatre! A verbatim play drawn from ongoing interviews with residents old and new in the ever-changing Trumpington area of Cambridge.

Visit the project website here.

Hotbed 2022. July 15-17th

Our 17th Hotbed Festival came to Cambridge Junction, July 15-17th. It featured a new version of ‘The Summer Before Everything’, a verbatim play about Ukraine, raising money for humanitarian aid. We also had fantastic guest performances, from Hannah Maxwell, Chris Dobrowolski, and Glass Mask Theatre just to name a few. We closed with a beautiful and tender piece, ‘Joshua and Me‘, from the supremely talented Rachel Hammond. Already looking forward to Hotbed 2023, the planning has begun! Full 2022 brochure here in case you missed it.

Welcome to Kay.

We welcome Kay Blayney to our Board. Kay is an educational leadership specialist who has a long assocation with Menagerie and we are delighted to finally have her serving on the Board. We know that she will bring energy, enthusiasm and ideas as we set our course for 2022 and beyond.

Contact Menagerie

Tel: 01223 403361

jessie@menagerie.uk.com

Sign up for our newsletter

Please join us on:

Menagerie Gets Support from Cultural Recovery Fund

We are happy and proud to announce that we received funding from the Cultural Recovery Fund. We are immensely grateful to Arts Council England and DCMS. The award allows us to continue developing great new writing & writers, and it means we can prepare for a dynamic return to live theatre in 2021

Coronavirus Update – December 2020

Menagerie, as with many of our colleagues, continues to work from various homes and dining room tables. On the bright side, we are also able to work – socially distanced – back at Cambridge Junction, thanks to the hard work of Junction staff. We still crave everything that theatre does so well: social creativity, the proximity of friends and strangers, the thrill of participating in or watching a live event. We look forward to the time when we can create live new work again, and wish you well as we move into a brighter year, 2021.

Funding Announcement

We have been very fortunate to receive £15,000 funding from the Foyle Foundation to support our work in 2022-23.

We have also received funding from the National Lottery Community Fund and the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation for our ‘Acting Up’ project with Cambridge Community Arts (CCA) this Autumn. This exciting pilot project begins in earnest in September 2022.

Download our logo to tell people about your National Lottery funding | The National Lottery Community Fund

Supporters Scheme Launched

Last year we are launched our Menagerie Supporters scheme. This is a way for you to become a more active supporter of our work to develop and produce new writing. We are aiming to raise £6,000 in our first year of the scheme. Click here to find out more and how to donate. All Supporters will receive an invitation to the Hotbed Festival opening night drinks on July 15th.

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation

Our most recent community project was a collaboration with Abbey People, here in Cambridge, looking at communication between the generations. With performances prevented by the pandemic, we opted to publish a small booklet which celebrates and documents the project. Based on interviews with Abbey residents old and young, the title says it all! If you’d like a copy, please get in touch with Abbey People on: info@abbeypeople.org.uk

Corporate Arts Based Training

NEW: Trailer for our Arts Based Training Programme- The EPIC System. Click here.

Menagerie provides training and support for businesses.

Menagerie has joined forces with Arts and Business to offer some of the most powerful training workshops in the marketplace. Click the link for more information:

Arts and Business or email

paul@menagerie.uk.com

Read Paul’s Blog on Theatre and Training HERE

We work directly using creativity in business with partner organisations internationally including iNTG in Russia and Creative Kosice in Slovakia.

Weekly Words From A Superhero

Menagerie were chosen by Super de Pfeffel, a hero of our time, to be the sole dispenser of his great words of certainty and courage. Listen below to his weekly thoughts through the worst of Lockdown…

Fireside Chat 13 – 18th June

Fireside Chat 12 – 11th June

Fireside Chat 11 – 4th June

Fireside Chat 10 – 28th May

Fireside Chat 9 – 21st May

Fireside Chat 8 – 14th M ay

Fireside Chat 7 – 7th May

Fireside Chat 6 – 30th April

Fireside Chat 5 – 23rd April

Fireside Chat 4 – 17th April

Fireside Chat 3 – 9th April

Fireside Chat 2 – 2nd April

Fireside Chat 1 – 26th March

Community Project Performance Postponed

Sadly, like all other social and entertainment events at this time, our performance of ‘Talking About My Generation’, originally scheduled for March 30th, has had to be cancelled. We will post a new date once we know what the future holds.

For more information please email Patrick Morris on patrick@menagerie.uk.com.

Made possible with funding from Cambridge City Council and supported by Abbey People

Image result for cambridge city council community grants logo