Latest news from CADS
July 2026 newsletter Pt.2
(July 17, 2026)From Bard to Worse
As mentioned last time, preparations are now well under way for our show at this year’s Royston Arts Festival, an evening of two one-act comedies with loose connections to the Bard, provisionally entitled “Fakespeare”. And the good news since last time is that we now have a venue for the show! We’re going to be performing at the new Royston Venue in the Town Hall. Many of you will no doubt have been following the exciting developments at the Venue and we can’t wait to see how it works out for CADS.
The shows are actually being performed the week before the official Royston Arts Festival weekend, as we’re also submitting both plays to this year’s Cambridge Festival of Drama, which takes place from 23 to 26 September. This will be the first time CADS has entered two plays to Cambridge, though we’ve always had some success at the festival, most recently with Strangers on a film in 2021 which won second prize over all with Martin Maynard winning Best Individual Performance for his portrayal of Alfred Hitchcock.
“Fakespeare” will be on at the Royston Venue at 7.30 p.m. on Thursday 17, Friday 18 and Saturday 19 September and at the ADC in Cambridge from 7.30 p.m. on Thursday 24 September. Tickets go on sale for the Royston shows on Saturday 1
August and cost £15 or £12 for concessions (students and seniors). They will be available online through a link on our website https://www.cadsroyston.org.uk or by phone on our Box Office number 07856 599039. Tickets for the Cambridge festival
performances will shortly be available from the ADC website at
https://www.adctheatre.com. We hope you’ll come and support us at one (or several) of these shows!
Note that we could still do with some helpers, please, for the front of house duties at the Royston shows – staffing the bar, checking tickets, maybe some light ushering, that sort of thing. If you can spare us even one of those evenings, please let us know
via [email protected]
CADS on air
Four of our radio plays are to be broadcast next month on the newly formed Meridian 1, a community-based radio station run by volunteers and based in North Hertfordshire and South Cambridgeshire. The award-winning Strangers on a film will
be broadcast at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 4 August, preceded by an introduction to thegroup by Emma Daintrey and an interview with director Michael Young. On Thursday 6 August, also at 9 p.m. the station will play a double bill of The Hitch-hiker and
Sorry, wrong number, and at 9 p.m. on Tuesday 11 August they will be broadcasting Losing the plot.
You can find Meridian 1 on 87.7 FM. It will also broadcast online via its website and on mobile apps such as Radio Player and Tune In Radio - just search for Meridian 1. The station will also be available on Amazon Smart Speakers. You will need to enable the Meridian 1 skill by saying "Alexa, enable Meridian 1 skill" the first time you tune in, or you can do this via the Alexa app. Then, just say "Alexa, play Meridian 1". There’s also a Meridian 1 mobile app so you’ve no excuse for missing us!
Panto Episode IV: A New Hope
We can’t say too much at this stage, but we’re closer to having a plan for next year’s Royston Town Pantomime. We have a potential director and some ideas for scripts, though final decisions have yet to be made. Hopefully we should be able to announce more detail in the next newsletter, so keep watching this space!
Play readings
Our regular series of bi-monthly play readings has been suspended temporarily while we’re all so busy with the “Fakespeare” show but we hope to revive it in September.
New member Heather Ormsby - who plays Joyce in To be, or not to bother?, one of the “Fakespeare” plays - is keen to introduce us to some Ibsen. We’ll announce the date and venue nearer the time.
Committee
Our next committee meeting is on Tuesday 25 August; if there's anything you'd like us to consider or discuss then, please feel free to contact any of us at any time via the Contact page of this website.