Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club - History of The ADC

History of The ADC

The Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club was officially founded during the Easter Vacation of 1855 by F.C. Burnand and a group of his friends, who had acquired back rooms in the Hoop Hotel on Jesus Lane during the course of the previous year. The University’s response to the project was reported to have been ‘unfavourable’, but this did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of those involved. The Club’s first presentation was a series of short one act plays of varying quality, of which the Club’s first minute book reports that ‘the receipts were scanty, but a start was effected’.

Over the course of the next five years, the society grew slowly but steadily. A contribution of £5 from each of the Club’s members allowed the Club to pay for the renovation of their cramped and bare rooms, and in 1860 the new stage at the Hoop Hotel, roughly on the site of the current building, was opened.

Though the University’s approval was initially begrudging, attitudes towards the club changed over the course of the next 40 years, and by the beginning of the 20th Century the Club was a nationally renowned and respected group. Tragedy struck in 1933 when the Hoop Hotel stage was destroyed in a fire. Support flooded in, including messages of goodwill from the King, and a mere 18 Months later a new building was opened by the Club. The ADC Theatre, now the oldest University playhouse in the country, was reborn.

The Club continued to run the theatre until it ran into financial difficulties in 1974 when the University took over the running of the theatre, as a department of the University leasing the building from the Club for a nominal annual fee.