The Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club (CUADC), the oldest University dramatic society in Britain, was founded in 1855 by F.C. Burnand (the librettist, Sir Francis Cowley Burnand, 1836-1917). The club was successor to a series of short-lived University dramatic societies, including the Garrick Club.

The Club met and performed in the back room of the Hoop Inn on Jesus Lane. In the 1860s the CUADC leased additional rooms from the inn owner, William Ekin, and in 1882, the CUADC bought the freehold to the property using a mortgage of £3,500. The building was subsequently developed into the ADC Theatre over an extended period of time. In 1933 a fire destroyed much of the building but the theatre was quickly rebuilt to a design by Harold Tomlinson and W.P. Dyson, and reopened in 1935. Significant refurbishment to the building was carried out between 2004 and 2008. The present building on Park Street stands almost exactly on the site of the original coaching inn.

In its early years, CUADC was a predominantly a social club, akin to a private members’ club. Women were first admitted to the audience in 1861 for a performance of ‘Not a Bad Judge’, which was also attended by the Prince of Wales in his capacity as an honorary member. Unlike Oxford, male undergraduates at Cambridge were permitted to play female stage parts. Women were invited to appear in the 1935 May Week production of ‘The Servant of Two Masters’ but could not formally join the club until after 1945.

From 1960 onwards CUADC experienced growing financial difficulties and by 1972 matters had reached a crisis: the Club could not raise the funds necessary to repair the fabric of the building and replace equipment. Following a University Enquiry into the financial state of the ADC Theatre, it was agreed for the theatre to be leased to the University of Cambridge for 75 years from 1 August 1973. The University employs full-time staff to run the ADC Theatre, has responsibility for its maintenance, rates and for a defined range of recurrent expenditure. The theatre is still owned by CUADC but is run as the smallest department of the University. CUADC is one of the ADC Theatre’s resident companies.

CUADC produces a diverse range of productions each term, many of which are performed at the ADC Theatre or the Corpus Playroom as well as at other Cambridge venues, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and occasionally abroad as part of an organised tour. In addition to shows, the Club runs a programme of professional and student-run workshops for actors, directors and technicians, and a series of late-night experimental pieces known as One Night Stands.

Notable alumni of the CUADC include: F.C. Burnand; Rupert Brooke; Justin Brooke; Cecil Beaton; Michael Redgrave; Donald Beves; Julian Slade; Peter Hall; John Barton; Toby Robertson; Margaret Drabble; Eleanor Bron; Clive Swift; Germaine Greer; Ian McKellen; Derek Jacobi; Trevor Nunn; Miriam Margoyles; Emma Thompson; Sandi Toksvig; Eddie Redmayne.