Cambridge University European Theatre Group
The Cambridge University European Theatre Group is a self-sufficient, entirely student-run theatrical company, which tours a Shakespeare play around Europe for two and a half weeks every December (and has been doing so for over 50 years now!). It is an ambitious coach-bound operation; a company of 25 or so tour with professional lighting and sound equipment, costumes and an experimental set, enabling us to put on a show absolutely anywhere.
Each year we visit around twelve venues - ranging from professional theatres, to schools and universities, and even to churches and converted bread-ovens – and travel through five or six countries.
The European Theatre Group was founded in 1957 by a group of students that included Sir Trevor Nunn and Sir Derek Jacobi (now patron), who that took Romeo and Juliet on tour across most of Switzerland for a period of just under two weeks during December.
The tour then consisted of half a dozen actors and a set transported in two fruit vans, but it was such a great success that we have toured Europe on an annual basis since!