Bertolt Brecht wrote of The Good Soul of Szechuan, which he set in rural China: ‘it caused me more trouble than any play I ever did’. And it’s still causing trouble, now in Cambridge. Edith Franklin and Jake Thompson have revamped the play and the result is unlike anything you have experienced this year. The audience is led from the open-air exposition to a venue off the traditional drama map. They are intimately involved in the unfolding story, the search for a good person in a capitalist world that rewards selfishness. They pay only four pounds, up front. Four pounds! If that’s not putting virtue and art, above capitalistic gains, I don’t know what is.

One reason, perhaps, that Brechtian drama is not often put on here is the supposed consequential lack of opportunity for our superstar actors to show off their skill. It’s not naturalistic. Brecht’s theatre alienates. There is arguably less subtlety and more finger-pointing. But this play’s central performances show talent in this special situation, and Joe Spence as Shen Te, the eponymous good soul, is nothing short of stunning.

All the actors perform the length of the evening with remarkable intensity, and the distinction between cast and crew just as that between spectator and spectacle blurs. If you regret not auditioning for that Shakespeare-in-the-garden, you can do some impromptu acting right here and forget the exams you just took/remembered (sorry). Indeed, before May Week’s inundation of soft grass and traditional productions, this exactly opposite show is welcome. Less iambic pentameter in the garden’s and more disco lights and italo-pop in one of Cambridge’s most interesting performance venues to date. Certainly don't call it a theatre.

So if you show up on Green Street at half nine in the evening between now and Thursday, you’ll see something unusual. If you’re leaving Sainsbury’s and hear funny noises, go on, join in, let the play pick you up and take you on an extraordinary journey. Curiosity is not a sin, Harry. No tickets in advance. Let’s see if a bunch of freshers can buck that oh-so-regular rhythm of the ADC and Corpus’s style and schedule.

@Meemstd