Notable alumni include Douglas Adams, John Cleese, Prince Edward, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Andy Hamilton and Graeme Garden.
[1] Performing revues and comic sketches, it could boast such future celebrities as John Cleese and Graeme Garden amongst its members (with Flanders and Swann as honorary presidents of the society).
During this period, the likes of Andy Hamilton and Douglas Adams were members (the latter, having found Footlights "aloof and rather pleased with themselves", joined CULES instead).
The society has adapted Cinderella and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for pantomime, performed plays such as A Charming Little Murder Mystery and Diary of a Nobody.
Staples include pantomime, comic plays, revues, and skits, but in the past the society has also shot a short film and put on a music talent competition, amongst others.
CULES performances can be demanding, with difficult audiences (for instance, disabled children, or hospital patients...) and highly improvised facilities (such as a school gymnasium).
In Michaelmas and Lent terms, the productions are taken to special needs schools, homes for the elderly, homeless shelters, and hospital wards, for whose occupants these performances often represent a welcome departure from an otherwise monotonous daily routine.
The plays are dedicated to Emma Clements, a CULES member that was lost to cancer in 1996, and performed for a student audience in one of the college gardens of Cambridge.
In 2003, CULES and OULES created the Two Shades of Blue[4] theatre group to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe festival with their own version of The Three Musketeers.
Performing at the Bedlam Theatre, they improved on their success from the previous year, attaining audience figures well above average for both the venue and the festival as a whole.