Daring Direction
Gregory Doran is a lion of a man. His immense face is framed by a flowing mane of thick dark hair, and he makes frequent and expansive directorial gestures with enormous arms. The handshake is crushing, the eyes piercing. Shakespeare has been a constant presence in Doran's life. The RSC associate director received a Jesuit education in Lancashire, and even before beginning study at Bristol University had set up his own local Shakespeare company, touring local halls and community centres around Preston. A graduate course at Bristol Old Vic and a stint at the Nottingham Playhouse followed university, before he joined the RSC in 1987, first as an actor, then a director. His first production as director was Derek Walcott's adaptation of The Odyssey in 1992, and since then Doran has risen to become one the country's pre-eminent Shakespearian directors. He has become renowned not just for success in the production of blockbusters such as Macbeth, but also for more esoteric offerings. His last production was a pioneering staging of Shakespeare's dramatic poem Venus and Adonis using puppets....
Features: Not our problem
At the mention of AIDS, what springs to mind? Africa, perhaps; an epidemic for already struggling countries. Maybe you think of homosexuality, or even needle-sharing. Whatever one associates with the disease, a British epidemic is unlikely to be top of the list.
Features: Oxford and an AIDS vaccine
Last month, researchers fromSouth Africa's KwaZulu Natal, Oxford and Harvard universities announced the results of a collaborative study designed to explore in greater depth the interaction between Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the immune system. The results, published in the scientific journal Nature, identify a gene which is involved in combating the virus....
Features: Whose role model is he anyway?
Republicans were in for a treat last week. As the future king's cousin was exposed by The Oxford Student as ringleader of the tweed-wearing, bottle-smashing, abuse-hurling Bullingdon Club's pub brawl (perhaps itself a rather too tenuous reason for abolition of the monarchy), Prince Harry showed us just how few brain cells are needed for a premier position on the social ladder, as he obliviously donned Nazi regalia at a friend's 'colonial and native' themed party. Off with their heads, you screamed! ...
