Drama
Oxford drama has acquired an unwelcome reputation over the years of being made up of cliquey, self-satisfied and arrogant pseudo-thesps, as unwilling to embrace change half as readily as they embrace one another.
While these may or may not be fair accusations, it's certainly true that most plays seem to be expected to be staged in the OFS, BT and the Holy Grail of the Playhouse. All three are decent small-to-medium venues, but all are equally far too conventional for their own good. However, change may be imminent.
At the end of last term, in:House productions staged a stunningly effective performance of Dr Faustus in Christ Church. Not only were the direction, acting and staging exemplary, but it also managed to take the cathedral and turn it into a makeshift theatre with great success.
Obviously, the idea of seeing Run For Your Husband in Christ Church is not a sensible one. Yet, nonetheless, there are exciting possibilities in store. Trinity Term (supposedly) provides warmth, light and audiences eager to see plays acted al fresco, and the thought of Shakespeare outside the Sheldonian, or Beckett in the Bodleian, is one that should make any would-be director tumescent with ego-mania and joy.
Go for it, chaps. It might work.
The aspirations of each one of us come under scrutiny in this excellent production of 'No Man's Land' by Harold Pinter, which sees a failed eccentric (Spooner/James Copp) with intellectual pretensions attempt to endear himself to an alcoholic former writer (Hirst/Toby Chapman) who only wishes to be reminded of his heady days at Oxford. So out of your punt and away with the Pimms, because this play is about you.
The play is marvellous in its intricacy, and yet still many lines seem to bring our own experiences and thoughts to mind, so that the play is both accessible and thought provoking. It is an often light-hearted look at ambition and how we deal with failure, and it is by turns both funny and poignant. Thom Glover's production is sharp and gripping, and the superb dialogue between the two main characters is brought to life by superlative performances from Toby Chapman (Hirst) and James Copp (Spooner). Copp commands the stage and draws the audience towards his every word, while Chapman is convincing as the rather pathetic scholar who brings into every conversation memories of his life at Oxford, and imagines that he remembers people he meets from that life. Though the principal actors are faced with the considerable difficulty of playing a character much older than they are, both respond admirably to the challenge with a zest and enthusiasm that is rarely seen in an Oxford production.
The distance between them is the no man's land of the title; the distance that exists between our circumstances and our aspirations, and, in the case of these two characters, the distance that must exist between a person who desires the situation of the other, while that other has no desire for it at all.
This play is certainly a good start to the thespianic term, and there are no signs that it has suffered from its timing at the beginning of term. If you like Pinter, go and see this, but also go if you want a thoroughly enjoyable trip to the theatre. See this play!
Ah, happy days. Summer's allegedly in the air, and a new batch of plays are trying to divert our attention away from things like balls, exams and lying around doing nothing, dodging tutorials and lying about non-existent essays.
All the same, it's good occasionally to divert cash from the pubs and clubs into the theatre, and there's no time like the present to do so, what with the gloriously sunny weather that we're supposed to be having, although I have my doubts.
This term, the line-up of drama looks like an especially varied and surprising mix of old favourites and new innovation, with plays ranging from Harold Pinter (The Homecoming at the Moser in 2nd week and No Man's Land at the OFS in 1st week) and Noel Coward's Design for Living at the OFS in 5th week to the more avant-garde likes of Ionesco's The Bald Prima Donna showing at the BT in 2nd week. It might be worse, of course; it might have been a play about Elton John.
The big Playhouse production of the term is Shakespeare's suitably sunny As You Like It in 6th week, which might be a welcome distraction, or revision aid, for those with exams.
For those unfortunate/happy (delete as appropriate) to be doing Finals in English, there's also plenty of opportunity to catch up on such classic plays as William Wycherley's The Country WIfe, which is perhaps the best play in the English language to contain buggery jokes, and a new adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, which probably won't. Unless the spirit of Chris Morris has temporarily possessed the writer, that is. Cue controversy...
There's plenty of new writing at the BT as well, with a probable highlight being the performance of a new play by the inimitable Jos Lavery. Whether there will be a discount for men who throw away their inhibitions and turn up in skirts is, as yet, unknown.
So, what are you all waiting for? Get out there, see some new plays, have a few laughs/tears, and then go outo the Bridge, culturally enriched. At least, that's the plan...
24th Apr 2003