Welcome to What’s On Stage?, our weekly update showcasing the editors’ picks for what to see in Oxford each week. This week: 2nd week!
Wassup? Matriculation is over and your editors are already snotting all over their coffee-stained notes and bemoaning the difficulties of undergraduate existence. If that sounds familiar, you’re probably desperate for a little bit of theatrical escapism from the theatricalities of your own life. If you’re not quite that bad at life, indulge your leisure time with seeing what’s on stage this week…
Student theatre starts for real this week with the Burton Taylor dusting off its doors and proffering an adaptation of Spoonface Steinberg (opens Tuesday, 7.30), a genuinely tear-jerking, comic and heart-warming piece about an autistic girl with cancer. We previewed it last week and thought it was great. If you want to see something professional we recommend Ibsen’s Ghosts at the Playhouse (also Tuesday, 7.30) which is directed by Stephen Unwin who is well good at directing.
First years, if you’re over your Matriculash hangover, you might want to think about sorting out a Cuppers entry because the deadline is 8pm on Friday. If you’re stuck for ideas and feeling a bit panicked, there are basically two options: do a Pinter and pass it off as new writing, or dress in head to toe black and whisper abstract nouns at each other. They like that sort of thing.
Ha ha that was funny. Much funnier will be the first Audrey of term on Tuesday (Wheatsheaf, 8.30 doors). This is the Oxford Revue’s pick of comedians to showcase their new material this week. Go and have a laugh. You might see the stars of the future. (You probably won’t, but there will be beer.) Alternatively get some Shakespeare (and popcorn) in your life by watching a re-run of the National Theatre’s 2010 live broadcasting of Hamlet on screen at the Phoenix cinema (7pm, Tuesday, or, if you miss it, 12pm next Monday).
The best thing on offer this week is definitely Live Friday at the Ashmolean. It’s on “The Art of Theatre”. Check out their set list. I can’t wait to see the tour guides creatively illuminating items.
Partly here as an ‘editor’s pick’, and partly out of bemusement and curiosity, this is our last listing for the week. Please can someone go to the Butoh dance theatre class at East Oxford Community Centre (Friday, 7.30-9.30). I have read the whole page description two times, and I still don’t understand what Butoh is. It looks kind of soulful though, and apparently there is a sense of wonder at its heart. Tweet @OxStuStage if you understand more than me. Recommended for performers, or just people who want to do exploratory cool stuff with their bodies.
Want to be featured on What’s On Stage? Send details of your performance and 30 words telling us why you deserve a mention to drama@oxfordstudent.com.
