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✮✮✮✮ Let the Right One In opened at the Royal Court Theatre on Thursday evening. Originally performed in Dundee last June as a National Theatre of Scotland production, it is bound after the Royal Court for the West End. The production, an adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel, is sinister and spellbinding. Prior to the start, various actors […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ The coming of Oxmas has signalled the final hurdle of 8th week essays and packing the suitcase for the return home (not to mention those crazy Christmas subject parties). So it’s no surprise that recent shows in Oxford have been musicals with all that jazz, magical pantomimes and more stand-up which leaves you falling […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ One thing is sure of the double billing of Eden and Pictures We Make at the Pegasus – the two pieces have a lot to say about human relationships, sexuality, foolishness, pride, and a whole host of other emotions. But by the end of the evening they became a bit of an odd couple, exploring similar questions with […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮ The JdP auditorium at St. Hilda’s, with its upstairs balcony, is a fairly intimidating place to fill – and at the first showing of the drama society’s play, Cyrano de Bergerac, most of these seats remained unoccupied. The story of de Bergerac is now a kind of folklore: that of the anti-establishment hero, dangerous […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮ Thriller Live has come to Oxford. Unless you’ve been living beneath a rock you’ll know that the show is a medley of songs from none other than the legendary Michael Jackson, who died in 2009. Unlike narrative-musicals such as Mamma Mia, no storyline governs the show. (Thank God – a story based on Jackson’s […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ Chicago – a musical synonymous with glitz, glamour and grit. Set in Prohibition-era Chicago, where corruption abounds, the musical is a piece of satire tackling the idea of abuse in the justice system and exploring the issue of idolizing famous felons. Director Jack Sain reinterprets the script to create a phenomenal show that is […]
Continue ReadingSix of us gathered in the Top Room of the Playhouse. Five directors and one actress. In a way, it felt cyclical – in ten years’ time we could be the new stars of professional theatre. After all, Blanche MacIntyre, who graduated from Corpus Christi in 2003, was generally unknown until 2011. In that year […]
Continue ReadingWhat’s the difference between optimism and stupidity? Who’s in the bedroom? What year is it? What’s going on, anyway? All these questions and more arise from the first scene of Rough Hewn’s production of Shells, a new play by Trinity’s Howard Coase that opens in 6th week in Balliol’s Pilch studio. Written in response to […]
Continue ReadingTragedy asks: what destroys us? Hercules, like Othello, answers: jealousy. When her husband Hercules (David le Prevost) returns from war with captive princess Iole (Tara Mansfield) in tow, Dejanira (Johanna Harrison) falls prey to the green-eyed monster. This triggers a deadly chain of events which drags our flawed heroes through deception, love, and guilt to […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ ‘A thriller about spies, double agents, and the opaqueness of the human soul’ is a tagline that would probably only work in Oxford, and Ciphers definitely provides value for money for English students intent on unpicking the play’s themes. However, Blanche McIntyre’s lucid direction and a versatile set from James Perkins serve to make […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮✮ Edward Bond wrote ‘Saved’ back when economic crises and wildcat strikes were the norm, and the Beatles were all still alive and kicking. But ‘Saved’ is less about the swinging sixties and more about the swigging sixties. It portrays the cultural and moral apathy of a South East London family who are unperturbed by […]
Continue ReadingWelcome to What’s On Stage?, our weekly update showcasing the editors’ picks for what to see in Oxford each week. This week: 4th week. Cool cool cool this week there are loads of cool things. Well done Oxford! In a frenzy of decisions, we’ve decided to slimline this thing and give you the very choicest of our […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ I come from California, and the first thing that comes to mind when faced with the prospect of an American musical in the UK is that the accents will be shocking. In order not to fidget all the way through a production of Mack and Mabel in south London last year, I had to convince myself the actors were […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮✮ A dark drama portraying a dystopian Britain, Foxfinder does well to create a mood and atmosphere that gets its audience thinking. The play depicts the life of a couple, struggling with the recent loss of their son, in a world not suited for grief. The elusive and dangerous figure of the fox hangs over […]
Continue Reading✮✮✮ It’s that time of year again. Timeless pagan festival clashes with cat-ears kitsch to produce the grotesque smorgasbord of a cultural phenomenon we dub Hallowe’en. And with it comes a good crop of spooky student drama – this week’s double-bill of The Death of Maria and The Ghosts of Barucone Manor at The Burton […]
Continue ReadingWelcome to What’s On Stage?, our weekly update showcasing the editors’ picks for what to see in Oxford each week. This week: 3rd week. Let’s great straight to it, because there are actually a bunch of cool things to see this week. Biggest and loudest will be The Producers (opens Wednesday, Playhouse, £10), musical extravaganza extraordinaire about embezzlement and Nazis, […]
Continue ReadingA hugely popular phenomenon in the US, the university a cappella craze has spent the last decade steadily spreading across the UK. Glee helped to boost it; so did 2012 film Pitch Perfect – and it seems now that the genre has reached its peak. Known for an inexplicable level of competitiveness for such a light-hearted craft, […]
Continue ReadingOne of the only qualities that can consistently be expected from one Audrey to another is variation. Audrey IX, the first in this year’s series of Revue-hosted get-togethers, was no different. The Wheatsheaf’s cosy upstairs room is the setting for this year’s raft of comics and sketch artists: male and female, students and townsfolk, and […]
Continue ReadingWelcome 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 […]
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