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Being an English student, I’d say I’m pretty good with finding many (many, many) ways to express the same thing. But the true masters of evasion and synonyms proved to be my family – particularly when I suggested we go and see some Shakespeare. From “too much ironing” to “not speaking the ‘lingo’” to not […]
Continue ReadingClaire Dowie has beef with theatre. A veteran director, writer and performer, she is renowned for her gut-punching plays: funny, visceral and intense, usually for solo performance, and always political. And yet she cannot stand the world of which she is usually considered a part. “You sit there in the audience and you’re watching these […]
Continue ReadingBelarus is the last dictatorship in Europe. Under president Lukashenko’s regime, freedom of the press is severely restricted, media organisations are routinely harassed, and every one of its 25 theatres are state run. In 2005 Nikolai Khalezin and Natalia Koliada established the Belarus Free Theatre; they were soon joined by director Vladimir Scherban.They immediately became […]
Continue ReadingMusical theatre: a liberal serving of schmaltz with a side-order of corn and a generous portion of cheese. Musical theatre: maudlin emotional metereology which tells us to keep looking Somewhere Over the Rainbow and go on Singin’ in the Rain (which, in Spain, stays mainly on the plain). Traditionally considered the province of campery and […]
Continue ReadingTell us about the play. It’s a Greek tragedy which surrounds three central characters: Ulysses, Neoptolemus – the son of Achilles – and Philoctetes. The setting is the end of the Trojan War. Earlier on in the war, Philoctetes has been rejected by the Greek army for having been very badly wounded – the […]
Continue ReadingTo start with: why are you holding these play-readings? Mainly to raise the profile of these plays in Oxford. There aren’t enough student productions here of plays written by women and I thought a good way to tackle to this would be to hold some relaxed readings, and show that these plays exist, and more […]
Continue ReadingHigh tragedy is a brave route for student drama to pursue. High comedy is the same. This new English dramatisation of La Chatelaine de Vergi (Chastity on the Verge), however, is rather firm in its defence of the middle ground. We’re not supposed to cry, but nor are we supposed to roll in the Burton […]
Continue ReadingAny play produced in Oxford that is not in English gets the disadvantage of doubt. And not entirely unfairly. The brutal reality is that, when it comes to actors who can work in a language other than English, the pool of talent is a small, unprecious puddle. Far too many Latin plays have driven the […]
Continue ReadingSo, it’s been almost two weeks of full rehearsals and there’re another three weeks to go. There’s things to look back on and improvements to look forward to. The almighty fear of actually having to do and finish the bloody thing is in a very distant future, a future that’s almost out of reach, that […]
Continue ReadingYou might know the Old Fire Station as that modern-looking contemporary art gallery in Gloucester Green, where you can buy expensive postcards and designer mugs, or other such arty kitsch. Maybe you’re an upstanding member of the community who has helped out in the Old Fire Station Crisis Skylight centre on Broad Street. But […]
Continue ReadingThe Glass Menagerie is one of Tennessee Williams’s best-known plays. From the few scenes this preview offered, it seems that the audience will face a rather conventional interpretation. This is no bad thing, however, as the talented acting looks set to make this production both excellent and emotionally-charged. The Glass Menagerie centres around the Wingfield […]
Continue ReadingHypnotist Theatre’s production of The Trial will be short on costumes, props, scenery, and space—and that’s all to good effect. The play is Steve Berkoff’s adaptation of the Kafka novel of the same name, so you know you’ll be in for a bit of a strange ride through the corridors of beuracracy and power. The […]
Continue ReadingThis production could be better named 1984 B.C. It is more visceral than clinical, more heart-washed than brain-washed: Big Brother is not obeyed, but adored with primordial passion. Take the opening of the play, the notorious Two Minutes Hate sequence. Anya Meinhardt’s choreography jolts the actors into a sort of tribal ritual. Like broken metronomes, […]
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