Tag: oxford drama

✮✮✮✮ The dimly lit, almost claustrophobic studio hosts a cluttered stage, boasting Lego blocks, hangings of vibrant, animated drawings, and a lonely wooden chair. A young girl sits in the middle, intently colouring and seemingly oblivious to the sudden surge of chattering, clamorous baboons which, for her, comprise the audience. She sits patiently, swaying to […]

✮✮✮✮ What would happen if some children acted as soldiers, just for fun? And what if a soldier decided to join them in their games? This is exactly what A Strange Wild Song explores, drawing inspiration from the story of a Belgian photographer who met a group of children in the outskirts of Paris during […]

✮✮✮✮✮ Arcadia by Tom Stoppard: ring any bells? Yeah, I imagined so. And not only because it’s one of the greatest plays of the 21st century, but also because it was performed three times within Oxford alone since January of this year. So, you’ll probably be dismissing the headline as yet another Oxford student company interpretation […]

✮✮✮ A common theme of many shows at this year’s Edinburgh Festival was the difficulties of coming to terms with human acts of outrageous violence. While Yael Farber’s Nirbhaya exposed abuse of women in India and Sean McCafferty’s Quietly confronted the deep-set hostilities still remaining in Northern Ireland, the subject matter of David Greig’s new play, The Events, is the aftermath of […]

You’ve got the tightly-buttoned shirt, and the black-rimmed glasses. You do an arts subject. You are so close. But if you really want to make it as a thesp, we’ve got a few simple pointers to help. Let us present our beginners’ guide to the curious world of Oxford theatre… 1. Find your niche. Obviously, […]

Based on Polly Teale’s admirable adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s novel, this production was a mixed bag.  Despite some strong points, the acting was not wholly convincing.  Many actors were playing multiple parts and few were playing all of them well.  The notable exception was Josie Richardson who switched from kindly housemaid, with a great accent, […]

As St Hilda’s College Drama Society showed on the opening night of Women Beware Women, the conceit of theatricality can redeem most things.  With stage hands present onstage during the preset, maliciously manipulating the action through to the end of the play, this production is one which centres around a theatrical court – a court in […]

“Unforgettable! What was it?… Oh I remember…”  A critic reviewing critics, in a play about plays – it doesn’t get much more pretentious than that.  The set-up doesn’t bode well but, the surreal nature of The Real Inspector Hound transcends cliché and dashes expectations in this cleverly written, well-executed send-up of critics and Christie. For once, “Has […]

James Fennemore previews Macbeth, to be showing 23rd-25th November in the JDP Auditorium, St Hilda’s.