Invisible by Design: Druidism in Modern Britain
On a blustery winter day, I went to visit Glastonbury, really for no other reason than that I hadn’t been before. I expected a small slumbering town, a few twee cafes, maybe a garden centre. But the town was buzzing. The cafes were vegan and the most prevalent shrub, it was plain to smell, was [&h
The Travels of the Bonsai
Towering above the rural village of Maekgwe in South Africa is the King-of-Garatjeke baobab tree. The tree is celebrated for its majestic size and age (some baobabs have reached 5000 years-old), and it functions as a town hall for the local community. The baobab is an iconic symbol of the African sa
Meditations on Morisot
To my mother, who taught me the language of painting. Berthe Morisot (1841-1895): Impressionist painter, woman, mother. While her counterparts, the Impressionists, became known for their radical paintings of landscapes and Parisian nightlife, art history portrayed Morisot as a mother. Over the years
Review: Guys and Dolls
Guys and Dolls is the bread and butter of feel-good musicals: everything falls apart, then everything comes back together, with a few songs and dances thrown in for good measure. Along the way, jazz hands make several appearances, and it ends with not one but two weddings – aren’t we spoilt? Yes
Love, Anger, Madness: Rebellious Haitian Literature almost Pushed off the Edge of History
CW: Sexual Assault After the suspicious death of three family members, Marie Vieux-Chauvet and her family halted the production of Love, Anger, Madness. They travelled across Haiti to destroy all published copies, and she left her underground literary society The Spiders of the Night in order
Review: The Spell of the Rose
Walking into New College’s ante-chapel, an intimate performance space has been demarcated in front of the organ screen, the typical set-up for a lunchtime recital. Part of the Friday Recital Series of the New Chamber Opera Studio, The Spell of the Rose promises to be “a tale of love, told th
Review: BARE
Three-quarters of the way through the queer rock musical, BARE, at the Keble O’Reilly Theatre, the shoulders of the man seated across from me started shaking violently – he was crying. This wasn’t the response I expected to a musical opening mid-prayer to the number ‘There’s a Bender Among
A Homage to the Women who Inspired Picasso’s Work
Think of Picasso and it’s impossible not to envision the women he painted, loved, and tormented. But the uncomfortable reality is that the tender intimacy between artist and subject did not translate beyond the canvas. The lives of the women who inspired him tell a more complicated story, marked b
Review: Dissonance
The Holywell Music Room had a very different atmosphere to usual for Hugo Max’s ‘Dissonance’. A film screen covered the organ, pieces of art were dotted around the space, paired balloons floated along the perimeter, people milled around. The air wasn’t as reserved as it usually is before a c