Sissy fascism; a watershed moment
The Lover is playing at the Keble O’Reilly Theatre tonight at 7:30pm for the last show of its run. It is late November 2013. Jeremy Paxman adopts his trademark supercilious lean as he introduces his guests on Newsnight. The screen behind him reads only the word “gay” in comically large
Critical Notices
Good Work by Melinda Zhu (Empty Space Productions) Burton Taylor Studio, 4th – 8th March. At its core, Good Work is a striking and deeply thoughtful exploration of grief—how it manifests in different ways and how unresolved relationships with the deceased complicate mourning. The play follow
Music is dead (and capitalism killed it)
“Music is back,” declared the BBC as music sales hit a twenty-year high in 2024. Well, not really: there is only one way music is coming back, and that’s from the dead. Since the new millennium, there has been a marked correlation between the rise of streaming services (which comprise m
PRESSURE POINT: So we’re all just giving up on the environment then?
Rachel Reeves at Davos was never going to be Jeremy Corbyn at Glastonbury, nor did anyone expect her to be. If the Labour Party of years gone by found its firmest footing in front of sweaty and swaying festival-goers, surrounded by Greenpeace banners rippling in the breeze, then new-New-Labou
Hawk Tutalitarianism: Crypto-scam society in the 2020s
There’s really no way to sugarcoat this piece of news: lawsuits have now been filed because people lost millions investing in Hawk Tuah Coin. $HAWK is a cryptocurrency named after ‘Hawk Tuah’, and promoted by Hailey Welch, also known as the Hawk Tuah Girl. As the reader likely knows, Hawk Tuah
Jean-Marie Le Pen: a torturer, a racist, and a political success
Why mourn a torturer? 7 January 2025 marked the day the life of Jean-Marie Le Pen—co-founder and leader up to 2011 of France’s far-right Front National (FN) party—came to a close at 96. Le Pen overcame attachment to a litany of violent crimes over his many years to become a hugely influential
Icon of the Week: Camille Etienne
Here’s an anecdote that will delight Isis readers, I thought to myself, a story that could almost single-handedly qualify her for our Icon of The Week: Camille Étienne was accused of hacking Björk’s Instagram account to post a video denouncing the insufficient protection of mari
Christmas with Wallace and Gromit: A tale of hubris, treachery, and alcoholic neurasthenia
WARNING: This review contains spoilers for both Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl, and for the real mysteries of the interstellar demonic lizard world order. In a world of remakes and sequels, the return of Wallace and Gromit is surely a sign of impending apocalypse. It is Christma
In Review: Into the Woods
Before the show even starts, the new production of Into the Woods at the Oxford Playhouse is charged with playful magic. The actors are lit in cloudy, white light: two share a short embrace; another paces side-to-side in deep focus; some of the company hold hands in a tight circle and start a