Under Review: Oxford Journalism
They write about Oxford as it exists in relation to other universities but these universities are not named or clarified; they write about our lives as if they intend to compare them to other lives but rarely get around to explaining what these other lives are like. This frame of reference has its u
Under Review: Gainsborough and Shonibare
Thomas Gainsborough’s painting ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews’ (1750) and Yinka Shonibare’s sculpture ‘Mr and Mrs Andrews without their heads’ (1998) sit down to have a conversation. For the first time ever Shonibare’s piece (a life-sized 3D replica of the scene in Gainsborough’s painting) has
Under Review: Iphigenia at Aulis
I’ve promised not to tell you how Euripides’s Iphigenia at Aulis ends, but I can tell you how it starts. In the preshow, Agamemnon, Greek commander and father of Iphigenia, sits at a desk in a distinctly Celtic setting. He’s writing and unwriting the letter that could save his daughter’s lif
Under Review: OppOx Digital
It is safe to say that there is more than enough self-doubt when applying to Oxford from a state school background without the university adding another layer of academic interrogation. When there haven’t been a host of people you can ‘follow in the footsteps of’ – maybe you’re a first-gen
The Seagull – In Conversation with Lighthouse Productions
A century and three decades after The Seagull first met its audience, another October night brings the play back to the stage. What will happen there remains, as it did in 1896, uncertain. That is theatre’s promise, not that art will resolve the contradictions of being human, but that a group of p
Under Review: Scenes with Girls
‘“All that time, all that time, I thought I was missing Jude.” And the loss pressed down on her chest and came up into her throat. “We was girls together,” she said as though explaining something.’ — Sula, Toni Morrison (1973) Co-produced by Labyrinth Production
Under Review: Completely Bloody Incoherent
Despite what its title might tell you, Completely Bloody Incoherent unravels itself with impressive lucidity. Splinters Production’s latest play refuses to resign itself to a single category, embracing fragmentation to fully capture the disorienting overlap between who we are and what we creat
Under Review: The Future of the Left, at the Union
There is a particular kind of irony that only the British left can produce with such reliable efficiency. Last weekend I found myself squarely inside it, as four rising left-wing podcasters—Noah East and Sean Ramiz of Northstar Politics, and Freddie Feltham and Jovan Owusu-Nepaul of What’s L
Artist Spotlight: Oli Spooner, Inigo Unknown
Oxford, compared to its oft-referenced rival, Cambridge, has few spaces like Clare College’s music grounds. Whatever band nights and pub performances are put on in this city are comparatively small scale, and music as a genre of creative work commands far less weight and aura then it did a decade
