Tuesday 16th December 2025

Culture

Graceful and self-assured: Circle Mirror Transformation reviewed

Boulevard Productions’ Circle Mirror Transformation is a faithful and competent take on Annie Baker’s 2009 tragicomedy.  The play follows a group of people of different ages taking a beginners’ drama...

‘We’re all mad here’: Alice in Won-DRE-Land at Tingewick 2025

When I wandered into Tingewick Hall on a cold, dark evening in seventh week,...

A comical approach to a classic text: ‘Hedda Gabler’ reviewed

Tiptoe Productions’ Hedda Gabler, co-directed by Ollie Gillam and Gilon Fox, delivered a strong...

‘Lux’ by Rosalía review: A breath of fresh air

'The Latin title ‘Lux’ perfectly embodies the concept and overall aesthetic of divine femininity, as well as the multilingual aspects that run throughout the work. With complex and meaningful lyrics written in 13 languages, and split into four movements, the record is a breath of fresh air for the pop scene'.

Coco sees Pixar back on delightful form

Pixar's latest venture may feature the Day of the Dead, but it's packed with heartwarming life and vitality

Making bad art

Oxford art students discover making bad portraits isn't as easy as it looks.

Amadeus review – ‘Salieri cackles in a high-backed chair like a Bond villain’

Tom Graus praises a theatrical spectacle containing a masterclass in stage performance

Twelfth Night preview – ‘a darker version’

Post-Truth Theatre Company's Twelfth Night is a clever and satirical take on modern life, says Nina Crisp

Twelfth Night Review – Shakespeare for the Love Island Generation’

Harry Hatwell is impressed by the mirror of contemporary reality in an ambitious adaptation at the Keble O'Reilly

Rachel Whiteread Tate review: ‘her pieces are embodiments of domestic memories’

William Hosie's mind is changed as he appreciates the ways that Whiteread's sculptures speak to our shared domestic reality.

Gender-swapped remakes are a risk not worth taking

Bad remakes don't do female actors any favours

Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature: reflections on Kazuo Ishiguro’s recognition

Did the Swedish Academy miss the subtlety of his writing?

Five Minutes with Harry Househam

We chat to Harry Househam, producer of Jericho Comedy and Stand-up History, about comedy in Oxford and his brand new show.

The Greatest Showman falls on its face

This longtime passion project for Hugh Jackman is far more ugly and cynical than it first appears

A bombastic celebration of Europe, sexual freedom, and gelato

Phoenix’s unabashedly optimistic latest album is hard to dislike

Philosophical economists and privatised oceans

Barney Pite reviews Varoufakis’ Talking to My Daughter About the Economy

Restoring the silenced voices in Wide Sargasso Sea

The prequel is politically necessary to the original, writes Musty Kamal

Reimagining the Ordinary

  This week, Amber Sidney- Woollett explores the work environment by restructuring dark space, whilst Georgia Heneage uses expressive brush strokes and texture to add...

Kabakov Tate Review- ‘an exercise in alternative perspectives’

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov's 'Not Everyone Will Be Taken into the Future' illustrates the horrors of the Soviet Union through a series of juxtaposing perceptions

‘The worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen’

'Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow' offers an unconventional take on the 'Chosen One' genre

My album of the year: Leonard Cohen’s valediction

The Canadian's swansong ranks among his greatest albums

2017: The year of Jack Antonoff

Few producers expose the emotions of female artists like the man who has come to define pop

Review: Fall Out

Tim Shipman reveals the chaos and bitterness of post-referendum politics

Modigliani Tate review – ‘a delight to walk through’

Tate Modern's Modigliani show is tame, but beautiful

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