Culture

Must theatre be so dire? Thoughts on the “unworthy scaffold”

If 'art est celare artem' (true art is to conceal art), then theatre is pretty poor art. You ain't fooling me into thinking that's a storm.

Seasonal reads: On childhood hobbies, growing up, and guilt

Reconnecting with reading is something many people tend to do on a summer holiday,...

Between beer gardens and picnics: Climate Culture Care at the Ashmolean

When I returned to Oxford this term, just as England teased us with the sixth heat-wave of the year, I found myself at a loose end. With the deadline for two vacation essays still far in the distance, the sun lit up the sign for Soma Surovi Jannat’s Ashmolean Now exhibition, Climate Culture Care.

“What is a good life?”: The Standard of Living in review 

“What is a good life?” This axiological question, asked earnestly in the opening lines of James Graham’s The Standard of Living – playing at Theatre Royal Haymarket until December 12 – is often overlooked by the fractured and hyper-specialised discipline of economics.

The Japanese House – “I’ve never wanted fame at all”

Ellen Peirson-Hagger interviews Amber Bain on her moody indie project

A titanic record for all the wrong reasons

Will Cowie finds Gorillaz's Humanz to be soulless and robotic

Take me to (Broad)church

Charles Britton takes a spoiler-filled look back at Chris Chibnall’s crime drama

Is television too small for the both of them?

Theo Davies-Lewis pits the BBC against streaming services

Asian actors are invisible in Hollywood

Vivien Zhu argues that change from studios and in racial attitudes is necessary to make progress on the under representation of Asian actors

A limp, lifeless insult to every single viewer

Christopher Goring is reduced to a gibbering mess by "Sandy Wexler"

American art at the cutting edge of the 21st century

Altair Brandon-Salmon explores two samples of recent art and their resonances

Exploring Hull and its high water

Julian Wood travels around Kingston-Upon-Hull and immerses himself in 2017's 'City of Culture'

“Fun, thoroughly amusing and worth watching”

Freya Thorpe praises Ambriel Productions’ musical ensemble

Acting out against commoditisation in art

Anoushka Kavanagh considers resistance to the shifting role of the consumer

A day in the life of… a lighting director

I came to Oxford with very little backstage experience. It’s really easy to get into the scene—TAFF (the University network of backstage crew) is...

“If you’d told me a year ago I would never have believed it”

Katie Sayer chats to Callum Cameron, the writer and star of They Built It, No One Came – coming to Oxford following a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe and a sell-out week in London

An odd mix of Sophocles, Stoppard and Wilde

Katie Sayer gives four stars to Simon Callow's revival of a 1970s classic

Dispatches: ‘Marooned between past and present, not here’

A short story of everyday escapism, by Izzy Smith

Fresh ideas abound in new Netflix original ‘The OA’

Priya Khaira-Hanks is intrigued by this enigmatic new sci-fi series

A day in the life of… an assistant director

Rebekah King describes her role assistant directing Brontë, Polly Teale’s successful 2005 period drama

Rewind: “Our greatest work may be found in our escape”

Carmen Martinez explores the dawdles and doodles of Dr Seuss' Oxford days

Tolkien and ‘the problems of another place’

Sandy Elliot makes the case for art in all its uselessness

Becoming a metropolitan through life in slow motion

Maddison Sumner discusses her experience of moving from the town to the city

“An aspirational first performance”

Jacob Greenhouse is impressed by 'Blatavsky's Tower', the first production from newly founded company

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