Wednesday 3rd 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'.

“Extremely vulnerable”: Review of The Sun King

It is difficult to imagine the stiflingly intimate space of the Burton Taylor transformed into a wide beach overlooking the expanse of the sea:...

Bruegel to Rubens at the Ashmolean review: ‘Intimate and eye-opening’

"It was a pleasure to return to Oxford during the vacation to visit the Ashmolean’s new exhibition, which showcases some of the best drawings of the great Flemish artists of the 16th and 17th centuries."

Bust?: Saving the Economy, Democracy and our Sanity by Robert Peston and Kishan Koria- Review

"So long as we have an economic system geared towards the accumulation of wealth rather than the acquisition of it, inequalities will continue to widen"

The Oxford Revue: A Room with Revue

'a simple and clever production which ranks as one of the most enjoyable shows I've seen all year'

All Of Us Strangers Review – A Haunting Exploration of Love in all its Forms

"In All Of Us Strangers, writer-director Andrew Haigh leads us by the hand into a dreamlike, introspective world. "

Ode to a Nearly Beloved

"As though through tracing paper, I etch your features onto faces of strangers I’ll never know."

‘Bittersweet, immersive and profoundly moving’ – Perfect Days Review

"I don’t think I’ve ever felt so ‘in the moment’ while watching a film as I did with Perfect Days"

Book recommendations from the editors’ desk

"It’s rare that I find non-fiction to be such a page-turner, but Tara Westover’s autobiography was just that."

Hollywood vs. AI – Is this the end?

"the question on everyone’s lips is: is this the end? The end of special effects teams? The end of video creation? The end of filmmaking?"

Poor Things – Review

Includes some spoilers Poor Things takes place in a world only Yorgos Lanthimos could create. Like the rest of his oeuvre, the film is full...

Greg Heffley: A Hero of Our Time

Few modern comic heroes align with our distinctive age – an age which Dickens’s famous opening, ‘It was the best of times, it was...

Pink Tulips

"I want our story to be one of fields of flowers and quiet sunsets. I do not wish for violence."

Tangerine

"Picking apart the peel of the ripest fruit, prying open its flesh."

The Saintly Lives of Students

"There, there(‘s) a graveyard in the college where drunk students in funeral suits smile through tombstone teeth."

Diffidence

"non est, ut putas, virtus, pater, timere vitam, sed malis ingentibus obstare nec se vertere ac retro dare."

The Roaring Twenties

"The Roaring Twenties (1939), freshly remastered this year in 4K, is the last and greatest gangster film of the 1930s."

To fall in love in just ‘One Day’: Review

"One Day, like Normal People, has touched me in a way that very few other programmes have."

The man of the moment: Review of Keir Starmer: The Biography by Tom Baldwin

"Baldwin does his best to humanise Starmer and to deflate the view of him as “Mr Boring”."

A Press Morning at Yoko Ono’s ‘MUSIC OF THE MIND’ Exhibition

"The gallery space itself did not provide an atmosphere of silence, but rather upon observation, isolated moments of contemplation and quietness were evident amongst the bustling scene in the room."

Zone of Interest – Review

"His euphemisms are obvious, yet they are emblematic of the culture of 'seeing without seeing' that cast its shadow over the National Socialist period in Germany. "

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