Thursday 12th June 2025

Culture

The Journal of a Chambermaid: The greatest novel you’ve never heard of

It is easy to suppose that the greatest authors of the 19th century have all already been discovered. Especially when it comes to French literature, one notices the same...

The Oxford Cinema & Café: A profile

"The opening of The Oxford Cinema & Café marks a new chapter in Oxford’s cinema scene: a move further towards independent cinema."

W.H. Auden at the Bus Stop: In Praise of Intellectual Delay

It’s a damp Tuesday afternoon, and W.H. Auden is waiting patiently at the bus stop...

The Case for Reincarnated Romances

"Reincarnation romance films are sometimes silly, mostly melodramatic, but always overlooked as a subgenre."

Music beyond the M6

In a recent interview with the Sunday Times, musician Sam Fender discussed the importance of singing in a Geordie accent for his latest album...

Scenes with Girls: In conversation with Love Song Productions

"The dialogue is simultaneously so realistic and so weird and the characters and themes felt like they would really ring true to a student audience."

In Defence of James Corden

"So where did it go so wrong? Well, there is no disputing his most incredible talent of worming his way into just about every corner of popular culture."

Why we should care about Warhol

"The growing demand for modern art from an increasing number of collectors is a cause of both celebration and lament for the rest of us."

“Unafraid to poke fun at the elite” – Review: The Corn is Green

"Miss Moffat plucks Morgan Evans out of the mines, trains him to speak like a gentleman, and stuffs his head with Adam Smith and Voltaire. It’s like My Fair Lady, but gender-swapped and very, very Welsh."

Vessel: In conversation with Grace Olusola

TW: fatphobia, eating disorders, self-harm. Vessel, the new theatrical anthology from Dawn Productions, examines our relationship with the body and food through episodic fragments....

“Rage and heartbreak” – Review: Medea

"[Medea] is a truly frightening figure as she stalks the quad, coming right up to the audience and looking them in the eye as she delivers some of the most acerbic lines of the play."

Once Long Ago

In Once Long Ago, Jenny Robinson invites us to listen to the “dead tales of old gods long gone” struggling to find their place...

Work is hell: the brutal beauty of corporate aesthetics

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote that hell is other people, but he was wrong: hell is an office job. The stereotypical image summoned by nine-to-five drudgery...

Love Without Words: The Quiet Storytelling of Heartstopper

Rare for the teen drama genre, the show, much like its sketched source material, is taciturn like an actual shy teenager.

‘Irishness existing in England’: the brilliance of Skinty Fia

I first came across Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. when my brother brought me their debut album on vinyl for Christmas, back in 2019....

Oxford’s rock and roll: a very short introduction

"Rock and roll and academia has never been the most compatible pairing."

Love Island goes sustainable?

"As a show, Love Island isn’t exactly known for setting a good example for just about anything, so the sudden decision to eschew fast fashion seems rather out of character."

Let’s get physical: Review – Holding

Neily Raymond reviews Holding, Kristy Miles' new play at the Burton Taylor Studio.

Wilde at heart: In Conversation with members of the Lincoln Drama Society

It’s practically a cliché to say that with such short and busy terms, there are more events happening in Oxford than any person could...

Lord Reginald Moreton of Oxfordshire

Poet's Note: "One of my favourite things to do whenever I visit new areas with my friends is to come up with ridiculous "histories"...

In conversation with the creatives behind Top Girls

"Every play Caryl Churchill writes has revolutionised theatre."

Performing the unperformable – Preview: Carrie

Founding Fellas Productions have made an interesting choice in staging Carrie: The Musical at the Oxford Playhouse, which I watched in a dress rehearsal earlier this week. With its catastrophic production history (a book of Broadway failures is named after it), the musical is famously one of the biggest flops in theatre history.

Netflix’s Newest Sweetheart

Originally posted as a webcomic series on Tumblr in 2019, Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper became an instant hit. It has been adored internationally for its...

Maxim Biller and Ukraine: The resignation of a German-Jewish author?

I am well aware that for the sake of switching off from university, or from the cruel news about Ukraine, it is better to...

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