'In everything from Little Women to My Brilliant Friend, Lady Bird to The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, women are offered a pretty clear choice: do you want to be sexy, or clever? Do you want to be stimulated, or happy? According to Mortimer, you can’t have both.'
Spring has been extolled in poetry perhaps more than any other season. Since antiquity, poets have associated spring with growth and celebration making their poems are a joy to read this time of year.
"This juxtaposition characterises the genre: bright, happy elements of club hits mixed with a subversive sly irony that comes with introducing darker lyrical and aesthetic elements."
Connor Connolly tackles the explosion in popularity of Hyperpop, and its effects on the music industry.
"The energy is less mosh pit, headbanging, and more vulnerable. There’s talk of heartache and relationships crumbling"
Poppy Atkinson Gibson finds a different side to the Australian trio, Chase Atlantic, in their latest release, "Beauty in Death".
"'Half Baked' passes the Bechdel test with flying colours. It is truly a feminist triumph and is so refreshing to see an all-female cast on an Oxford stage—something of a rarity, especially in the genre of farce."
James Newbery reviews the first live post-Lockdown show in Oxford, "Half Baked" by 00Productions at the North Wall Arts Centre.
'Upon sitting down to write this article, the immense prospect of narrowing down my entire life's reading experience to five books suddenly seemed to stare at me, chasm-like. Life does not always present itself to us in such neat sequences.'
'What makes a great writer?
Practice, of course, and undoubtedly that unique spark called talent or inspiration. But as every writer, great or otherwise, knows, the whole business of writing is built on reading.'
""Great Spans of Muddy Time" finds Doyle in new realms of abstraction, with a record that can feel formless, sometimes almost messy."
Frank Milligan ruminates on William Doyle's latest release.
"The Arnolfini Portrait was an intricate, sophisticated project with a controlled yet bold execution. Every element of sound was carefully considered, and I took great satisfaction in being guided along Jean’s journey through the various mediums of sound."
Beth Ranasinghe reviews the audio production of "The Arnolfini Portrait" by The Industry Magazine Podcast.
"The lack of interaction prescribed by the online format forbids conversation between Lana and her audience, a blockage that’s mirrored by the cited words’ failure to offer clarity on Lana’s lost life events".
Eleanor Zhang reviews the online production of These Quicker Elements.
'Raw is gross and disgusting, but it is also an important story about acceptance, about what makes us normal, and about our relationship with what we eat. Though the very idea of the film is sickening, disgust is central to the point it wants to make.'
'Riverdale is the teen drama to end all teen dramas. What started off as a fairly standard show about a teen murder mystery has evolved into essentially a parody of itself. '
"The potentially risky decision to produce a Spanish album to a predominantly English-speaking fanbase reflects Uchis’ consistent commitment to be authentic to herself."
Ellie-Jai Williams explores Uchis’s brave Spanish new album, "Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios)."
""I want to go again. It was just so so fun. It was such a nice atmosphere there.” The feeling of happy excitement of people heading out for their first night out post-lockdown definitely gave a boost of energy."
Iona Neill discusses the recent trial rave at Bramley-Moore dock in Merseyside.
"'A kind of circus act between two people, of juggling all these emotions and arguments and sentiments’....The play is defined by that same sense of quirkiness, instability and fascination. I’d watch Blink over a tightrope act any day."
Katie Kirkpatrick previews Frangipane Productions' latest play, 'Blink'
From abandoning the acronym BAME to placing diversity and inclusion at the forefront of their values, representation has never been so important in the...
"The intense and nuanced performances, the queasy mix of fear and fury palpable with a small glimmer of hope, made Oxford’s Orestes a very capturing play."
Marietta Kosma reviews The Oxford Greek Play's production of Euripides' tragedy "Orestes".