Culture

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.

Diverse voices: ‘Inshallah, Madonna, Inshallah’ by Miljenko Jergović 

‘When he created Earth and these lands upon it, when he divided people into...

Art as protest on university campuses

CW: rape. This week, Cornell University has made headlines as prosecutors reopened an investigation into...

EGG – A Musical Parable

In early September, the IOC published an article celebrating the life of ‘Father of Modern Olympic Games’ Pierre Coubertin. Whilst highlighting his struggles in launching a...

Reaction in Metatheatre

An exploration of reaction in metatheatre and its complex psychological effects.

Review: Unplanned-ersnatch – ‘the kind of plot twists only improv could beget’

An evening of improvisation and audience participation set to the tone of laughter

Review: Me, as a Penguin – ‘bound to put a smile on your face’

A review of the heartwarming comedy by Pangolin Theatre Productions

Everyone’s a Critic

Readers don’t want to read an essay. If they did, they would be scouring SOLO instead of flicking through a newspaper. The majority simply want to know if buying a ticket translates into a fun evening out.

Chemical Contrast

It is effectively government policy that the science student is fundamentally more socially valuable than the artist. Resistance to this mode of thinking...

Isaac Hempstead Wright Visits Oxford

Acting from a very young age has never been a rare thing in the show business, but very few child stars were introduced to the film industry by being chucked out of a window on their first day on set.

Review: Amber Run

Amber Run, the indie rock band from Nottingham, are on their first ever world tour. After their Oxford gig, which happened on 18thOctober, they’re...

Rebellion and Art

Picture a circle of people holding hands, dancing around. Nothing particularly remarkable about that, right? Now imagine half of them as skeletons.

Hogarth: Place and Progress

Prostitution, criminality, madness, lust, and squalor. William Hogarth’s collection of paintings and prints at the Sir John Soane’s Museum satirize 18th century urban crudities through graphic pictorial dramatizations and dark wit.

The revolution turn-over

The thing about self-consciously revolutionary art, however, is that it rarely has a particularly long shelf-life. Perhaps this remains most obvious in pieces that are pragmatically revolutionary; demonstration posters, graffiti, propaganda. Things like Guerrilla Girls and posters of Johnson and Trump’s lovechild are destined – designed, even – to become quickly dated.

Call to Science: Brecht’s Life of Gaileo

Brecht's Life Of Galileo brings scientific revolution to the Keble O'Reilly.

Interview: Another Sky

“How would you describe your music to those who haven’t heard it before? -  Being punched in the face then kissed tenderly.” Another Sky, a London-based...

Whose Revolution? The winners, the losers and the left behind

Two clear streams run through Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing– a gut-wrenching tale of intersecting lives at the centre of the Troubles: that of revolution...

ATWOOD RETURNS TO GILEAD

It is difficult to sanitise Atwood’s new venture. In fact, it is difficult to put into words at all the violence of the novel....

For whom and for how long?

Reminiscing about one’s teenage years is a rather cinematic task. After all, Hollywood has made a great profit from narrating stories about what being a teenager should be and feel like.

Kiki Smith: I am a Wanderer

Kiki Smith is a wanderer. This is the word she uses to describe herself, for she has no desire to seek control over the direction of her work within its creative journey. Yet despite this lack of agenda, it is clear that her art is imbued with socio-political significance.

Eternal Boredom

Now we can even appreciate the importance of boredom being a driving force behind creativity, and some of the greatest minds in history.

Peaky Blinders Season 5 Review

For all its sex, drugs and violence, Peaky Blinders is starting to get tired of itself. Its response? A gripping foray into the world...

Film School- Tales of Coming of Age

In the language of the Aymara, an indigenous South American nation, it is the future and not the past that lies behind you. The...

Follow us