Saturday, May 24, 2025

Theatre

Review: Closer – ‘Where Marber fails’

Labyrinth Production’s staging of Patrick Marber’s 1997 play, Closer, was an ambitious move for a student-run production company. Ambitious as it was, the cast themselves put on a strong...
Theatre Faye Chang -

Review: JACK – ‘Gas-lit showstoppers, intrigue, and murder’

Jack The Ripper is arguably the most famous killer of the Victorian era. There...
Theatre Rhys Ponsford -

Review: Death of a Salesman – ‘The Inside of His Head’

To review Tiptoe Productions’ staging of Death of a Salesman, I must first contextualise...
Theatre Sanaya Narula -

Oxford’s summer scene: The season of open-air performances

Trinity term at Oxford University is defined by wisteria, wild swimming, and warmth. Students...
Theatre Elizabeth Bourn -
Latest

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...

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.

“Sorrow and birthday cake” – Review: Mojo

"Emotions collide and coalesce to heart-stopping effect, reflecting the disturbing inevitability of the chaos caused when drugs and fear mingle."

A green scream machine at Queen’s – Review: Little Shop of Horrors

Queen’s College needed a sassy, singing carnivorous plant. In drag.

“Hide the babies” – Review: Girls and Dolls

There’s been a recent uptick in global awareness of the history of Northern Ireland. We can trace it back, roughly, to 2018. That’s when Lisa McGee’s hit TV series Derry Girls, which chronicles the tribulations of growing up in Derry during the Troubles, arrived on screens worldwide; and just like that, Northern Ireland became the object of cultural fascination.

“Strikingly modern” – Review: Twelfth Night at Waterperry Gardens

May McEvoy reviews Somerville College Drama Society and Sunday Productions' Twelfth Night.

“Inclusive and psychologically profound” – Review: Dracula

Sophie Magalhaes reviews Leah O'Grady's 'queer Dracula' at Michael Pilch Studio.

“Outside, in drag, covered in glitter”: Little Shop of Horrors comes to Oxford

Everybody better beware: Little Shop of Horrors has arrived in Oxford.  The wacky musical tells the story of a meek florist, Seymour Krelborn, who finds...

“Student drama done right” – Review: Much Ado About Nothing

"The production harnesses its idyllic, summery setting to explore the [...] ideals of love and courtship in a world dominated by gendered notions of how honour is achieved, and the use of deception as a means to an end."

Girls and Dolls: In conversation with A² Productions

"The popularity of Derry Girls [demonstrates] that shows like this, with a good balance of witty humour and colourful characters, family dynamics and psychological insights, are the perfect blend to watch."

“Why am I the one on trial?” – Review: Prima Facie

"The woman who once vociferously defended the judicial system comes to the realisation that the concept of justice is merely an ideal, which in reality is often unattainable, especially for women."

‘Beckett on speed’: In conversation with Nocturne Productions

"[...] they descend into paranoia, and carnage unfolds in a network of marvellously-layered backstabbing."

“To this I put my name”- Review: Casterbridge

If Thomas Hardy had blessed his female characters with more than an “ephemeral precious essence of youth,” perhaps he would have produced something along the lines of Dorothy McDowell’s Casterbridge, an adaptation of Hardy’s 1886 novel The Mayor of Casterbridge.

Review: Intimacies, after Vallotton

"Against the backdrop of Majek’s enigmatic blue-toned figures, Spencer, with the help of a multi-roling, all-Black voice cast playing a broad spectrum of characters, reveals tantalising glimpses of these figures’ lives."

Bringing Oxford theatre to London via a garden shed: an interview with the cast and crew of Casterbridge

"It’s a bit of a mad play, and a lot of quite mad things happen, because that’s what happens when you translate Victorian characters into the modern era."

‘Uninhibitedly comical’ – Review: The Improv Squeeze

"The performers [...] delivered a cohesive, entertaining and – dare I say it – heart-warming musical which was received with barrels of laughter."

‘Heartbreaking and beautiful’ – Review: Brain Freeze

"From the play’s beginning, this immensely talented cast of Oxford students captured my imagination, and I was swept up by the story they had to tell."

‘A wildly enjoyable ride’ – Review: The Importance of Being Nihilists

"We’re left with a simple truth: not everything has a deeper answer, and perhaps we shouldn’t be looking for one."
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