Wednesday 8th October 2025
Blog Page 280

Voices from Ukraine

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CW: War, violence, death

Seeing everything going on in Ukraine at the moment, I was struck by the fact that one thing stayed constant, the suffering of normal people, both in Ukraine and people connected to them abroad.  So I wanted to speak to them, I wanted to hear their stories, and here they are…

Eleonora Suhoviy – Founder of the Oxford Ukrainian Society

Q:  How do you feel about the response from people in the West, this country, and Oxford in particular?

“The word that I hear a lot at the moment is surreal. Nobody seems to have expected this war to actually start. People were either in denial or they were deluding themselves, thinking that this is not what will occur… So even in Oxford, but also in Ukraine, I hear the word surreal and unbelievable a lot.”

Q:  And how about the response of governments?

“So the sanctions are happening after the fact, not before the fact. The individual sanctions, also the group sanctions, they are coming quite late… when Ukraine is already [on fire], when there are some buildings on fire, when there are civilian casualties… So really, I think their response is now more of a catching up with the events as opposed to preventing them or trying to do as much as possible to arm Ukraine to its teeth before the invasion had begun.”

Q:  Why do you think that is?

“I think partly it’s a desire not to believe that such a depth of wickedness and evil is coming out of a European country and from the Kremlin. So, Putin and his regime was seen as yes, quite ruthless, but it hasn’t been seen as irrational… So I don’t think the West expected him to inflict such phenomenal wounds on his own people because they said he is doing this to protect Russia. Well, now he’s not protecting Russia. He’s not only damaging Ukrainians, but he is going to have his own population impoverished and isolated on the world stage.”

Q:  How important are the shows of support and solidarity from people here?

“I talked to my childhood friends who are in Ukraine. They welcome every shred of news that shows support. They look at videos. They look at protests, they look at sentiments that say ‘we are with you’, they share videos of protesters condemning the Russian ambassador in Ireland, for instance, they are looking at protestors in London… They really do appreciate it. The news stations in Ukraine also pick up on these themes and they show them on news channels. [The protests] show Ukrainian people that they’re not alone and psychologically when you know you’re not alone… it is very, very important… And I think that does a lot for the morale, not just of the Ukrainian army, but also ordinary citizens who are staying, who are fighting and who are resisting… It just brings it home to them that whilst they’re sheltering in an underground station they can look at social media and say, look, the world is watching, these people are with us. And that’s what they do. They sit in those underground stations, they sit in those cellars and they look at their phones. The elderly are being shown these pictures by the teenagers.”

Q:  How are your friends and family in Ukraine?

“They are in Lviv, which is in western Ukraine. They are keeping calm.  So today my father was walking around the city, obviously inspecting it to see what is happening… So he was there and he chanced upon them, the local authorities giving out weapons to people, to civilians. So now you can pick up your weapon in order to defend yourself. So yes, they hand weapons to people who say that they will join the territorial defence force. … Also my school friends,  from early childhood, they’re armed as well and their teenage children have been attending shooting lessons. So they also know how to handle weapons, Ukrainians. You see, they are very patriotic, and they will see that it is a question of their honour, a question of their motherland, a question of their unity. … In eastern Ukraine, I have friends who have relatives there. [They have a Grandma who says] ‘Well, I’m not moving anyway. … Enemies come and enemies go, life goes on’.”

Q:  And what about Ukrainian people in general?

“One of the biggest tragedies of this war is that Russian and Ukrainian people are very close. They have relatives, they have friends between two countries. … People are close and that’s why this kind of division is horrific. It’s like brother against brother. It’s like mother against son.”

Q: What has the Ukrainian Society in Oxford been able to do?

“So what we’re doing is we’re putting together organisations and charities that accept funds… I’ve had many friends coming to me saying, ‘Please, where do we donate? Who do we donate to?’.  So we are going to share that list on our Facebook group.

“We’ve had the Oxford University societies come to us and say, ‘Look, we want to show solidarity’. … We are preparing a document to show them how they can show their support during the events.

“We have templates for MPs, how you can write to your MP, what you should ask for.

“Anybody who wants to support Ukraine, we are also organising protests on Sunday at one o’clock outside Radcliffe camera, everyone’s invited.”

Q:  If you could tell non-Ukrainians to do one thing they can do to help, what would it be?

“Make your voice heard in any way.  So either attend a demonstration with us or do a Facebook post or write to your MP – do something.  Don’t stay silent… Don’t do nothing, that’s the most important thing, do something.”

Roman Tokaryk – Ukrainian student in Oxford

Q:  How are you doing?

“I think I will share the feeling of many Ukrainians who are in Oxford and in the UK right now [in that] we feel quite helpless, useless. We just maintain contact with the families there, but we cannot provide any direct help.

“We’re just trying to get them money, raise awareness, do whatever we can just because we feel really helpless.”

Q:  How are your family?

“They are okay. They live in an incredibly western part of Ukraine, close to Romania, like a 20- minute drive, so they are safe for now.

“But my friends who are from Kyiv and other big cities, like more central or eastern, they hear bombings, sounds of guns, of military operations, of war, at every every hour.”

Q:  What have you been doing to try and help?

“It was a very impulsive and initial reaction to organise a rally. It was two days ago in Oxford and we just called around Ukrainians and asked, ‘“Do we have to?’”. Everyone’s like, ‘“Yes, we have to’”. And we organised and like a lot of people actually attended the rally.  There were people from Lithuania, Georgia, Poland, Denmark, and many other countries … we were lucky to get there a lot of people to show us such devotion but it was just a start and we want to push it further.”

Q:  How are you dealing with it, it must be so hard?

“Yeah, it’s incredibly hard… The only way we can deal with it is just to do something. And that’s how we express our solidarity with our relatives, our families who are not okay and not safe at the moment… Otherwise, we’ll be just sitting and crying in our homes.”

Q:  How hard has it been to contact people in Kyiv?

“As for now, it’s quite okay, it’s quite straightforward. Nothing has changed, but the worrying [thing] is that a lot of people are buying power banks and other battery stations.  If the situation goes bad, and it’s highly likely that it will become worse, there will be electricity cut-offs for some time and people will just have nothing to charge their phones with. So, now we are communicating regularly, but if the situation gets worse, we’ll just set up one two-minute call every six hours, just not to use up all [of the] batteries. That way people can communicate between themselves in Ukraine, which is much more important rather than just for getting information from abroad.”

Q:  Do people there see the showing of support from abroad?

“The first level is the support of ordinary people, ordinary citizens of the EU, UK, and other countries. And this is incredible, to be honest, it’s incredible.  I can’t tell you how many friends wrote to me, not just with words of solidarity or support, but with concrete, specific actions.  Like, “We have a house in Spain, we have a house in Switzerland, in Italy. If you know someone who needs that, let us know, we are able to put up one, two, three families, it doesn’t matter.”  I was really shocked that people do such stuff, they are ready to accept random Ukrainian people just because they understand how bad it is.

“On the level of politicians, Ukraine feels that it’s alone. I’ll be brave enough to speak on behalf of many Ukrainians if not all. I will say that there was no robust response to the war that [is happening] in 2022 in Europe. Some sanctions, but not all of them even targeted… The political response was quite weak. We still really need equipment, we still need military support. We still need financial support, more sanctions in every possible way … because right now we really feel we are alone.”

“There is such a great unity among the Ukrainian people, which I have never seen in 23 years of my life. Usually, people, you know, are just debating between themselves, they disagree on political topics or, I don’t know, everyday routine things, but at this point, nobody cares [about that]. 

“If people can hold a gun and help the Ukrainian army, they go and do that… I know a lot of IT guys who are providing IT support to the government to defend the servers… they [ordinary Ukrainians] can donate blood and they go to the local hospitals and I even heard of disabled people in wheelchairs who cannot even walk or help physically, but they sew military [uniforms]… The Ukrainian nation has never been more united.”

Q: What is one thing people can do to help?

“If you can donate any acceptable amount for you, even one pound, two pounds will make a difference because Ukraine compared with Russia is so under-resourced as a country… Even if you’re not happy to donate to military things, feel free to donate to hospitals… So it’s the one thing British people can do, they’ve already done a lot… Being here, I feel their support of my colleagues at work, as a student, a member of the community.  But if you want one thing to do, please maybe just refuse for one coffee in the morning and send [those] three pounds… and they will be so, so, so much, so much appreciated.”

Then came an extraordinary moment of kindness that summed up everything Roman had been talking to me about.  A man got up from the table next to us and as he left, he put £30 down on the table.  “People here don’t realise how much they have”, he said, and that was that.  It was a small but powerful act of kindness that will stay with me for a long time.

Julius Lajtha – President of the Young European Movement

Julius Lajtha is the leader of the Young European Movement, an organisation with groups across the continent that seek to foster European unity.  By the nature of his role, he has friends across Ukraine and Russia.

Q:  Given your role, are you pleased with the response, with the showing of solidarity across Europe?

“Yes and no. I’m pleased because I can see that civil society, especially because of the Internet, [has produced] a mobilisation of citizens that are very concerned, that are very much in solidarity with Ukraine… At the same time, I’m concerned.  I know that at our branch in Manchester… a large majority of the support comes from Eastern European expats that are active around civil rights… They are small manifestations at this stage and that is concerning, that civil society is maybe not very holistically represented.”

“At the same time, moving on to the more political stage, I am again in a twist.  I can see that there is an enormous amount of willingness to react to this. But at the same time, I can see that there are gaps.”

Q:  What is your organisation doing?

“So as an organisation we are committed to ensuring a very strong link between young people in the UK and young people across the continental part of Europe.  … We have a section in Russia, we also have a section in Belarus, we also have a section in Ukraine.  What this organisation tries to foster are European and global citizenship and identity. It’s about the promotion of peace, the values of human rights, the support and the creation of a political narrative.  But going forward, focusing on building a federal Europe that doesn’t allow, by the very nature of its construction, … for people to enter up conflict against each other.”

“We managed to publish a statement and do something that is very rare in the UK because it encompasses pro-European organisations, pro-democracy, pro-civil society organisations, as well as, critically, the youth party wings of the Liberals, the young Greens, in Wales and England, which is a huge step forward in the sense that we achieve unity on a topic.”

“Finally, we are calling on all people to remember one thing, and frankly for me, this is the most important.  This is a war between politicians, between states, between armies, and [led by] frankly a very narcissistic, barbaric, and authoritarian leader… I wish, and I insist on believing that the majority, the vast majority of people in Russia don’t actually care about this war… Ukraine is just something that Putin and his circles wish to gain back for their sphere of influence, scared of Ukraine choosing the European way.  In the end, I believe that Putin and his circles would simply love to re-establish the Soviet Union.”

“This is something that I’m really concerned about, that this is not where Putin will stop.  I think that what needs to be made very clear is that we need to remember that it is not the Russian people fighting us. This is the Russian President attacking us collectively as Europeans and Ukrainians.”

Anastassia Devos – in Kyiv

This was the interview that humbled me the most.  Julius put me in contact with one of his friends on the ground in Kyiv, Anastassia, and she rang me within a matter of minutes, desperate to talk, desperate to tell everyone possible about the tragedy in her city.  She is an ambassador for the Young European Movement and works for the Council of Europe.  Her defiance in the face of such danger was extraordinary, her stories powerful beyond belief.

Q:  What are things like there on the ground?

“In the beginning, no one could believe what had happened. … Of course, we [hear] about all this data from the Pentagon: ‘They will attack Kyiv, they have a huge amount of Russian militaries at the border’… But people in Kyiv, we couldn’t believe that it would really happen.”

Q:  When did you realise what was happening?

“Yesterday morning, I woke up from explosions… First it started at the military depot… But also they killed many civilians.  What they do, it’s inhuman.  They fire rockets into residential areas, there are houses destroyed [and there are] women and children who are victims of this cruelty.”

Q:  How are things now?

“At this moment in time things are calm, but yesterday there were massive attacks on the military airport close to Kyiv… I have a colleague who lives there and she saw fire from her windows and both those houses nearby were destroyed.”

Q:  What’s your plan now, are you staying put or thinking of leaving?

“I don’t think I will leave Kyiv for the moment because it is also quite dangerous.  Like this morning, they put a bomb under the bridge that connects Kyiv and other cities and there were five cars that were exploded and one child [left] dead by this cruelty… And also maybe for my personal and moral reasons. I don’t want to leave my parents and my grandma here.”

Q:  How easy is it for you to know what is going on around the city?

“So we are reading news all the time and then I have relatives, friends, colleagues in all different parts of the city and they share pictures with me.  So for example, my relatives who live in a different district, yesterday they sent me a picture of tanks and then pictures of people who attack our army.

“Russia, they don’t attack directly.  They have spies… they put on Ukrainian uniforms and they say they are Ukrainian.  So, this morning this situation happened at an entry point to Kyiv. They stole a police car and they approached the entry point which was guarded by our soldiers and immediately they killed them. And [from behind] they also approached with a lorry.  Our soldiers could fight them back, but we have very big problems.”

Q:  Do you feel safe to leave your house?

“A lot of Kyiv citizens slept in shelters tonight.  They say that three children were born last night in shelters.  So, for example, in my house, there is a basement we will use. We will be prepared and go there.  But on the other hand [we have] to take into account the COVID situation… it is not safe either because these shelters and basements are quite small.”

Q:  Are you seeing the response from people in the West?

“Yes, sure, I saw it and we really appreciated it, but we really need more [concrete sanctions].  Spirit is very important but a lot of people are dying here today.

“I’m very sorry for the Russian people, because I understand their president is insane… My mum has a friend who lives in Russia and this morning she said, ‘“Our military is trying to save you from neo-Nazis who captured power in Kyiv’.”

Q:  If you had one message for ordinary people here, what is it?

“So, yesterday we started the petition and we launched the social media campaign, which says ban Russia from SWIFT and help us to shelter our sky.  Because they attacked us from [the] air, we need support to shelter our sky.”

Anastasiia Mazurova – Kharkiv

I was put in contact with Anastasiia by Julius on the night of the day that photos emerged of tanks rolling through the streets of her city, Kharkiv.  She wasn’t able to speak to me but wrote back through WhatsApp.

Q:  Tell me about yourself:

“I live in Kharkiv, in the south of the city, near the airport. I am a lecturer at Kharkiv National Aerospace University.  Kharkiv borders Russia, so we were the first who heard the bombing on 24th February at 5am.”

Q:  What was it like when the violence started?

“These days were the most terrifying in my life. Every day it was bombing around the city. The worst thing was the rockets…  Russia says that they didn’t touch civilians. But it’s not true, they bombed our buildings, buses, cars as well.”

Q:  What about after the battle today, how are things now?

“Today [27th February] in my city, in the afternoon Ukrainian soldiers managed to fight back Russian occupants. Nevertheless, we are afraid that Russian soldiers will reach the airport near my district.  Also today Russia blackmailed about nuclear weapons, Putin mentioned that it’s his answer to sanctions from NATO.

“We still can buy food and medicine. Fortunately, in my city, we have electricity, heating, and water.  Shelters were organised for us, the biggest is in the metro, people spent nights there… Our volunteers are working very hard and actively. They help the Ukrainian army, forces of territorial defence, hospitals, orphans’ houses, old people.

“We all care, we send money to support our army, we speak on social media so that people abroad know what is happening.  One outrageous fact is that some Russian people say that here there is no real fighting. Many Russians believe that Putin has sent forces to save us. I have a friend from there who wrote such awful words to us.”

Q:  What are your plans going forward?

“My plans for the near future are to support the Ukrainian army, pray for peace in Ukraine and the health of my relatives, and to return to my beloved students at university to give them knowledge.

“Some people are asking whether we want to go to Poland or Austria or Germany as refugees. For people in my city, it’s almost impossible.  Roads, railways are blocked. But I do hope so much that the war stops and I don’t have to go anywhere.”

Q:  What would you say to the people showing support in England?

“I am very thankful to people who support us in England, in Europe, in the whole world. It’s so valuable, it makes us stronger. We feel that we are not alone. We are people of this planet, we mustn’t destroy it. We should support each other!”

Q:  If you could say one thing to Vladimir Putin, what would it be?

“Stop the war and go away so that people of this world never see you again.”

It’s hard to know what to think after hearing so many different people talk about their experiences. The crisis seems so close and yet, like Roman, I can’t help but feel pretty helpless.  More than anything I’ve come away with a renewed belief in the good of ordinary people, and a new understanding of the importance of showing solidarity in any way possible.

Note: the text of the interviewees’ responses has been lightly edited for clarity.

Artwork by Ben Beechener.

Socratic Society in free speech spat after debate cancellation

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The Oxford Socratic Society, a forum for discussing philosophical questions, has been embroiled in a free speech row after cancelling a debate on the ethics of abortion. The motion, “Is abortion before 24 weeks unethical?” was set to be debated last Friday.

In a Facebook post, Socratic Society announced that they would not be able to facilitate a “valid and safe environment” in which to host the discussion. The decision came after a number of people contacted the Society to object to the motion.

The President of the Society, Tom Martland, advised that the Welfare officer should chair the debate; she is the only woman on committee. He told Cherwell: “as someone with a uterus, it seemed much more appropriate that she should shape the discussion.”

However, following the concerns raised, the Welfare officer and reps became unhappy with the debate going ahead. When asked why the committee agreed to change the proposed motion, Martland told Cherwell: “The Treasurer, Secretary, and I all agreed that, without a suitable chair, and with no welfare support in place, things should not go ahead.” According to Martland, the main concern with hosting the debate was that it would “ignor[e] the voices of those who had been elected to represent silenced individuals.

Based on the very specific circumstances before us, I felt (and still feel) that it was the right decision to change the motion.”

The vote to change the motion was not unanimous, however; committee member Sebastian Pearson told Cherwell: “While I understand the committee’s concerns, I don’t think that closing down dialogue is the best solution, especially on an issue that directly affects 1/3 of UK women and indirectly impacts almost everyone.

Even the former CEO of BPAS, a leading UK abortion provider, tweeted to condemn our announcement and emphasized the importance of open discussion.”

In the above-mentioned tweet, Ann Furedi, the former CEO of BPAS, said: “Conversations with those who think differently to ourselves are challenging in the best of ways. I know I learn with every debate I have.”

Furedi, who has spoken on this issue before, claims that “we need to challenge, debate and convince – not ignore those against us.”

Although Martland stressed that the cancellation did not mean that the society endorsed censorship or avoidance of difficult questions, the Facebook announcement attracted significant criticism of these exact issues.  Many Society members addressed the troubling implications and raised questions about the importance of debating controversial topics.

One commenter questioned what would be required for a “valid and safe” discussion to take place. “If Socratic Society, a society designed for debating, doesn’t feel it can facilitate a valid environment for this debate, it begs the question who can?”

Another commenter argued that the decision went against the “spirit of the society.

Socrates pursued the truth to the very end. For its namesake, SocSoc should do so likewise – no question should be off limits.”

Martland, commenting on the Facebook post, described this idea of the “spirit” of the society as “mythic.” Alex O’Connor, an ex-president, and co-founder of Socratic Society, who is also known as the YouTuber “CosmicSkeptic”, said that Martland’s comment was somewhat upsetting: “The reason I was involved in founding the society is because I felt like it did owe something to its members – a place to discuss ethical issues with a focus on the ones which are most important.”

When asked about the precedent that the cancellation of the motion sets, O’Connor told Cherwell: “Without an explicit explanation of what conditions would be better, it leaves a lot of room for future committees to look back at the incident and interpret it as a red line around the subject.”

The cancellation of the official Socratic Society event did not prevent members meeting from discussing the motion. The event took place at the same time as the official Socratic Society debate. Organised by O’Connor, the debate was popular, with around 20 participants. Of the group who met, 50% of attendees were women, with 50% of attendees identifying as ‘pro-life’ and 50% identifying as ‘pro-choice’. O’Connor stresses that this outcome of an equal split was not created by design.  

Martland, while commenting on the competing event told Cherwell: “I’m just somewhat frustrated that the people involved saw things so one-sidedly.

“Holding it simultaneously seems to me to tell the women involved in SocSoc as organisers that they are fighting a losing battle.”

The controversy raises questions about the future of the society. According to O’Connor, Socratic Society should commit to reconsidering the motion, and state the specific conditions under which a safe environment can be facilitated. That way, the society can make clear that cancellation was no infringement on freedom of speech. Refusing to indicate the conditions under which such a debate could be held indicate an implicit unwillingness to discuss controversial subjects, which would ultimately “go against the ethos of what the society was founded on.”

When asked under what circumstances a debate like this should take place under, Martland told Cherwell: “I cannot pretend to know exactly the thresholds and dynamics required to hold the discussion in the right way, but I am fairly certain that this situation didn’t meet them.

“After all, the point is to listen, and to understand, where our own understanding is limited: all of the women ever involved in organising SocSoc were telling us that this shouldn’t go ahead.

I hope that, in future, we will be more able to consider and make suitable the exact circumstances under which we hold a discussion like this.”

Regardless of what happened, O’Connor, co-founder and ex-President made clear the society must clarify, in a transparent way, how they will create this “valid and safe environment”. A failure to do so could undermine the fundamental justification of Socratic society; a place to hold challenging, ethical debates.

Oli Hall’s Oxford United Updates – W7

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Oxford United’s return to form continued in earnest this week.  Wins across the board for the men’s and the women’s sides saw the club pay tribute to Joey Beauchamp in stunning style.

Tuesday night saw the men travel to bottom of the table Crewe Alexandra in a game that had been seen by some as an easy three points.  Those people couldn’t have been more wrong and Crewe put up a great fight.  The side in relegation trouble even managed to dominate possession but the Us did more with it, created more chances, and finished one on 64 minutes.  Ciaron Brown capitalised on the home side’s failure to clear and condemned them to a seventh consecutive defeat.

And so to Saturday and another performance to remember at the Kassam.  United played up to the crowd again in a crazy game against a visiting Cambridge side that looked better than their midtable form suggests. Oxford had to equalise twice in a feisty affair through Taylor and Brannagan as Sam Smith scored a brace for the visitors.  The Yellows were the dominant side though and a goal from Sam Baldock with 18 minutes to play set them on course for all three points before Brannagan made sure with his second in injury time.  The win sees them secure their spot in fourth for now at least with a three-point buffer over Sunderland in fifth.

The women weren’t to be left out this week.  After what has seemed like a torturous run of postponements, they hosted the Crawley Wasps and wrapped up a remarkable eighth consecutive league win.  Carly Johns opened the scoring inside 25 minutes before Beth Lumsden doubled the advantage.  The Wasps made it interesting by getting a goal before half-time but Daisy MacLachlan made sure that Oxford’s title charge would go on with the third on 73 minutes.  Next up is hosting QPR under the lights on Tuesday night.

The men travel to Portsmouth on Tuesday night and welcome Burton Albion to the Kassam on Saturday in a week that could see them up into second in the table if results go their way.

Match Report:  Oxford United 4-2 Cambridge United

There were a series of truly spectacular tributes to the Oxford legend Joey Beauchamp before kick-off and the players on the pitch followed up with a spectacular 4-2 win at the Kassam.

Players, staff, and the entire youth set-up took to the pitch to pay tribute before kick-off and the stadium was in fine voice as everyone showed their appreciation for the legendary player.

That spectacular atmosphere was punctured though when former Oxford striker Sam Smith continued his ridiculous scoring run, poking home after a defensive mix-up to give Cambridge the lead.

The Us had dominated up to that point and didn’t panic after going behind.  A fine team move on the counter saw the familiar ending of Ryan Williams sweeping a ball into the box for captain Matty Taylor to sweep home.

So, 1-1 at half-time and coming out of the break the Yellows continued to dominate.  Cambridge hit them on the counter again though and Sam Smith finished calmly again for his seventeenth league goal of the season.

United refused to sit down though.  Cheered on by another home crowd that numbered more than ten thousand this time it was Sam Baldock who found Cameron Brannagan in the box.  His finish was emphatic and gave Oxford the all-important equaliser with 25 minutes still to play.

From then it seemed like a matter of when not if Oxford would find a winner.  The breakthrough would come on the 72-minute mark.  Matty Taylor turned provider this time, playing a low cross into the box for Sam Baldock to slam home brilliantly.

From then on Cambridge tried to come forward more but failed to create any real chances.  Cameron Brannagan made sure of the three points in injury time after a beautifully timed run and a finish into the corner to match.  

So, Oxford United are secure in fourth before two big games next week.  If results go their way, they could even move ahead of MK Dons and Wigan above them into the automatic promotion places.

It all begins with breakfast

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It has long been said that breakfast constitutes one of the most important meals of the day. Really, there is nothing more refreshing than a hearty breakfast after a good night’s rest. Delicious food is one of life’s greatest pleasures, and especially during the pandemic, it became one of the few things left to enjoy. Still, many people often lack imagination for this early morning meal and end up making the same things over and over again; the average working person is looking for something quick and easy like cereal and milk, whilst others may skip breakfast entirely. Trying to get ready for work on time in such a hectic world can prevent us from having an adequate moment to pause, and to eat. However, no matter the hurry we were in, my family and I would always make sure to have some kind of breakfast before starting our day.

Even though we would eat breakfast every day, what stands out as a tradition in my family is Christmas Day breakfast. Breakfast on Christmas Day signifies the beginning of the festive season, the time when my mum gets off work, and my sister gets back from college. It is the season when everyone feels more relaxed as, instead of rushing and racing off, we get to spend the morning together as a family. It is the time when we become reminiscent of what the previous year has brought, both on a personal and family level. This special breakfast is a must; it has never let me down.

Christmas breakfast is something that all look forward to and always enjoy. My mum cooks lavish treats, loving to take care of everyone. Mum’s breakfast consists of sunny-side-up eggs, some kind of meat (usually crispy bacon and turkey sausage), golden home fries, moist chocolate cake with vanilla icing, homemade biscuits with strawberry and fig marmalade that my grandma has made, pancakes which are eaten with maple syrup, and mimosas (mum’s favourite holiday drink). At the table we all usually start by grabbing a pancake. My sister always sits across from me and grandma right beside me. Then she will ask my mum if she needs any help yet: my mum will predictably and consistently answer in the negative. By the time we grab a bite of all these delicacies we are already starting to feel full, yet we continue eating more and more. 

The choice of these particular dishes for breakfast reflects my mum’s American heritage, as well as her Greek cultural influences. American breakfast tends to be a combination of sweet and savoury dishes, whereas the Greek breakfast typically consists of savoury dishes only. As a Greek-American myself, I have a sweet tooth. I could solely survive on eating dessert and that is one of the reasons why I am so drawn to this particular sweet and special breakfast.

All in all, Christmas breakfast is a very special tradition for my family and one that we will continue to cherish. There really is nothing like waking up to the smell of hot pancakes and biscuits and I hope that one day, I too will continue this tradition with my own children.

Former MI6 Chief speaks on Ukraine crisis at Oxford Union

Last night, the Oxford Union welcomed Sir Robert John Sawers, former chief of MI6. Having served as an intelligence officer, diplomat, and civil servant, Sir John was Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service from November 2009 to November 2014. During his tenure, he was a key opponent of the UK government’s decision not to intervene to a greater degree in Syria.

This was Sir John’s first opportunity to speak at the Union. He expressed gratitude for such a large audience despite the “dark and difficult time” the world is currently facing.

When asked how he was recruited to MI6, he revealed that he was given the “infamous tap on the shoulder” by a senior academic at Nottingham. Years later, sitting in the United Nations, he “got a second tap on the shoulder” offering the to be the chief of MI6.

His most intriguing years were his time in South Africa. Here, he learnt that “you can bring about change in world through a combination of pressure, persuasion, association, and leverage without violence”. He holds Nelson Mandela up as the greatest leader of the 20th century.

Reflecting on his time serving under different British Prime Ministers, Sir John was quick to reference their distinctly different personalities. “John Major was at times painstakingly slow at coming to a decision but always got it right. David Cameron was painstakingly quick but often got it wrong. Tony Blair’s position was frantically pro-Israeli at times and didn’t take into consideration wider politics. Gordon Brown did a fantastic job in the biggest financial crisis faced since the 1930s, but found it difficult to keep up with the pace [of being] prime minister.”

When asked if he felt his time as MI6-chief was successful, Sir John answered: “It’s for others to judge, but we certainly made a lot of progress.”

Reflecting on the times in his career he had felt most fearful, he said: “I was most frightened for my own safety in a helicopter in Bosnia, when we were fired at by grenades … I also remember standing in front of the mirror [in Baghdad] doing up my tie and there was this huge explosion, and the mirror shattered in front of me.”

However, in terms of national security, he admits that during his time in public service, “the world was becoming a better place… [the UK] joined the EU and became a dynamic economy, the cold war came to an end, apartheid came to an end… we established a degree of respect in the world.”

Nonetheless, Sir John acknowledged that the world has become a lot more dangerous since he stepped down from his position in MI6, joking that, “It must have something to do with that!”

He refers to three key moments when his heart “dropped” in the last few years: the result of the Brexit referendum, Trump’s election to presidency, and Putin’s march into Ukraine.

Sir John admits that the Russian invasion was not something he had envisaged becoming a reality. “It is a terrible series of events that we’re witnessing… I didn’t think it was in Putin’s interests.”

President Putin, Sir John reflects, is a “cold, calculating man… the harsh reality is that he had this in mind all along. This is Putin’s war”.

Describing Putin’s likely future tactics in Ukraine, he referenced the Vietnam-war era adage, “we had to destroy the village in order to save it”. He hinted that there is a real risk of Kiev being destroyed as the invasion intensifies. He further implied that Putin’s recent fiddling with nuclear levels is a warning to the West, firmly stating that “we must not step across the line and engage with Russia directly”.

Indeed, he warned of the dangers of backing Putin into a corner, saying: “We need to be incredibly careful. We must leave Putin a way out of this”.

Sir John went on to praise the sanctions that the West rapidly imposed on Russia. However, he acknowledged that, “in South Africa, it wasn’t for 12 years until economic pressures resulted in political change… sanctions can be an important weapon but they’re blunt and they’re slow in effect”.

Nonetheless, Sir John Sawer did leave the Union attendees with a positive note: “if there’s one silver lining to the cloud of what’s happening in Ukraine, those who worry about a Chinese attack on Taiwan should see this as less likely now… the Chinese will follow this situation very carefully and be a bit embarrassed by what Russia is doing”.

Image Credit: Laurie Nevay / CC BY-SA 2.0

JUST IN: Magdalen Bridge closed following collision

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As of 14:59, Magdalen Bridge and the roundabout that gives way to St Clement’s, Cowley, and Iffley is closed after a collision involving a cyclist and a lorry.

Emergency services have attended the scene.

Most traffic into city centre has been halted, with the road from St. Aldate’s up to the High Street and The Plain roundabout closed.

Image: Raymond Knapman/CC BY-SA 2.0 via Geograph

A letter from Lviv, Ukraine

CW: Mentions of violence, trauma, death.

This article was written on the 26th of February.

As I am writing this, millions of people in Kyiv are bracing themselves for an imminent heavy air raid and rocket strikes by the Russian army. Underground stations and basements of high-rise buildings are filled with people. Some women are clutching their new-born babies.

This is the fourth night of the unprovoked, illogical invasion ordered by President Putin. Angered by the failure to capture even a single major Ukrainian city and by the heavy losses that his troops have suffered at the hands of Ukrainians, he is about to unleash all his hatred towards Ukraine and the ‘West’ on Ukraine’s capital.

So far, each moment of gloom and despair has always been followed by reports of unmatched courage and generosity by Ukrainians civilians and soldiers alike. Each and every night was supposed to be the decisive one, with Russian forces trying to encircle the city, topple our democratically elected government, and crush the opposition. Yet every morning has brought the news, ‘Kyiv is standing’. And so are Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv.

I still have the relative luxury of staying in my home, with my family, in the western city of Lviv, about 300 miles away from Kyiv. Lviv has so far been spared from shelling and gunfights, yet air raid sirens blare a few times a day.

We knew the threat from Putin was serious, especially after his rambling speech finally revealed he was not a shrewd pragmatist but a dangerous, murderous lunatic. His troops fought in Ukraine, overtly and sometimes not so overtly, for eight years in Donbas. His propaganda has been dehumanizing Ukrainians. Yet a full-scale invasion, which began at 5am, still was a shock to many.

Soon, while the sense of disbelief was still there, it gave way to anger and resolute action.  

On the first day of the invasion, there were long, yet orderly, lines at ATMs, shops and pharmacies. Then, other lines, even longer ones, appeared at military conscription centres and blood donation facilities. Thousands have turned up to form territorial defense units.  

As usually happens in the times of danger, Ukrainians have managed to self-organise with lightning speed.

State logistics is under strain, so tens of Telegram channels sprung up with volunteers sharing their requests.

Some call for food, warm clothes, and mattresses for those, mainly children and women, who are escaping from the fighting in the east either to stay in Lviv or try to find shelter in neighboring countries. The very people that Russia claims to want to protect are fleeing from its army, as it is bringing only death and destruction under the guise of the ‘liberation’ promised by Putin.

Others call for help in supplying newly conscripted soldiers with necessary equipment. Still others offer their cars to help volunteers get to the front line. “Pravda” brewery is now producing Molotov cocktails.

Most requests are swiftly followed by updates informing that help is no longer needed. In just one hour, private enterprises in Lviv reportedly managed to provide the army with 120 trucks to transport the newly arrived weapons.

While volunteers keep working, another frenetic day is drawing to a close. It is past midnight, with curfew in place from 10pm to 6am. Police are patrolling empty cobblestone streets of a once multiethnic city. It witnessed generations of Ukrainians, Jews, Poles, Germans, and Armenians coexist (albeit not always in total harmony) under the rule of successive kingdoms, empires, and republics. Now the patrols are on the lookout for Russian saboteurs.  

I am re-reading messages of support from friends all around the world. One of them writes that when he was in a similar situation, one of the things that kept him going was knowing that the rest of the world truly cares. I agree with him.

I am overwhelmed with pride in my brave compatriots. I know that when I wake up tomorrow, if I am able to sleep at all, I will find out yet again that ‘Kyiv is standing’.

I also hope to read that more help is coming.

Every day that Ukraine keeps fighting against its huge neighbor shows that Ukraine deserves to be supported in every possible way. Ukrainians share the same values with all those who want to live in a peaceful, free, democratic world as opposed to under violent, oppressive dictatorships. And they are being punished for this desire by a self-confident cynical murderer who believes that he foresaw every possible reaction by other countries that he views as meek and narrowly self-interested.

Democracies and autocracies all around the globe are watching closely at what happens next while Ukrainians are spilling their blood. Even unarmed Ukrainians are stopping Russian tanks and vehicles with bare hands because they know they are right.

We know that we will not be left alone.

Help is coming. Isn’t it?

You can find resources on how to help Ukraine here.

Image Credit: Yan Boechat, VOA

Eternals: A Structurally Misunderstood Masterpiece

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Marvel’s Eternals, the 26th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, was released to somewhat middling critical reception, despite largely positive audience scores. I think it’s a brilliant film, despite the considerable body of opinion that stands in vehement disagreement. Sorting through the mass of audience reactions and (often prevaricating) professional criticism, I’ve concluded that Eternals, largely, was structurally misunderstood.

Much has been spoken, both positively and negatively, about the film’s ‘uniqueness’, without much elaboration on what exactly makes it unique. Eternals is unique for two main reasons. Firstly, it understands the structural limitations inherent in superhero cinema, and works within them. Though superhero stories almost always essentialise to a conflict between good and evil, the audience never really doubts the hero’s eventual victory. The audience knows the villain won’t achieve world domination, or blow up the moon, or eventuate whatever nefarious goal they have. As a result, there are no real narrative stakes and the plot generally plays right into audience expectations (with a notable exception in 2018’s Infinity War). The one unknown is how the hero will ultimate prevail against seemingly insurmountable odds — how will this happen, instead of what will happen. There’s only so far a plot will stretch within these strictures without resorting to unsatisfying ex machina, so the story usually builds up to a climactic, story-making final act battle. Eternals does do this, but with a fundamental shift in focus: the narrative stakes don’t arise from any uncertainty about whether good will triumph over evil. Instead, we worry about how these relationships will fracture, how character-driven tensions escalate, and whether our favourite Eternal will make it out alive (the deaths of two main characters within the first half tell us early on that nobody is off-limits). Zhao has mentioned on multiple occasions that Eternals is, at its core, a family drama. In the shadow cast by the intimate intensity of these interpersonal conflicts, the prospect of a planet-sized robot god shattering the Earth becomes an almost unimportant backdrop, but that’s fine — it was always going to be. 

Secondly, Eternals is unique because it doesn’t seem as manifestly concerned with setting up continuity for its characters as some other MCU entries are. This seems a strange proposition; criticisms are levelled at the film for doing quite the opposite. Although there is a cliffhanger ending, and two (three?) new superheroes are introduced in its post-credits, I say this because of the how the film treats its characters. One of the biggest criticisms of the film is that its characters are underdeveloped, but it’s important first to interrogate what that might mean. A character might be underdeveloped in two main ways: (1) in a structural sense, where you can’t understand their motivations or reasonably predict how they’d act in certain plot situations, and (2) when you don’t care about the character. Underdevelopment in the first sense is simply not true; their motivations are clear for the most part, as will be explained below. It is only in the second sense that it might be true, but this must be tempered by an additional consideration: that the idea of a cinematic universe might have altered audience expectations for character development.

I’m not gonna spend any more time indoors in a hospital. No thanks.” 

This line, delivered by the character Swankie in Zhao’s earlier Oscar-winning Nomadland, tells the audience much of what we need to know about her. We recognise a woman approaching the end of her life, determined to spend the rest of it peacefully and contentedly on the road. Do we ever stop to think, what’s going to happen to her in the next one?Obviously not. We can care about and be moved by her and her story, without having to actively invest ourselves in its continuity. Take a character like the MCU’s Spider Man. Do we really know much more about his character than we do of Eternals’ central character, Sersi? We know that he’s young, kind, brave, and idolises the Avengers. When we list the traits necessary to understand the decisions he makes, it isn’t hugely more extensive than Sersi’s. The key difference between Peter Parker and Sersi is time — we simply spend more time with him and, crucially, outside the pressures of plot. We see him on vacation, at school, with friends, and therefore are able to form an image of him that we can take away from stressful plot conflicts. That’s why people write fanfictions and Tumblr head-canons about him; they feel like they know him, and become attached. It gets fans excited for his future appearances because they ideate his personality so strongly. 

On the other hand, we don’t see Swankie action figures (because it’d just be a figure of some lady, but also) because we’re not interested in creating our own story for her. In the same way, you can care about Sersi or Thena as they appear in the film, without really caring about them outside of it. Does the Eternals treat its characters in a strategic way for their future involvement in the larger cinematic universe? Maybe not. But, are its characters really ‘underdeveloped’? I really don’t think so.

Some of the film’s more unspecifically harsh critics denigrate its plot as being ‘a mess’. Personally, I find this is a confounding criticism. The plot was dense, but not any more so than the other instalments in the franchise. Still a superhero story, the plot does essentialise to ‘good guy vs bad guy’, but even this it does differently. The CGI deviants are the film’s bait-and-switch villain. The movie actually telegraphs this quite plainly: at first, the precipitating event is thought to be the return of the deviants, as when Ajak is supposedly killed by one. Towards the end, we realise that Ikaris was actually the one responsible. Again, we see these nominal superhero plot elements — the deviants, the emergence — retreating into the background, while the fracturing family dynamic takes centre stage. Ikaris is the ‘true’ villain of the story, if only to fulfil the standard good vs evil dichotomy, but this crude good-versus-evil reductionism does gloss over the real complexity and nuance of the conflict somewhat.

Really, the conflict is character-driven. None of the characters have the scene-stealing charisma of Tony Stark or Stephen Strange, but these larger-than-life personalities are not what Zhao is interested in capturing. Most audiences aren’t arrogant, sarcastic, billionaire geniuses. Zhao’s eye is drawn to normal, almost boring people, because most boring people are, in truth, not that boring. She isn’t concerned with the Eternals as myth, at least not in the present day. When they first arrived in Mesopotamia, they were treated as gods, bathed in golden light and wide-angled shots acknowledging their power and stature. As we move to the present day, the camera follows them close-up, at eye level. They wear unremarkable, casual clothes. They speak of their involvement in myth in a comically dissonant, prosaic way: Kingo talks about Thor following him around as a boy but now not returning his calls. Thena plays with Excalibur while Sprite reminds her that she was once the object of Arthur’s crush. Zhao invites us to observe them as our equals, because, once again, this is chiefly a story about human relationships, only set against a cosmic backdrop.

The main characters for the most part have clear motivations, and their arcs make sense. We can reasonably predict what might sway them to one side or the other on the question of whether to stop the emergence. For instance, Sersi has the strongest connection to humanity and the biggest stake in stopping the emergence. Ikaris is the soldier with no connections to humanity who puts the mission above all else. Kingo loves humanity but not in a strongly personal way, and considers the moral hypothetical of denying life to future civilisations, and stays out of the conflict. Sprite resents humanity because she could never be a part of it, but comes to blame Arishem for her predicament. Phastos doesn’t have a connection to humanity as a whole but is motivated by individual attachments to his husband and his son. Druig loves humanity as a whole, or at least the idea of it, and always wanted to stop them from killing each other. Gilgamesh and Thena don’t have very strong connections to humanity because they’ve secluded themselves away from it, but understand what it means to protect what you love. Makkari is the only character whose motivations aren’t quite clear, but what is clear is her connection to Druig. Each character has a reason for their involvement in the story, and suggestions that the main characters were inadequately dealt with seem misplaced.

In all fairness, I’m sure there are good reasons to dislike Eternals or to think it’s a bad movie, but it’s important to be clear on why you dislike it, just as it’s important to recognise that ‘I don’t like it’ and ‘this is bad’ are quite different statements. Intuition, especially of art, is a powerful tool of judgment, but can sometimes lead to inconsistent criticisms. Our intuitions can be swayed, often unconsciously, by circumstantial factors; we judge based on what we know. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it can be fun for audiences and helpful for critics to sort through their intuitions to concretise specific judgments. But really, all this is just to say: go watch Eternals. It’s great.

Image Credit: Marvel Studios/Facebook

Hope Street: A Tale of Two Cathedrals

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Nestled either end of Hope Street lie two of Britain’s great places of worship. These are the (Anglican) Cathedral Church of Christ in Liverpool, and the (Catholic) Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King – two buildings as different as their names are similar. The Anglican cathedral is a monumental fortress of red sandstone, its square tower rising over 100 metres. The Catholic cathedral is a concrete, stone and aluminium space-tent. The former participates in centuries of architectural tradition, the latter is a break with tradition. 

The interesting thing is that, when first planned, the Catholic cathedral was meant to be an equally immense and traditional (if not by English standards) Byzantine design. Edwin Lutyens’ plan, on which building work began in 1933, would have featured rich red brick, colourful mosaics, and the largest dome of any cathedral in the world. But financial constraints meant building work was abandoned, with only the crypt completed. 

Had the Lutyens design been built in its entirety, it would have made Hope Street unquestionably home to two of the grandest churches in the world. In the summer I decided to visit them both to try to discover whether something was really lost when this plan fell through, or whether Liverpool benefitted from a (divine?) blessing in disguise.

For the Anglican Church in Liverpool, the early 20th Century was a rare chance to build a new ‘statement’ cathedral. Only a handful of Anglican cathedrals had been built in England since the Reformation, and Liverpool, arguably the country’s second city at the time, needed a grand cathedral easily visible from the docks. The Church of England hierarchy also possibly wanted a confident and prominent statement of Anglican belief in a city with a significant Catholic population.  

I think this is broadly what the design of Giles Gilbert Scott, the Anglican cathedral’s youthful architect (who also designed LMH’s Deneke Building), won for them. When I visited, what struck me first was the sheer width of the Gothic arches, which for their size and solemnity might as well have been propping up Tolkien’s Mines of Moria. The cathedral’s distinctive brown stone blocks encased vast longitudinal windows, which weaved bright colours in intricate, wild, mosaic pictures. A tour guide told me that each of the stone blocks on the cathedral’s interior had no neighbour with the same dimensions. This, she said, was a celebration of God’s love for individuals. 

If I had one criticism it would be that the main body of the cathedral lacked intimacy. There was not much on the human scale. But then I should probably have expected this of the longest cathedral in the world. What it lacked in cosiness it more than made up for in its scope and majesty, a valiant attempt at representing divine splendour.

I confess that splendour was not my first thought looking at the Catholic cathedral at the other end of the street. Intrigue and apprehension were more like it. I was, though, surprised by the scale of the space-tent, as it looked much larger than it does in photos – it seemed like a great, grey volcano had climbed out of the earth and nestled itself amongst houses and shops. 

I began climbing the cathedral’s many, many steps. There was a feeling of ascending to the house of God, leaving worldly cares further behind with each step. The colours in the stained glass of the cone at the cathedral’s apex changed as I wandered round, peering into the many side-chapels, through greens and purples and reds. My idea of a cold, grey concrete spaceship was banished. The place felt calming, warm, and inviting. 

It certainly had an earthiness, and a spirit, about it. I think this was summed up well by a sign near one of the chapels featuring a quote from the late Catholic journalist Norman Cresswell: ‘This great Cathedral was built by the people of the Archdiocese of Liverpool…They did it, bless ‘em, by giving when they had so little to give […] they did it with old newspapers and wedding rings; with treasured heirlooms and bits of this and that. They did it. And today is their day.’

Having seen the cathedrals in person I read a Peter Hitchens opinion piece about them. In this he argued that, while the Anglican cathedral was a commendable example of Edwardian grit and ambition, the Metropolitan cathedral was the work of ‘men who thought we could dispense with the past’ and was ‘more suited to guitars and folk masses than to the solemnity of the old church’. He regretted the loss of the Lutyens design, ‘which would have been a worthy partner to its Anglican brother church’. 

Many people are similarly unsure about the Metropolitan cathedral. Some have a distaste for modernist design in general, perhaps because they think it values ‘progressiveness’ for its own sake, overlooking considerations of beauty and architectural tradition. I agree that many mid-20th Century buildings were ill-thought-out attempts at progressive design (some might put Oxford’s own engineering building in this category, for instance). But I think justified distaste for these specific buildings needn’t entail a distaste for all buildings built in the modernist style, or which break from tradition. 

Every old tradition was once a new practice, and without new ideas things become stale. The spirit of innovation embodied by the space-tent is exciting and praiseworthy, even if it has its extravagances. Its beauty and ambition are clear not only when you see it in the flesh, but also when you consider the building’s place in history. The cathedral was built at the same time as Vatican II, a Church council charged with working out how to help the Church connect with the modern world. The cathedral, whose circular floor plan allows the laity to form a unity with the priest and each other, rather than have each separate at each end of a great hall as in conventional churches, embodies this spirit of openness. The cathedral therefore stands as a majestic representative of a particular time and feeling in the history of the Church.

I also wonder what would be gained by having two very large, traditional cathedrals in proximity. Hitchens may conceive the Lutyens design as a ‘partner’ to the Anglican cathedral, but I suspect that they and their worshippers would have instead become engaged in a petty architectural tussle forevermore. That is not what religious buildings should be for. Aside from providing space for worship and activities, they are for raising the mind to God. I can’t think of anything about a competition over buildings that helps with that. 

What the Catholic Church did in this case was completely other. They effectively said “no” to a competition, and “yes” to being different, imaginative, and pragmatic. Liverpool is much better for it. It now has two complementary, rather than competing, Christian monuments, each a product of its unique historical circumstances. 

Image credit: Alan Walker// CC BY-SA 2.0

In conversation with the Oxford Opera Society

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Of all art forms, opera is the one that can perhaps feel the most overwhelming to the uninitiated — there are the venues in every major city that make you feel as though you’ve stepped back into the 1800s, the convoluted tales sung in a foreign language, and, above all, those eye-watering ticket prices. Enter Opera Scenes In Concert, a performance somewhere between a concert and an acting showcase, featuring composers from Handel and Monteverdi to Rimsky-Korsakov and Offenbach, as well as nearly every major operatic titan in between. 

‘We have so many different periods, genres, and national traditions. A beginner gets to dip into all these different types of opera’, says Laura Butcher, one of the production’s co-directors and a French & Italian student at Merton (indeed, she credits her love of the latter language to opera — ‘[Mozart’s 1787 opera] Don Giovanni has one of the most funny, witty, librettos, to do it justice you need to immerse yourself in the Italian’). 

Those who aren’t so familiar with the plots of the major operas, or who wish to immerse themselves in the romance, revenge and occasional comedy so characteristic of the genre, needn’t worry that Opera Scenes isn’t staging a full production. The performance will not consist of disparate scene selections with nothing in common with one another, but of scenes united around the theme of ‘Chiaroscuro’ — just as that artistic technique revolves around contrasting light and dark, so too do the scenes oscillate between tragedy and light entertainment. 

Cast member and Master’s student Zhaoyi Yan tells an amusing anecdote about the rapid switch in acting and vocal technique between playing the daughter of a dying father in Don Giovanni to a Parisian courtesan in Lehar’s The Merry Widow., but Butcher interestingly highlights how both scenes are concerned with, although in highly different ways, sexual attraction. Furthermore, co-director Deborah Acheampong, a fresher at Worcester reading Theology, adds that since the running order of the scenes takes us from a very dark opening scene (from Marschner’s Der Vampyr) to a much lighter closing one (from Mozart’s The Magic Flute), the show as a whole comes to be about ‘the perseverance of human bonds’.  She adds, ‘it’s hopeful in that way, and shows there’s a light at the end of the tunnel’. 

Another consequence of choosing to stage opera in this format is a production that is much more accessible to singers auditioning for it. Butcher explains that ‘in a full production, not as many singers would get to perform, and because the singers were cast before the scenes were chosen, the scenes could be picked based on their strengths and types of voices’. Yan had prior experience singing operatic arias in a concert setting, but feels thrilled by the learning experience of acting in a dramatic scene, telling Cherwell that ‘it’s been a big leap, with the intimate interactions in the Don Giovanni scene we started off so shy, but gradually developed trust with one another.’.

Opera Scenes is providing an exciting step into unknown waters for crew as well as cast. Butcher has previously worked as an opera director’s assistant, but that involved ‘putting the director’s vision in place, so this is the first time I’m directing my own vision’. Acheampong, moreover, has come upon directing opera almost by chance (‘I’m from a state school background, so I got into opera drip by drip through Spotify, and then I saw The Magic Flute and Tosca and thought “these kinda slap”’). Most of her prior experience is in writing plays, monologues and screenplay, while occasionally playing cello and singing (‘several different interests of mine were coalescing, so I thought, why not pursue this?’). Acheampong’s multifaceted interests have led her to a varied approach to directing; while the pastoral Acis and Galatea ‘is less theatrical, more about them just appreciating their environment’, she was able to pay attention to dialogue and play with inserting comedy when it came to the conspiracy of the sorcerers in Dido and Aeneas (‘the queen sorcerer and her lackeys are trying to one up each other’).

Of course, opera’s issues with accessibility go far deeper than Oxford, and Butcher, Acheampong, and Yan all speak insightfully on this.‘With opera there’s a perception of cultural capital. It’s an association with the upper class – if you don’t belong in that class then you won’t belong there,’ says Acheampong. ‘But there’s also a more fundamental issue with material funds, paying for seats and singing lessons. If you’re trying to get into opera and you’re going up against people who’ve had money and trained from the age of five, there’s always going to be a disparity.’. Butcher and Yan, who hail from Germany and China respectively, speak eloquently of the financial status of the opera industries in their home countries; the more generous German state funding of opera has made Butcher acutely aware that in the UK and US, ‘opera is a business that’s bound to make losses, it’s not well subsidised so needs to be run for profit, even though with streaming more people are watching than ever before.’. 

Still, the Opera Scenes team as a whole radiates hope, that there are new ways of presenting old material and new ways of making opera accessible to all. As Yan tells us, ‘we’re just trying to say that “this is fun”, you can enjoy this no matter who you are, for half an hour you can come and have a peaceful, or an exciting, time.’.

Image Credit: Giusi Borrasi//Unsplash