Kiss of the Spiderwoman; OFS, 7th Week Another term, another eight weeks of student drama taking over the theatres of Oxford with productions ranging through the compelling, the innovative, and the embarrassing. Perhaps something to do with the weather, Michaelmas Term at the OFS is characterised by dark and depressing plays – from the Kiss of the Spiderwoman (7th Week), dealing with sex and revolution in Argentina, to Agnes of God (4th Week), in which a nun is found unconscious with her child killed. The Burton Taylor’s season is much more mixed, the highlight being this year’s Cuppers festival, wisely pushed back to 7th Week. Whether the extra two weeks rehearsal time will improve the quality of the freshers’ first foray into Oxford Drama remains to be seen, but there will certainly be some memorably bad performances that are unmissible. At the other end of the spectrum many veteran Oxford thesps are on stage again. On this front, the Playhouse’s student slots always deliver. This term, the production of David Greig’s Europeis set to be no exception, directed by ex-OUDS President Ilan Goodman. The play is a gripping study of the two-edged sword of globalisation and modernisation, which should impress and provoke thought. In total contrast, the comedy musical Return to the Forbidden Planet is the other student Playhouse production. One half of the current OUDS presidential team, Chip Horne, appears in Ibsen’s Ghosts (OFS, 5th Week) amongst a talented cast and crew, Another pyschological mouthful is served up a week later. James McInnes returns to Oxford to direct Equus (OFS, 6th Week), having completed a run of One in the Street, the Other in the Bed at the Greenwich Playhouse, as producer/assistant director. Away from the main venues, the Keble O’Reilly Theatre stages The Night Before Christmas in 4th Week. The show brings back the team behind Not the Oxford Revue, hopefully with another welcome anecdote to desperately awful student “comedy”. Following their production of The Zoo Story last term, St. Peter’s drama society migrate to the Wadham Moser Theatre to stage The Rising Generation(4th Week). Experimental drama at Oxford can be of mixed quality, but either way it promises to entertain. The Moser also hosts one musical, Pippin by Steven Schwartz. Home-grown writing talent is well represented this term, with two pieces of new-writing being staged; Alex Pappas’ Memory Play (BT, 6th Week) and Shakespeare’s Philoctetes, by Elizabeth Belcher, in which Sophocles’ tragedy meets The Tempest. It opens the BT’s Michaelmas season in 2nd Week We can’t wait to review it…ARCHIVE: 0th Week MT2003
