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...

Sufjan Stevens: Saying is believing

Everything about Stevens’ work is an attempt to love right, and to believe right

Journey’s End preview – a play about brotherhood

Bessie Yuill finds an emphasis on WW1's individual soldiers and their relationships in this Remembrance Day production

‘I just try to see the world clearly’: An Interview with Louis Theroux

Louis Theroux speaks to Abby Ridsdill-Smith about politics, popularity, and participating in a sensual eating party

The weight of inheritance

Cultural pilgrimages give us access to the inaccessible

Loveable rogues: why we love a good villain

The old proverb that a hero is only as great as their villain is a valid concept. In order to understand a villain, we...

How To Save A Rock With A Circle Review – ‘centres a sense of community’

Taiwo Oyebola finds Pigfoot Theatre’s work-in-progress play about the environment funny and oddly optimistic

Factfulness review: On the importance of truth

Dr Hans Rosling's final book reminds us of the enduring importance of truth, says Harry Lloyd

Enchanted by the power of on-screen magic

Serena Arthur explores how our perceptions of magic transform throughout life

Perceptions of the monstrous

Molly Innes looks at artistic representations of monstrosity and self

There is no place for grief in a house which serves the muse

'The Muse' in Tim Walker's short film and Dante Rosetti's Siddal Portraits

Idle reading: books in praise of laziness

A consideration of two books with different approaches to the same philosophy: the art of laziness.

Feeling comfort while in the uncomfortable

Why are we so drawn to music that puts us on edge?

Collaborators Review – a comedy of Stalinist Russia

Despite its seeming irreverent nature, this play has 'moments of profundity'

How To Save A Rock With A Circle Preview – ‘conveys urgency with a sense of humour’

Cecilia Wang previews Pigfoot Theatre's work-in-progress which focuses on the impact of climate change.

Depraved Genius of Caravaggio

David Alexander on our relationship with morally reprehensible artists

‘It was Beauty killed the Beast’

Monster love tales other marginalised communities

Stephen King’s It: the horror novel that sparked a love affair

The pleasure and terror of reading Stephen King

Characters we love to hate

Sam Millward surveys the rise of the antihero as a problematic but compelling character

Election Review – an ‘interesting and ambitious’ look at politics

Lowenna Ovens finds this student-centric election night depiction to be an 'intriguing concept'

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