Culture

‘Songs, skits, and a third thing beginning with S’: Jack McMinn in conversation

If there’s one thing I believe Oxford’s theatre scene is missing, it’s a button-down-shirt-wearing ex-zoology student with a penchant for writing songs about Pret A Manger.

Culture Rebecca Harper -

The Oxford art calendar: Hilary 2026

Oxford’s frosty Hilary term is best spent looking at new exhibitions. This art calendar will guide you through some of the upcoming highlights.

Art Maxim Vorobev -

‘Beautifully we may rot’: ‘Madame La Mort’ in review

In a small, black-painted room on the top floor of a pub in Islington, known as The Hope Theatre, Madame La Mort was staged for the public for the first time.

Culture Beatrix Arnold -

Damaging detachment: Reflections on the Booker Prize

This Christmas vac, I made up my mind to get out of my reading slump using the Booker Prize shortlist, revealing toxic masculinity as a key theme.

Books Charlie Bailey -

Latest

Underground and boxed inside

Will Cowie on Boxed In’s concert at Village Underground

OxFolk reviews: ‘March Glas’ by Elfen

Ben Ray is entranced by Elfen's debut release, giving a small insight into the joys of the Welsh folk music scene

89th Academy Awards: Predictions

Oliver Barlow and Jonnie Barrow speculate which films will win big at the Oscars

Reinvention: a love affair with language

Tilly Nevin reviews approaches to the interplay of language and creativity

The birth of modernism: a journey in innovation

Surya Bowyer celebrates the originality, scope, and joie de vivre of the Ashmolean’s latest special exhibition 'Degas to Picasso: Creating Modernism in France'

A dose of sarcasm, playfulness, and politics

Priya Khaira-Hanks is delighted by Kate Nash's down-to-earth rock 'n' roll at the O2 Academy

Preview: ‘Tender Napalm’

Emily Lawford is stifled and mesmerised by this production of Tender Napalm

Laura Marling: always a woman

Ellen Peirson-Hagger delves into the folk singer’s most recent explorations of love and identity on her new album Semper Femina

“Krapp isn’t quite of this world”

Sian Bayley is finds chills and thrills in this production's take on Beckett's exploration of failure

Review: The Optimists

Suzy Cripps’ The Optimists, a tightly-paced romp of hypocrisy, coincidence and curtains, is a solid comedy of errors in the best of British tradition. Involving...

Both disturbing and utterly engaging: Suddenly Last Summer

With the tagline, “Something unspeakable happened last summer”, you might be forgiven for thinking of Aunt Ada Doom’s (Cold Comfort Farm) cry of “I...