Friday 15th August 2025

Culture

Beyond the binary: Leigh Bowery’s radical individuality

Tate Modern's "Leigh Bowery!" refuses easy categorisation—much like its subject A fashion student from Sunshine, Melbourne, rocks up to London in 1980, writes 'wear makeup everyday' on his New Year's...

St Anne’s goes All-Steinway: A purposeful and bold commitment to music

In a move that lives up to its motto of ‘Consulto et Audacter’ (purposefully...

Just like the movies: An American’s notes on her Oxford year

Oxford occupies a mystical, almost fantastical place within the American psyche – so much...

Reading Oxford books in Oxford

For those who have not even set foot in Oxford, the city still lives...

In defence of pop music

Emma Leech takes aim at music prejudice and indie snobbery against the mainstream

Preview: The Weir

“Tell me a ghost story.” It only takes five small words to set the scene in this rehearsal of ‘The Weir’- a story of...

Competition: Win tickets to Common People 2016

Win tickets to Common People Festival, Oxford (28th - 29th May) via Twitter

Preview: Accidental Death of an Anarchist

Callum Luckett finds Dario Fo's farce both hilarious and relevant

The Making of Bench: contribution and collaboration

The cast and crew of Bench reflect on the collaborative process of film-making, women behind and in-front of the camera, and cinema's power over how we perceive mental health disorders

Florio: a Poet’s Dream

Benn Sheridan attends an Oxford hidden gem - a society for drunken poets and lyricists

Review: Hush – a cat and mouse fight to the death

Hush negotiates the established conventions of the home-invasion horror concerning female victimhood, writes Louise Howland

Review: Miles Ahead – this is no hagiography

Miles Ahead successfully connects the deeply flawed private man with his public persona, the greatest jazz musician of the twentieth century, writes Altair Brandon-Salmon

Rewind: Pravda

Alex Oscroft reflects on the significance of the 1912 publication of Pravda

Stop to record the moment

Ellie Duncan considers the reasons why it is such a human act to record our lives

The Exhibitionists

Mother Teresa is set to be canonized as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church in September this year, as announced by Pope Francis...

Sculpture To Die For

On a gloomy and macabre rainy day over the vacation, I found myself being led down into the basement studio and workspace of Polly...

A Beginner’s Guide to… The Mechanisms

The Mechanisms are utterly unique. Each of their albums feature sci-fi reimaginings of classic folklore, from Grimm’s fairy tales to Arthurian myth, perfectly capturing...

Ana and the Other: a split of the self

In his latest piece, David J. Hills imagines the presence of two versions of oneself

Preview: Orphans

Oscar Haines is moved by this bold production

Review: The Good Delusion

Antonio Gottardello finds this moral play fun but disappointingly shallow

“The music of our generation”

“I think the proudest moment of my music career was when my first royalties cheque came,” says Ozzy. “It was the same time that these bailiffs were knocking on my mum’s door..."

Review: We Are Scientists – Helter Seltzer

We Are Scientists know how to write a chorus. However, what makes Helter Seltzer, their fifth studio LP, quite so exciting is that their pop sensibilities have now been coupled with a synthy sheen.

Review – Animal Collective at the O2 Ritz

Song after song from the latest album was interspersed with judicious spatterings from the back catalogue – and when they actually brought these tracks out (such as the more Pop-like ‘Daily Routine’ from Merriweather Post Pavilion), the mood finally picked up; with people going from a semicatatonic sway to actual dancing.

Spotlight: Drama and identity

Alex Barasch notes a welcome development in Oxford’s theatre scene and beyond

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