Thursday 4th December 2025

Culture

Graceful and self-assured: Circle Mirror Transformation reviewed

Boulevard Productions’ Circle Mirror Transformation is a faithful and competent take on Annie Baker’s 2009 tragicomedy.  The play follows a group of people of different ages taking a beginners’ drama...

‘We’re all mad here’: Alice in Won-DRE-Land at Tingewick 2025

When I wandered into Tingewick Hall on a cold, dark evening in seventh week,...

A comical approach to a classic text: ‘Hedda Gabler’ reviewed

Tiptoe Productions’ Hedda Gabler, co-directed by Ollie Gillam and Gilon Fox, delivered a strong...

‘Lux’ by Rosalía review: A breath of fresh air

'The Latin title ‘Lux’ perfectly embodies the concept and overall aesthetic of divine femininity, as well as the multilingual aspects that run throughout the work. With complex and meaningful lyrics written in 13 languages, and split into four movements, the record is a breath of fresh air for the pop scene'.

Too Horny to Handle? Demonising sex on reality TV

Watching Too Hot to Handle, you would think that we were living in the Victorian era rather than the sexually liberated society that many of us recognise.

Review- In the Heights

“No pare, sigue, sigue” (a Spanish aphorism which translates as “don’t stop, keep going, keep going”) is a particularly catchy recurring motif from the...

Review: “Lost Connection” by Felix Westcott // Jazz Hands Productions

"Lost Connection, as a production, effectively memorialises the issues and troubles that lockdown caused all of us, whether in the world of performance or not."

Review: “Black Lives Playlist: Track 2” by Sam Spencer

'Spencer’s script never tries to be overly clever or conceptual, instead relying on its innately heartfelt character development and engaging humour.'

The Time-Travelling of Television

'The truth is that travelling to different time periods might even give us a better awareness of the idiosyncrasies of our own era – an era which, for all its shortcomings, could well be the golden age of the television series as we know it.'

Review: “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde//Trinity Players.

"It’s the sort of production that would make even the most timid want to get involved in Oxford drama – and that’s in earnest." Hari Bravery reviews the Trinity Players' recent production of Oscar Wilde's classic farce, 'The Importance of Being Earnest.'

UFOs, Space Baboons, and Masculinity

Somehow, “Pentagon confirms UFOs may exist” barely registers as news. It’s a shame, since our cultural obsession with the great unknown of outer space...

Live in the Opera House: A Review of 21st-Century Choreography

"I didn’t sit back and enjoy the show. And I ended up with a lot more opinions than I had ever expected four pieces of 21st-century choreography to evoke." Patrick Gwillim Thomas discusses the Royal Opera House's newest choreography project.

Could the Friends Reunion BE any more nostalgic?

It's fair to say the Friends Reunion was a mixed bag. The best? A heavy hit of nostalgia from seeing the cast reunited. The...

“Rotterdam is anywhere, anywhere alone…”: A Literary Pilgrimage

'If I do go to these places, I won’t need to be transported to a fictional world for them to be magic. They’ll be wonderful because I went there, and had fun, and lived a life that is far less exciting than those of the characters, but was good all the same.'

When streaming becomes scrolling

"Spotify promises to ‘soundtrack your life’. We must be wary of how it’s shaping it." Lucy Kelly questions whether Spotify could become the most addictive social media platform.

The Nordic Inheritance and the Power of Myth over the Modern Imagination

For a historian who has made every effort to avoid studying the early history modules, Prime Video’s Vikings was perhaps a surprising viewing choice....

Sticky

Something crawls up my throat, more bitter than honey.

“Everywhere else, death is an end. Death comes, and they draw the curtains –”

Death comes, and they draw the curtains – Not in Spain. In Spain they open them.

Eve’s Laugh

Humour me with golden words...

Stalked by a bear at high table

perhaps next time i will kill the bear

Accidentally in Love: Shrek Twenty Years Later

I watched Shrek for the first time when I was two years old. It quickly became a daily habit: my parents would plonk me...

Review – Spiral: From the Book of Saw

My friend and I arrived about thirty minutes late to see Spiral: From the Book of Saw in the cinema. It didn’t particularly matter....

Submarine: A Study in Soundtrack Writing

'Nothing is done by halves in this film, including the emotional intensity; when you’re watching, you feel at all times like you’re stuck in Oliver’s head, forced to hear all of his fifteen-year-old-boy thoughts and schemes. The soundtrack follows all of this perfectly, letting Oliver’s state of mind bleed through into the lyrics, which is the key to what makes Turner’s music so powerful and so fitting to the film.'

Tragic Female Friendship in The Pursuit of Love

'In everything from Little Women to My Brilliant Friend, Lady Bird to The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, women are offered a pretty clear choice: do you want to be sexy, or clever? Do you want to be stimulated, or happy? According to Mortimer, you can’t have both.'

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