Culture

Seasonal reads: On childhood hobbies, growing up, and guilt

Reconnecting with reading is something many people tend to do on a summer holiday, and statistics suggest it is one of the only times the majority of  adults read...

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...

All in a day’s Work.txt: Metatheatre’s extremes

I first heard about Work.txt when I was asked by a friend (or coworker?) if I was free Saturday night. And this was a gilt-edged proposition I just couldn’t turn down.

What I learned from Tracey Emin about regeneration

CW: Abortion I left the Tate Modern’s latest headline show, Tracey Emin: A Second Life, feeling unmoved by the artworks. I found the paintings somewhat...

In sickness, health, and wrongdoing: ‘The Drama’ in review

CW: Gun violence. “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” is the driving question of Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama. The film centres around a couple...

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s theatre: Defining the ill-defined

It has been 93 years since the first performance of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan at Schauspielhaus in Zurich. Many critics cite...

Authenticity and the pop genre: Slayyyter’s ‘WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA’

Catherine Garner, known as Slayyyter, has been chasing fame for almost ten years now. She started out making ‘lo-fi pop’ from her bedroom closet, before bursting onto the music scene in 2019 with a string of electro-pop tracks

Set to bloom: The return of the floral print

“Florals? For spring? Groundbreaking.” So speaks the withering sarcasm of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, condemning all flowery fabrics to uncoolness even...

Why you should spring clean your bookshelf this Trinity

In the name of spring cleaning, I sat down and decided to sort my books, promising to keep only those that brought memories of a happy reading experience to mind.

Does ‘Euphoria’ no longer speak to our generation?

Should I have been watching Euphoria’s first season as an innocent, bright-eyed 14-year-old? Probably not. At the time, I thought that the chaotic lives...

Bridging Communities: Vocatio:Responsio’s Liverpool Tour

Vocatio:Responsio, meaning Call:Response in Latin, is an early music ensemble founded and directed by the Merseyside-based violinist Samuel Oliver-Sherry, a current third year music...

‘Comedy is very deceptive’: Seán Carey on ‘Operation Mincemeat’

As a history student, you occasionally come across stories so strange they feel almost fictional. Operation Mincemeat is one of them.

‘People are so hungry to create together’: Lisa Ko on going analogue, crafting, and writing the future

It’s 11:02am in New York when Lisa Ko appears on the video call. In Oxford, the sun is almost down.

How 2025’s biggest films made their mark through music

The recent Oscar nominations have allowed us to reflect on how fundamental musical scores are to film, and the highlights of last year’s film soundtracks.

Translating Oxford into Urdu

It’s a different emotion whenever I read the Urdu language. I’m not a native speaker, nor have I actively pursued learning the language, but as someone who finds solace in reading shayari (Urdu poetry), I wanted to follow it even in Oxford.

Stitching the world together: GFC’s London Fashion Week show

A few weeks ago we, the Cherwell fashion editors, were lucky enough to be extended an invite by the Global Fashion Collective to their London Fashion Week show.

Riotous Fun! ‘Little Women the Musical’ in review

Isaac Gavaghan reviews 'Little Women the Musical', Pembroke College’s annual musical directed this year by Dawuud Abdool-Ghany.

Seeped in nostalgia: ‘Things I Know To Be True’ reviewed

Lighthouse Productions' 'Things I Know to Be True' had high expectations to meet. Put frankly, they nailed it.

Well-educated, fairly bred, but without money: Gissing’s ‘Collected Short Stories’

Hassan Akram reviews the Collected Short Stories of George Gissing, edited and introduced by Pierre Coustillas.

Let’s go to the movies: Fennec Fox Productions’ ‘The Flick’

After their staging of Company at the Oxford Playhouse earlier this term, Fennec Fox Productions are set to return next week with a run of The Flick (2013) at the Burton Taylor Studio.

A deeply Singaporean play: In conversation with ‘Late Company’

OUMSSA Theatre makes their debut with Jordan Tannahill’s Late Company. While the text originated in Canada, OUMSSA Theatre’s take on it is nonetheless entrenched in Singaporean culture.

Why I only run to classical music, and you should too

I decided on a whim to put on Gershwin instead of my usual playlist. It was life changing.

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