Culture

‘Burning Down the House’: A review 

During the odd ‘in-between’ space that is Week 0, I searched for a show to give me something to do, amid the random dilly-dallying and the odd collection currently occupying my time.

Why ‘No Bad Memories’ is my album of the year

I didn't expect how perfectly my personal happiness would fit an album so preoccupied with the sounds of old advertisements and obsolete electronics, filled with the relentless optimism of a world that believed the future could only get better. 

CUSP’s Dan Stock on the memories behind ‘English Country’

On Friday, CUSP, a Milton Keynes-based indie rock band, released their debut album, English...

A jarring Mann: ‘Fatherland’ (2026) in review

'Fatherland', which recounts celebrated Modernist author Thomas Mann’s return to a Germany in wreck and rubble, deals with great personal malaise against a backdrop of great political unease.

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.

Questioning the nation’s obsession with ‘Love Island’

Love Island’s formulations have begun to seem increasingly sinister. Last summer’s season (series twelve) saw a particularly high number of complaints.

The Hollywood blockbuster and what it says about us

Why do ‘dad films’, once popular and even good, not seem to have the relevance they used to?

Confronting the future of art: ‘Responding to AI’ at Christ Church

‘Responding to AI’ an exhibition curated by Aniq Shamshi and Alice King, confronted the question of how artists perceive artificial intelligence directly.

Lighthouse Productions on ‘Things I Know To Be True’

Fresh from the success of their debut production, Lighthouse Productions are set to deliver their second show: Andrew Bovell’s Things I Know to Be True (2016).

A masterclass in devising: ‘Noether’

This original play tells the story of the mathematician Emmy Noether and her struggles with the misogyny of her male peers against the backdrop of the rising Nazi state.

In defence of academic writing

In my year out before my postgraduate degree, I made the momentous decision to start writing fiction. I’d recently got back into reading novels, and thought becoming a novelist would be an ideal way to commit my name to posterity.

“Everything is political!”: How The Hot Mess Project is reviving Oxford’s creative communities

If you’ve been online recently, browsing in search of something to fill an empty evening, you will probably have run across The Hot Mess...

The Voice of Hind Rajab (2025), reviewed

Many of us have already heard the voice of Hind Rajab. On 26th January 2024, the Palestine Red Crescent Society received a call about a six-year-old girl in need of aid.

A show with bite: ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ reviewed

Ong and Bouchta have mounted an incredibly successful run at the O’Reilly. The commitment and love for the show comes across.

Kooky and self-assured: ‘Brew Hill’ in review

Pecadillo Productions’ latest show is (quite rightly) aiming for Fringe, but this kooky, self-assured tragicomedy has immediate cult classic potential.

Art is an argument, so argue back

Often, how much we like artwork comes down to ‘vibes’, initial gut-reactions we make, and then quickly negate by stating that surely it's all about taste.

Red soles, red flags: Jaden Smith and the celebrity takeover of high fashion

Smith’s appointment has raised some serious questions about the extent to which nepotism and celebrity is superseding artistic talent in the fashion industry at present.

The ‘Silent’ Film

Not speaking does not necessarily mean having nothing to say. As much can be said with an image, movement, or glance as with a word.

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