Monday 9th June 2025

Culture

‘Love in the face of hate’: A closer look at ‘Blood Wedding’

Emma Nihill Alcorta is the director of a new adaptation of the Spanish masterpiece Blood Wedding, running at the Oxford Playhouse. With flamenco rhythms and Spanish soul, our passionate ensemble...

Duplicity, infidelity and loyalty in ‘Crocodile Tears’

“An Italian summer romance that goes wrong” – this is how Crocodile Tears was...

Review: The Great Gatsby – ‘Indulge the extravaganza’

Sophia Eiden’s production of Simon Levy’s script of The Great Gatsby is an undoubted...

Barry Lyndon – Kubrick’s ultimate antifilm?

Barry Lyndon has always been dismissed within Kubrick’s filmography. While he is a filmmaker...

Skin a Cat Review – ‘rethinks simplistic sexual narratives’

Britomart Productions' honest exploration of female sexuality is on at the BT Studio until Saturday.

How To Make Friends and then Kill Them Preview – ‘promises to be entertaining and unsettling’

A preview of Coningsby Productions' play at the Pilch this week.

Numbers Review – commendable but difficult to feel nuance

The play was particularly successful in its exploration of masculinity

Review: Shostakovich 7 with the Oxford University Orchestra

Peter Stark conducts a moving performance of Shostakovich 7 with the Oxford University Orchestra

Interview: renowned opera singer Iestyn Davies

Cambridge, choirs, colleges and everything else

Classical music’s illusions

Lauren Hill discusses the captivating, and yet illusory effects of performing music at a point where music education is under threat

Preview – Pirandello’s Henry IV – “a challenging role wonderfully enacted”

Omelette Productions presents an unconventional take on a Tom Stoppard translation

Review: Eugene Onegin at St John’s College Auditorium

The People's Opera's production of Eugene Onegin is a great achievement against the odds

The Pitchfork Disney Review – ‘reality and morality is blown apart to become a nightmare’

"From the moment you step into this play the direct ‘in-yer-face’ nature of the performance is abundantly clear."

Who’s direction is it anyway? An interview with the director of How to Make Friends and then Kill Them

Charlie Rogers talks black-box theatre and responds to recent Oxfess controversy

Sex Education review: exuberantly explicit

It refuses to conform to the tiring tradition of sugar-coating anything that sits outside the realm of the PG-13

The illusion of reality television

Reality television is, then, in many ways a fiction. They tell us they are depicting something akin to an authentic reality, but flatten and stabilise the randomness and contingency of actual life, while refusing to overtly acknowledge the authorial voice behind it.

Cracked Actors: Invention and Reinvention in Music

A change of persona can yield new creative space and energy.

Review: ENRON – “absolutely captivating”

“Although he and Enron fall, the people who fall with it fall more” – Sour Peach Productions present a compelling and absurd take on the real-life financial scandal

The Long Con: The fine art of deception

It is very easy to be lulled into a false empowerment by the critical process, believing that the role can be as creative as can be observational.

#Cancelled: Disillusionment in the age of Twitter #MeToo

Watching Weinstein movies like Pulp Fiction, or as more recently discussed, listening to music by R Kelly, in a way are acts of undue forgiveness.

Review: House of Improv presents: I’m an Improviser Get Me Out of Here! – ‘relentlessly silly’

House of Improv presents an improvised hour of moon shoes, jacuzzis, and reckless fun

Satiating Sá-Carneiro

Exploring the life and work of an acclaimed Portuguese writer, at the heart of which lies the desire to discover.

Review: Gods are Fallen and All Safety Gone – ‘a relationship fraying at the edges’

Rose on a Rail's latest production provides a touching and intimate look into a complex mother-daughter relationship.

The Forgiveness Arc

Here are some of the best musical theatre songs centred around forgiveness

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