Wednesday 27th May 2026

Culture

‘Would you mind if I asked you a troubling question?’:  ‘Ulster American’ in review

Arun Lewis reviews Grá Productions' staging of David Ireland's 'Ulster American', and finds fault in an otherwise fascinating performance.

Subs, dubs, and AI flubs: Lost in film translation

How hard could it be to watch an entire film in German when I could not even introduce myself in the language? Quite hard, it turns out.

Barker & Co. Booksellers: Oxford’s newest independent bookshop

A new secondhand bookstore opened in Oxford city centre last week. Located in the Golden Cross shopping centre, just off Cornmarket Street, the bookstore stocks hundreds of secondhand books, ranging from accessibly priced paperbacks to rare and expensive antiquarian first-editions.

‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ in review

The Harris Manchester Players immersed Oxford’s inhabitants in the delightful world of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest this May.

Stranger Things and… capitalism?

Even as our favourite American TV shows are owned and trademarked by enormous conglomerates with massive influence over the entertainment industry, prestige television has often been...

“All My Loving”- a love letter to the Beatles’ uncompromising “A Hard Day’s Night”

John, Paul, George and Ringo, chased through the oft-mistook Marylebone station, boyishly attempting to evade a hoard of adoring young fans. It is an iconic scene...

Sex and Sensibility: Are ‘Spiced Up’ Adaptations really that progressive?

Pulses were sent racing in 1995 when Andrew Davies’ television adaptation of Pride and Prejudice saw Mr. Darcy, played by a fresh-faced Colin Firth, emerge sopping wet from a lake in a translucent white shirt that barely clung to his torso.

Call of Masculinity

After working on a Channel 4 documentary on masculinity, William Atkinson reflects on the role of culture in the formation of male identity - and whether it has a role to play in recent atrocities in the US.

Funny before Fleabag- the best flawed female sitcom characters

Although seemingly it is a truth universally acknowledged, we need to reiterate that Fleabag was one of the best sitcoms broadcast in years. From its three-dimensional...

The Virtues (2019)- Review

It may seem an overstatement, but I truly believe that Shane Meadows’ This is England saga is one of the greatest contributions ever made to British culture....

Sensational: The Power of Synesthesia

Synesthesia is a hugely rare cross-sensory condition - and yet features in some of our most famous canonical works. How can we ever understand the experience of a synesthete?

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)- Review

Within the first five minutes of Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Idris Elba jumps onscreen off of a CGI motorbike and announces...

Just a Crush?

How Tessa Violet's 'Bad Ideas' and Mitski's 'Be the Cowboy' are changing the portrayal of romance in pop

Review: Simon Armitage’s ‘Sandette Light Vessel Automatic’ (Faber, 2019).

Their physical manifestations seem so much a part of the poetic experience that seeing them on a page, relying only on written descriptions for their original context, is almost a tease – a promise of the possibility of an even fuller experience.

War Horse – Coloured by Love and Hate

Morpurgo intended the tale to be one of ‘reunion and reconciliation’, but Nick Stafford and the National Theatre have transformed it into an ‘anthem for peace’.

Art in the Age of Technology

Imagine the future. You walk into a room expecting an art gallery. Instead, you come face to face with a baron white cubicle. A woman stands in the corner, holding a pair of VR glasses. She hands them to you. Puzzled, you put them on.

Mashrou Leila’s Message of Pride Prevails Following Government Ban

How one Lebanese band became a symbol of hope for LGBTQ people across the world

Surviving on the Fringes

The experiences of a director at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Animals (2019) review

Sophie Hyde’s latest film Animals, adapted from Emma Jane Unsworth’s 2015 novel, is a welcome antidote to the friendships of fun, feminist, Glossier-buying millennial women that...

Music and Christianity: What’s it all about?

What is the role of music in Christian worship, and does it still matter in the 21st century?

Review: No Man’s Land – Frank Turner

Why the newest offering from Frank Turner was a pleasant surprise

Music on the Big Screen

Music’s place in cinema: why the soundtrack must be unforgettable

“Lil Thot”: How female empowerment and music intersect

One of the first lessons we are taught as children is that to gain respect, we must first earn it. Yet for women in...

Leonardo da Vinci: a Mind in Motion

Welcome to the British Library’s new exhibition, which will certainly put your mind in motion, as its title suggests, thanks to its atypical depiction of the genius we think we know.

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