Culture

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...

Art as protest on university campuses

CW: rape. This week, Cornell University has made headlines as prosecutors reopened an investigation into...

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.

Review: Madlib and Freddie Gibbs – Bandana

Madlib is perhaps hip-hop’s greatest enigma. In a career spanning almost three decades he has studied a variety of genres, masterfully integrating them into...

Review: Hustlers – ‘a refreshingly raw play’

Hoof and Horn productions impress with a candid look into prostitution and the AIDS crisis

Review: The Witch of Edmonton – Elizabeth Sawyer’s story ‘is brought to the fore’

Delivered in the form of a virtual ghost tour, Hoof and Horn Productions' take on The Witch of Edmonton offers an original retelling of Elizabeth Sawyer's story.

Review: Gatsby at Trinity – the ‘love for Trinity College and Fitzgerald’s novel is apparent’

Trinity College’s prequel to the Fitzgerald novel anticipates the debauchery of the Roaring Twenties in an exceedingly suitable location

Preview: The Oxford Revue and Friends – ‘plenty of laugh-of-out moments’

The Oxford Revue are headed to the Playhouse stage in 8th week, along with some special guests

Review: The Oxford Revue and Friends – ‘an unforgettable comedic experience’

A triple bill of comedy from Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham impresses at the Oxford Playhouse

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