Theatre

“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.

Good grief! Why do we feel for the death of fictional people?

Whether it’s a mild sniffle or full-blown tears, I always end up feeling a bit ridiculous about the whole ordeal when it’s over. I mean, it’s not real, is it? Why do I waste my grief on things that haven’t happened, that will never happen?

Caught between grief and hope: ‘On Some Far Shore’ reviewed

Fresh off the back of 'Our House' and 'Macbeth', Cross Key Productions presents an original three-hander focused on the complexities of grief and young love.

The road to reckoning: ‘The Slip’ reviewed

Sharp, unsettling, and emotionally intelligent, 'The Slip' is a striking showcase of the ambition and talent behind Wide Eyes Productions, while establishing Wyatt as a writer-director to watch.

A day in the life of… A script writer

Stage editor Katie Sayer considers the Oxford drama scene from the perspective of a budding playwright

“Student theatre at its finest”

Miriam Nemmaoui finds 'As You Like It' to be enchanting and captivating

“A piece of theatre that feels incredibly close and genuine”

Nina Crisp finds much to praise in 'I Know You', Sam Moore's postmodernist piece of new writing

“The play-text should never have been selected for performance”

Will Austin finds 'Five Women Wearing the Same Dress' to be outdated and hackneyed at the Michael Pilch Studio

“A tense and deeply disturbing piece”

Emily Lawford is left shaken by 'Orca', an award-winning drama about sacrifice and redemption

“Fun, thoroughly amusing and worth watching”

Freya Thorpe praises Ambriel Productions’ musical ensemble

A day in the life of… a lighting director

I came to Oxford with very little backstage experience. It’s really easy to get into the scene—TAFF (the University network of backstage crew) is...

“If you’d told me a year ago I would never have believed it”

Katie Sayer chats to Callum Cameron, the writer and star of They Built It, No One Came – coming to Oxford following a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe and a sell-out week in London

An odd mix of Sophocles, Stoppard and Wilde

Katie Sayer gives four stars to Simon Callow's revival of a 1970s classic

A day in the life of… an assistant director

Rebekah King describes her role assistant directing Brontë, Polly Teale’s successful 2005 period drama

“An aspirational first performance”

Jacob Greenhouse is impressed by 'Blatavsky's Tower', the first production from newly founded company

“A little-known gem”

Thomas Player gives four stars to 'Dear Brutus', an underrated classic

“Sharp humour with profound philosophical underpinnings”

Giovanni Musella looks ahead at a new production of Blavatsky's Tower

“Elegant, witty, sophisticated, remarkable”: The ‘Philanthropist’

Katie Sayer and Emily Lawford meet the all-star cast of Simon Callow's production of 'The Philanthropist'

“Injections of humour amidst the Beckettian existential angst”

Emily Lawford is impressed by Leveaux’s revival of Tom Stoppard's meta-theatrical tragicomedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

“Love and humanity scattered amid the horror”

Emily Lawford enjoys a genuinely frightening production of Macbeth

A word from the stalls

Miriam Nemmaoui speaks to a tipsy audience member at Suzy Cripps’ 'The Optimists'

“Even while expecting an hour of postmodernist drama, I couldn’t have been more unprepared”

Katie Sayer recovers from the gripping and disturbing 'Marat/Sade' at the Keble O'Reilly

A disturbing worldview undercut by patchy acting

Olivia Cormack finds that it's not just the costumes in Contractions that need ironing out

“More gentle slap than sucker punch”

Katheryn Thompson finds Made in Dagenham lacking in political grit

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