Thursday 21st May 2026

Theatre

Blood will have blood: Cross Keys Productions’ ‘Macbeth’

Shakespeare revivals must tread a fine line: too often they turn into one-actor vehicles or experiments, or shipwreck upon the squall of their adaptation.

Twisted but funny: ‘The Birthday Party’ in review

CW: Rape What’s stuffier than a perfume shop and more packed than a Lego Store...

‘The Two Noble Kinsmen’ reviewed

One of the finest traditions of Oxford drama is the summer garden play. Freeing...

‘Oleanna’: An imperfect but gripping watch

Boulevard Productions’ Oleanna leaves something to be desired, but what it lacks in production value it more than compensates for in audacity; so much so that David Mamet would be proud

“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

“A bold and unapologetic production”

Surya Bowyer is frustrated by a powerful production of 'Suspiria' which comes so close to greatness

Anything but a simple fairy-tale

Ebere Nweze is impressed by this unnerving and sharp new adaptation of Wilde’s short story

“Young, classy and capable of mischief”

Jacob Greenhouse is impressed by the freshness of Consortium Novum’s production of The Marriage of Figaro

A word from the stalls

Miriam Nemmaoui chats to an audience member who is left feeling nostalgic by Anna Karenina

“An enormous array of talent on display”

Jonnie Barrow enjoys a bumpy ride through a musical twist on a classic

‘We’re going to do it better than Braveheart’

If your schooling was anything like Tom Fisher's, who is playing Ross in this new production of Macbeth, you studied the Scottish play in...

Preview: ‘Tender Napalm’

Emily Lawford is stifled and mesmerised by this production of Tender Napalm

“Krapp isn’t quite of this world”

Sian Bayley is finds chills and thrills in this production's take on Beckett's exploration of failure

Both disturbing and utterly engaging: Suddenly Last Summer

With the tagline, “Something unspeakable happened last summer”, you might be forgiven for thinking of Aunt Ada Doom’s (Cold Comfort Farm) cry of “I...

A word from the stalls

Miriam Nemmaoui receives mixed feedback from an audience member after Suddenly Last Summer

Two lonely people, one heartrending production

Bessie Yuill promises an intense evening of Beckett made accessible to all

Review: The Homecoming

After the play finished, a few good friends walked towards me. “Wait, so what happened?” My friend Alex’s facial muscles were contorted. “What the...

Drop dead funny

James Lamming is impressed by the originality and comic maturity of the Oxford Imps’ latest production

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