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Ah me, but it’s refreshing to listen to a band with such a varied and distinctive sound. What make this six-piece from Raleigh, North...

THE OXFORD University Freemasons’ Lodge is at the centre of a national campaign to recruit undergraduates into the organisation. The 'University Scheme', started by...

Partying, politics and pessimism Laura Pitel goes in search of the young people of LebanonIn most places in the world it might seem distasteful...

“You can’t judge a book by its cover.” But when the book is the new album from Brazilian baile-funk hipsters Bonde Do Role, and...

We Hughsies are a boring lot, or at least so it would seem. When I went down to our lodge last week to get...

To retain any credibility at all when talking about classical music, here’s a tip: call Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto “Rach Two”. It’s a bit...

I feel like I’ve been on one of those jerking, rattly, helter-skelterish roller-coasters. I’m finding it difficult to coherently fit all the glimpses and...

Remember the last two weeks of April? Remember the cricket, the punting, and the blissful sunshine spilling out all over the quads? Remember the...

It was always going to be interesting: six of Oxford’s finest young playwrights paired with six directors, randomly assigned to a group of actors...

Summer’s onset leads, like the turning of the seasons, to a crop of plays performed in the balmy environs of college quadrangles, and it’s...

As a ‘New Writer’ in Oxford, what do you feel are the obligations of the modern playwright?Obligations…I think the obvious ones are firstly to...

Find a place to playThis really shouldn’t be difficult: after all, you are in Oxford, and there’s a good chance your college has...

Agatha Christie caused a stir when she adapted her Death on the Nile for the stage, altering it nominally to Murder on the Nile,...

It took an informal chat between two PCs to bring into the open what everyone must already know: the University owns Oxford. From shop-owners...

The Canterbury Tales is quite a project to undertake, and this production is somewhat ambitious. One thing that struck me was the conspicuous absence...

Fans of new writing have a veritable dramatic feast at the Burton Taylor studio in seventh week, and they should not be disappointed with...

America has changed from the champion of international order to its antagonist. Bush has rejected the idea that a set of strong international institutions,...

Beginning our evening in Worcester, we thought we’d reached bar Mecca. We were greeted by a beautiful patio area; absolutely perfect for a quiet...

So what are you doing this summer? A rickshaw run across Mongolia? Spraying Moet over sun-kissed buttocks in Monaco? Ridding yourself of sins by...

British academia voted yesterday to boycott cooperation with universities in Israel in protest of Israel's presence in the Occupied Territories. Though the vote at the first meeting of the University and College Union passed by a majority of 158 to 99, several prominent members were opposed to the decision. General Secretary to the Union, Sally Hunt, said, "I do not believe a boycott is supported by a majority of UCU members, nor do I believe that members see it as a priority for the union." The UCU vote coincides with similar pressures from within Israel, as four Israeli academics called yesterday for the government to lift bans on Palestinian students. In a letter to the defence minister, the presidents of Ben-Gurion, Hebrew, Haifa and Technion universities, wrote, "Blocking access to higher education for Palestinian students from Gaza who choose to study in the West Bank casts a dark shadow over Israel's image as a state which respects and supports the principle of academic freedom