Pygmalion bills itself as a ‘Romantic Comedy’. Indeed, it has many of the ingredients for one; struggling heroine, her two potential male counterparts (equally unsuitable and unattractive in their own way), the social minefield of post-Edwardian London as the backdrop… However, the ideas which drive the play are prosaic and philosophical, dictating the existence of tensions far greater than those suggested by the rather facetious premise of a romantic comedy. The energy with which Ashley Wheeler and Philippa Baines’ production approaches these tensions invigorates a script which leans towards the theoretical rather than the dramatic.

As the press preview began with Mr Doolittle (Oliver Johnson) gleefully propounding his existence near the bottom of the social ladder -’I’m undeservin’, and I mean to go on bein’ undeservin’’- it immediately appeared that elaborate characterisation is all the sugar-coating needed to engage an audience with the bitter concepts of class prejudice and female independence. Well before the performance date, this scene already enjoys a contrast between the mannerisms of Doolittle and his daughter Eliza (Ella Waldman), and the inhabitants of Higgins’ (Dylan Townley) household. Higgins and Pickering (Alex Mills) watch with a mixture of sardonic amusement and round-eyed incredulity respectively as Doolittle gesticulates his way through his speech, while a reassuringly demure Mrs Pearce (Lily Levinson) provides a foil for Eliza, who wipes her nose on her sleeve with gusto seconds after arriving onstage.

Waldman’s performance promises to be all the better for forsaking any attempt to prettify Eliza; her expressions hint at the existence of the same ‘Eliza’ throughout, perhaps most in evidence during Higgins’ phonetics lesson, in which the letters of the alphabet come out in a constipated fury, as much at odds with her metamorphosis as with the meaninglessness of the letter sounds. The venom with which she purses her lips as Doolittle departs reappears in full force when she reflects on the bitterness of her situation, or rather her lack of one, as the social veneer Higgins has grafted onto her prevents her from earning her own living, while her economic status demands it. When Mrs Higgins (Rebekah Diamond) despairingly remarks that ‘talking about our insides’ or ‘outsides’ is simply unbearable during tea, she encapsulates the chief problem in Pygmalion; can either of the two facets of the play ever be truly separated or altered to an extent where one no longer poses a detriment to the other?

Certainly, the jangling, heart-in-mouth, physically cringing portrayal of Freddie’s attachment to Eliza by Sam Plumb contributes to a reassuring sense of love’s independence of the play’s more intellectual concerns; love even permeates the post-ball clash with Higgins, though Townley achieves an appropriate level of obliviousness. However it is an undeniable presence, rather than the order of the day; in this production of Pygmalion it is no more reassuring than Pickering’s attempts to pacify Eliza –’I promise you I won’t let Higgins drag you round the room by your hair!’

It is this sensitivity to the multi-dimensionality of the characters which makes this production exciting. I arrived with misgivings about its suitability as a garden show, which precludes easy conjuring up of the distinctive London aesthetic from which it is impossible to divorce the text, but these were instantly eclipsed (if not resolved) by committed and engaging performances all-round, indicative of a truly exciting production come third week.

The Edgar Wind Society is the University’s only Art and Art History society, named after Oxford’s very first professor in the History of Art who taught here from 1955-1957. We were only formed two years ago but have been growing quite rapidly since. We aim to put on a wide range of events such as speakers, discussion panels, film screenings, exhibition tours and much more, open to all members of the University irrespective of what they study. The inevitable stress and hectic schedule that comes with Oxford life means that for many people, unfortunately, an interest in art can get left behind. We hope that by providing a range of diverse and interesting resources we will enable students to continue to enjoy and learn about art.

Notable past Speakers at the Edgar Wind have included Charles Saumerez Smith (chief executive of the Royal Academy and former director of the National Portrait Gallery) and Sam Thorne (Associate Editor of Frieze) to name but a few. We aim to invite speakers touching on all areas of visual culture. Artist Dominic Johnson, for example, gave a talk on performance art and body modification, and last term Neil Hadfield(former effects animator for Disney, Warner Brothers and the BBC) delivered a talk on the history of 20^th century animation. One of our most recent speakers was Carol Jacobi, a Pre-Raphaelites expert who gave an exciting talk tailored to coincide with the Ashmolean’s exhibition. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to tell you who my dream speaker would be as there are so many possibilities. For some reason Amy Childs from ‘The Only Way is Essex’ seems to spring to mind almost immediately, but I really don’t think she would make for great art historical discussion.

In Hilary we released the first issue of our new publication, The Edgar Wind Journal, which looked at at the topics of materiality and temporality, and we are now working on the Trinity issue which is themed ‘Art & Obsecnity’. We hope to work more with other art organizations in Oxford, such as Modern Art Oxford with whom we hosted our first event of the year and also a film screening as part of the OUFF Film Festival. In terms of speakers we will be looking to invite figures from different spectra of the arts industries (media figures, artists and curators) to give an insight into what a career in the arts might entail.

Naturally the Society extends from the History of Art department having been set up originally by its students, and we are actively supported by the Faculty. At the same time, there is no direct link between what we do as a Society and what the University teaches. Our primary aim is to put on events that people find interesting and enjoyable, aside from what they might be studying.

People would be surprised just how many subjects Art History feeds into and we  really hope to encourage all University members to get involved with The Edgar Wind Society. To hear about events or get more involved you can sign up to our mailing list via GroupSpaces or by emailing us as [email protected]

Above all we hope to remain innovative, constantly coming up with new ideas for ways through which people’s experience of art and the history of art can be broadened. On the 2nd^st of February, for example, we collaborated with the Oxford Art Movement and students from the Ruskin to put on an exhibition entitled ‘The Sublime & The Grotesque’. We’ve also recently set up The Edgar Wind Blog which features news, articles and reviews of Art events both inside and outside of Oxford.

The first rule of theatre is never to work with children or animals, and Call of the Wild proves that there’s no need to if you can play them, quite possibly better than they could play themselves. It looks like the cast has spent a lot of time lying on the casting couch, getting in touch with their canine side. All this work has certainly paid off; at every moment, the dogs bristle with a tense, fluttering energy which makes them captivating to watch. And despite their identical, minimalist costumes, each actor succeeds in developing a distinct identity, be it tail-chasing nervousness, nuzzling sycophancy, or strutting monomania, before they’ve spoken a word. These individual characters unite effectively into a powerful ensemble. Every corner of the Playhouse stage ripples with ferocious life with the arrival of the dog pack, whose suppressed, jittery movements leave us glancing nervously from side to side.

The pack treads an effective line between humanness and dogginess. They speak with a poignant eloquence that goes ignored by their human masters, and stand up to look each other in the eye whenever those masters leave them alone. But at key dramatic moments, the emotion-fuelled script escalates into animalistic barks and howls that leave nothing else to be said, and conflict is resolved by brutal, throat-tearing violence from dogs and humans alike. Such is the clarity of unspoken expression that we’re left with the feeling that the script would have been no less effective if it had forgone words completely.

The play doesn’t quite escape one problem of the original; its patchwork plot, where Buck is the only constant stage presence. The other actors, helped by some impressively swift costume changes and prop placement, form an assembly line of characters and scenarios for Buck to get carried down. This means that we don’t get to see as much of the dog pack as we’d like, which is a pity, given the time and effort that the cast has evidently gone to deliver a unique and gripping portrayal of life on all fours.

There is also a tendency for the action to lapse into playing out various human affairs that we (by now) consider to be laughably trivial. As the human characters are, for the most part, ships passing in the night of Buck’s story, it’s hard to find the time to care about any of them (and harder to know whether we’re supposed to). Having said that, the human scenes are well-crafted sketches featuring several hilarious performances; snapshots of human life which bring out its tyranny, greed, and violence in a more light-hearted way. They are engaging enough to distract you from their irrelevance and justify their inclusion.

In fact, I’d be lying if I said my critical eye was able to pick out any weaknesses during the show itself. The unbridled strength and power of the performances are more than enough to dig its fangs into you and refuse to let go.

Damian Lewis is making me a cup of tea. Dressed in Ugg boots, a checked shirt and a stylish knit cardigan, he’s every inch the metrosexual, cool guy about town: down with the kids in more ways than one, he has to head off after the interview to read his children a bedtime story.

Famously flame-headed and Eton-educated, Lewis rose to prominence back in 2001 for his portrayal of Major Richard Winters in the hit TV series Band of Brothers, and since then has been most known for his TV and film work, including the series Life and The Forsyte Saga. But Hollywood was not always his dream.

‘At drama school, all my influences were in the theatre, not in film and TV. I remember standing on the prow of a ship one year heading over to Amsterdam with one of my best friends, and talking about how we were going to be the next generation of theatre actors.

‘It was all very romantic – all we wanted was to be at the National, the Donmar, The Royal Court. And romantically theatre still holds a place in my affections, but after Band of Brothers I got invited into this world I knew very little about, and that went on for the next ten years. And the roles I was being offered and the people I was being asked to work with were so exciting that I continued to take work in film and TV, and I look back and wish there’d been more time for theatre.’

Yet Lewis has only regret: ‘foolishly’ turning down a role in Love’s Labour’s Lost to do press for a film (‘not even to do a job!’). He fondly recalls fulfilling his dream of working at the National, ‘bicycling over Westminster Bridge in the dying light, St Paul’s one way, Big Ben the other. But Hollywood bedazzles you, and has its own extraordinary tradition. Some of my biggest heroes are Jack Lennon, Laurel and Hardy, Carey Grant… I’m equally proud of being part of that tradition, but it’s not in me in the same way.’

Having spent a great part of his working life in America, Lewis is well-placed to comment on the differences between the two cultures. ‘There’s been a healthy cross-pollination between US and UK TV, borrowing ideas, recasting and retelling stories with different cultural references.’ He has played an American so often that he has his own American persona. ‘I stay American all day when I’m playing one, I don’t feel comfortable switching accents. When I was living in LA, sometimes I’d wake up and find myself talking American to people subliminally.’ The persona goes beyond the accent too: ‘It affects the way you move, and your response to things.’ I wonder if this ability to sustain multiple personalities is somehow connected to living a life dedicated to acting, a notion the practical Lewis dispels with an infectious laugh: ‘Not in a deep psychological way – I still want to watch “soccer” and get the cricket scores!’

Lewis decided he wanted to be an actor aged 16, when he and friends started a theatre company at school. ‘I’d sort of stopped working by that point and decided I didn’t want to go to university, I was doing lots of sport and acting instead’.

After graduating from drama school he played an extraordinary variety of prestigious roles, including Hamlet in Regent’s Park aged just 23, a job which he claims he was given because he was the only one the director could hear properly.

I’m not surprised – across the table Lewis’ voice booms out as if his kitchen were a theatre. For a man with numerous fansites dedicated to him, Lewis is remarkably relaxed and chatty, quizzing me about Cherwell as he heats up his own mug of tea in the microwave, a twinkle in his piercing eyes. Yet none of this might have happened, had his big break not come out of the blue.

‘I was just another pale Englishman doing lots of auditions in a damp basement in Soho, when I got called back (for Band of Brothers) four or five times, and then finally I got a call from the producer saying “I want to take you to LA to meet Stephen (Spielberg). Do you have your passport?” And I was like “no, I don’t carry my passport to auditions!” It was a very Hollywood moment.’ He was flown out first class and put up in a fancy hotel before being introduced to Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who he describes as ‘absolutely delightful’.

‘Stephen just wanted to talk about football, and we played around with the script and acted out a few things with me as Dick Winters and Tom Hanks playing everyone else, it was great fun.’ That night, thinking the dream had been fantastic while it lasted, Lewis went out and got blind drunk, getting back at 4am before receiving a call at 8am: ‘Stephen would like to see you.’

‘I went in there shaking with sweaty palms, desperately trying to sober up with three showers and umpteen coffees – but he gave me the job.’ And the rest? ‘Is history’. He laughs. Lewis is confident and self-assured, but there’s not a drop of arrogance in him; he speaks of his successes with an earnest sense of wonder which is very endearing.

Band of Brothers had, as Lewis points out, an inauspicious start, as it was only in its second week of airing when 9/11 struck. ‘That really dented viewing figures: people just didn’t want to see that sort of thing happening on TV when it had just happened in real life.’ Yet they persevered, and the most expensive TV series ever made, with a budget of $125 million, went on to win six Emmys and a Golden Globe. Lewis ascribes its continual success to its immediacy and relevance to people’s lives. ‘It’s very authentic, dripping in sincerity, there’s nothing sensational about it. It had a docu-drama feel to it which people responded to. And they were able to tell intimate stories in an epic arena.’

Before filming Lewis went to meet Dick Winters, the soldier who died earlier this year, on his farm in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He describes the real Winters as ‘quite a difficult man to get to know, withdrawn, not given to long exuberant anecdotes about the war. A brilliant soldier with an extraordinary gift of leadership, and his men loved him’.

After Band of Brothers Lewis received critical acclaim for his performance as Soames Forsyte in The Forsyte Saga series, a role already made famous by Eric Porter.

‘I didn’t spend too much time looking at the original. I knew it was ground breaking, but I thought we had something so good and so different that it never felt like a remake, but just another pass at a classic. I was quite ready for people to say “he wasn’t as good as Eric Porter”, but I hoped I’d find a way of winning people over’. In 2007 he did another mini-series, Life: ‘I like long-form drama, you can risk being a bit more subversive and intellectually provocative, telling a story over 12 hours instead of two. You get the script about a week in advance, so it’s a bit like reading a novel, which you’re inside’.

I wonder how he chooses his parts, given that after his Band of Brothers success he found himself Hollywood’s flavour of the month and the offers must have come rolling in. ‘It’s just an instinctive feeling about how I think the film will end up looking. There have been films where I’ve known there’s very little hope of its having a longer commercial life, but… art for art’s sake.’

A case in point is his little-known 2004 arthouse film Keane, in which he played a mentally disturbed man trying to come to terms with the abduction of his daughter. ‘Small films are more intimate experiences, you get involved earlier and they’re much more collaborative. I’m frustrated by how difficult it is to get intelligent material made, but success in Hollywood is measured by the dollar, and so many films are aimed at the 15-24 demographic who’ll go and see them multiple times. We put ourselves in a position where we don’t believe there’s an intelligent film-going public.’

Lewis has produced some films of his own, and there’s a sense that the film industry would do well with him in charge: the vestiges of his education shine through as he speaks with measured intelligence, screwing up one side of his face in careful thought.

‘It’s a problem about not having students of film in positions of power – instead there are businessmen who haven’t had a lifelong passion for their industry. Execs in LA come out of business school and say (American accent) “I’d like to be in the movie industry, that’ll be groovy” – and there’s not much more thought gone into it than that.’

Speaking of badly written films, it seems almost too smooth a lead to bring up his latest film, Your Highness, which critic Andrew O’Hehir called ‘the worst film ever made’. I try to disguise it but Lewis acknowledges the natural connection with a pained grimace. ‘Your Highness is a film that on the page was engaging and funny, but they adopted an improvisational approach on set which I think lessened the script. It was a lot of fun to make and there were interesting people involved – but there’s a disparity between what’s fun to do and what’s a worthwhile project when it’s finished. I think it will find its audience.’

The tea has been drunk and the children want their stories. The Ugg boots lead me up the stairs and show me out, and Lewis heads off, leaving the kitchen-stage for the new theatre of the children’s bedroom, where another rapturous audience awaits him. They won’t be disappointed.

Isn’t it terrible when the only adjective you can think of is ‘lovely’? ‘Nice’ seems such faint praise as to be damning, so you go with ‘lovely’ and find yourself stuck. But, meeting your girlfriend’s parents for the first time, ‘lovely’ is what you’re hoping for and probably the best you’ll get. Unfortunately ‘lovely’ is not what Evan is dealing with when he encounters his girlfriend Claire’s parents, despite his inability to think of any other words. He certainly isn’t dealing with ‘nice’.

The premise of The Courting of Claire is so simple, yet it still manages to surprise at every turn, transforming all the awkward tension expressed in Evan’s first parental encounter into something very much more sinister. There are expertly crafted moments of relief and humour throughout, offering escape as Evan’s position deteriorates in the face of a mother’s love and obsession for her daughter, a primal intention not to be replaced. It is this ability to be both nurturing and destructive which gives Mary Flanigan’s portrayal of ‘Mum’ – as her character is called – a presence equivalent to a force of nature. She can delicately spread toast and then ruthlessly forcefeed the ‘Boy’ water. The household is ruled by a psychotic matriarch and all male presences have faded into the realm of the memory and supernatural – where is Claire’s father and what happened to ‘The Previous One’, the boyfriend who they aren’t ‘allowed’ to talk about?

This all begs the question: is student playwright Matt Fuller that frightened of women? He explicitly denies that the play is based on true events and wants us to know that his own girlfriend’s parents are ‘lovely’. It came from his desire to write something very different after his New Writing Festival success Lemonworld. The third offering he is now working on will presumably be just as different again.

Is this a ‘gritty kitchen-sink drama’, a comedy of manners, a rom-com, a horror? Somewhere in between them all is probably the correct answer, showing that once again Matt finds himself unconfined by a single genre. He states that Evan is the ‘everyman’ caught up in events beyond his control. Well, I certainly hope that he isn’t every man. I hope that no man endures what he does. The climactic scene features a visceral speech by ‘Mum’ which elicits pure terror. Both writer and director (Michaela Scotting) have collaborated throughout the rehearsal process to produce something chilling. And they both seemed so ‘nice’!

Forget Meet the Parents, this is so much more excruciating. The logical extension of all those mother-in-law jokes, The Courting of Claire presents true demonisation.