When self-confessed ‘fuck-ups’ Burt and Verona are confronted with Verona’s pregnancy at 34, they immediately look to Burt’s parents for support. When it becomes apparent that the child’s grandparents have little interest in the imminent birth, Burt and Verona take the logical step of touring North America whilst she is six months pregnant to look for the ideal place to raise their child.

This was when my problems with the film began, as the lack of grandparents did not seem to be a sufficiently convincing motivation for the couple to embark on a grueling road-trip. However, this is what they decide to do, travelling round the continent meeting up with old friends and family and discovering why they don’t want to raise their child in Phoenix (too red neck), Madison (too New Age) and Montreal (too depressing).

On one level Sam Mendes’ new film is a meditation on the meaning of marriage, parenthood, family and love in the modern world. On screen, this translates into scene after scene of Burt and Verona, often in tears, confessing their fears to one another whilst generic acoustic guitar music crescendos in the background. This might sound slightly heartless, but then again, I doubt the target audience for these parts of the film was twenty year old males.

Thankfully though, the rest of the film is held together by consistently funny scenes. Whereas Verona is often more obviously burdened by the travails of pregnancy, Burt is hilarious throughout, discoursing on subjects ranging from vaginal flavours to the merits of steak houses. One of the funniest scenes features Maggie Gyllenhaal as Burt’s disturbed cousin lecturing the on the evils of strollers and the beauty of the sea horse’s breeding rituals.

Away We Go has almost no heroes in it; it is full of apathetic parents, despairing wives and shell-shocked divorcees. In Phoenix, Burt meets the husband of one of Verona’s friends who, in his misery about being rejected from the golf club, drunkenly explains to Burt that ‘America is a piece of shit… I guess that makes everyone else flies on our shit.’

This unsettling examination of modern North American life balances the more saccharine parts of the film and denies the viewer a straightforwardly happy ending, leaving you instead to reflect on the enormity of the task that lies ahead of the characters.

Whether you are new to Oxford or not, the University drama scene can be an intimidating place. We are surrounded by a constant stream of high-quality productions, with over thirty each term and many also spilling over into the vacation. The variety of student drama is unparalleled, ranging from classics to edgy new writing. Most importantly, however, is the strong encouragement and support of independent groups, which gives Oxford a truly unique quality. For this reason you may be a little hesitant when it comes to getting started, but once you know the ropes there is a massive opportunity for first class experience in a number of areas.

OUDS

The Oxford University Drama Society is your first stop for getting stuck in, and a key resource for your theatrical career. It is very quick and easy to create a profile through the website (www.ouds.org). This will give you access to current news, other members and most importantly, the jobcentre, which publishes advertisements for actors, producers, marketing teams and other forms of assistance. OUDS is also a funding body for student drama, interviewing prospective production and marketing teams each term and providing financial assistance to a large number of shows.

Acting

Darling wannabe thespians, in the words of one veteran of the Oxford stage, primarily to go for it, go for absolutely everything. Audition away and the more you do, the more chance you have of getting a part. Secondly, have confidence in yourself, because if you start off by doubting yourself and thinking that you won’t be able to get into a play then you won’t get far. You must have absolute faith in your abilities. Thirdly, learn the importance of constructive criticism and not losing heart. Rejection happens – just pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again!

Events

Oxford has two key dramatic events: Cuppers and the New Writing Festival. The Cuppers competition is run by OUDS and is exclusively for Freshers, encouraging newcomers to prepare a short piece, up to thirty minutes long, whether it is a snippet of Shakespeare or new-writing. Most vitally, Cuppers provides the structure and support needed to make a mark on the drama scene, work alongside OUDS and meet some of the people involved. The New Writing Festival giving budding writers the chance to see their creations on stage, out of which four finalists are chosen to be performed.

Theatres

The Oxford Playhouse, New Theatre, Burton Taylor Studio, and Old Fire Station are amongst the big names venues in the centre of town, varying in size and character. The Playhouse and the New Theatre attract mainstream professional shows, while BT and OFS cater to student theatrics. Individual college theatres, such as Keble’s O’Reilly and Wadham’s Moser, are also regular locations for performances. In the summer drama often moves outdoors, into college gardens and the University Parks. This diverse collection of venues offers an extensive choice and guarantees a wide ranging experience.

Reviewing

Those who can, act, those who can’t are critics, and Oxford caters perfectly to these cuddly types in the form of its two main newspapers, OxStu and Cherwell. The main difference between the two is that the latter is to be read, while the former is, at best, to be used as kindling, or perhaps as a cat litter-box lining. The perks of the job include free tickets and often free drinks, although admittedly being a critic, you will have already ostracised most of your friends and thus won’t have anyone to take with you to such wonderful events. But there’s much joy to be had striking fear into actors with a well-timed raised eyebrow or a stifled grimace.

Backstage

If your interest lies in directing, producing or marketing then one of the best things you can do is to seek like-minded others and form a team, applying together to a theatre. Watch out for shadowing chances which will regularly appear on the jobcentre, as these provide an excellent opportunity to gain first-hand experience. Joining existing teams is another great way of getting involved, whether your talent lies in realising artistic visions or handing out flyers on the highstreet.

Watching Jude Law in his most recent role as Hamlet in the Wyndham’s Theatre, I struggled to cope with conflicting views over the barrage of celebrities in the West End.
Theatre director Sir Jonathan Miller has in the past criticised the West End of having ‘an obsession in the celebrity’ and is amongst a growing group of critics targeting this new trend.
What, however, are the benefits of the celeb in the theatre and why is it important to question their place there?

I must admit that part of me was somewhat star struck by the Jude Law Hamlet. I was simply intrigued to see such a famous film actor plucked from Hollywood and placed into Shakespeare. I cannot have been the only one, for the show drew younger and keener crowds, and early hour queues at the box-office marked a new scale of demand.
It is this factor; its ability to attract an audience, that stands as the biggest pro for the celebrity thespianas, since this in turn draws general interest to the West End scene, promoting the theatres and their productions.

Part of me was frustrated, however. Primarily because it felt like the sparkle of A-list glamour was overwhelming some of the production’s main strengths. The unusual and delicate performance of Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ophelia, for example, was denied the focus she deserved. Similarly, the stunning staging and use of colour was exceptional. Sadly it continually remained secondary to Law’s performance as the Prince of Denmark.

‘A-list glamour overwhelmed many of the production’s main strengths’

This leads me on to my second key criticism of celebrity endorsed theatre – if the celebrity just doesn’t quite cut the mustard, then the production is left in danger of looking rather daft. Law did not quite deliver enough in this role. Though his classical training was evident and his lines were delivered with passion and clarity, as the play progressed I became more and more frustrated with the consistently high levels of volume and anguish, and silently wished him to shut up for a while and brood around for a bit.

Undoubtedly, there would have been some unknown actor of more talent, denied the part purely for his anonymity. This rejection of talent extends beyond the individual actors to the interest of the producers in the productions themselves.The likelihood of a show even making it to the stage is enhanced massively by the status of the people involved. Once Joanna Lumley had made it clear that she could not commit to a long run transfer of the Sheffield production of The Cherry Orchard to the West End, they dropped it.

It is a risky business recruiting a celebrity in the West End; if it works, you can almost assure a sell out. David Tennant has demonstrated this with his well praised delivery of Hamlet, which justified the hype and put him alongside Patrick Stewart as living proof that it is perfectly possible to balanca career of both stage and screen performances, with exploits in neither medium hampering the other.

Financially, of course, the risk is small; if the actor in person cannot quite deliver; then little harm done, sales still guaranteed. Yet these shows run serious risk of receiving mediocre reviews and, the biggest fear of all, becoming just another production with yet another celebrity endorsement.

It must be quite daunting being asked to play a slot that has previously been filled by such legendary bands as Nirvana, Oasis, Iron Maiden and Pixies. Having seen the Kings of Leon play two past Leeds Festivals and just missing out on the top spot (in 2005 justly they played under Foo Fighters on the bill and slightly embarrassingly in 2007 under Razorlight) I felt like their time had probably come. Unfortunately they did too and, unfazed by the magnitude of the task in hand, came out on the Reading main stage with unrealistically high expectations from the crowd. Certainly from watching the BBC coverage of the slot the crowd seemed to be enthusiastic and in good voice as they wailed along to recent singles ‘Sex on Fire’ and ‘On Call’, but it didn’t quite meet the demands of frontman Caleb Followill who told the crowd that he was ‘trying to hold back from saying anything negative’ about their reaction. Drummer Nathan Followill also wrote on Twitter the next day ‘Reading? What the fuck?’ and described the fans reception as ‘cold’ (that’s probably because they were cold).

So when Sunday came I was slightly apprehensive as Kings of Leon came on stage at Leeds Festival, hoping that they wouldn’t let any preconceived notions of grandeur affect their set. Fortunately the evening was somewhat milder than it had been two days before at Reading and the crowd were still riding high from the solid slot that had just been played by local heroes Kaiser Chiefs; subsequently they gave the Tennessee band a very warm greeting. Opening with several songs from latest album ‘Only by the night’ the band then proceeded to mix it up a bit with some older tracks, all of which went down a storm. A few songs in and Nathan was telling the crowd that ‘you’ve blown Reading to hell’ and dedicated ‘Red Morning Light’ to ‘all you people who didn’t just come for two songs.’ It seems that this was the major issue the band took with their southern audience; in their eyes they only showed appreciation for their recent best selling singles. Whilst this may have been the case, this is one of the dangers of signing to a major label and marketing yourself commercially: it has to be accepted. Granted that the people who show up to slur along to the chorus of ‘Use Somebody’ before making a quick retreat may not be ‘real’, long term fans but they still contribute to the financial success of the band. And I don’t see them complaining when the paycheque rolls in!

What really got the audience going was the undying love for the UK which Caleb expressed throughout the set, claiming that it was British fans that made them feel like they could ‘take on the world’ and going so far as to say that the band had never written a song with their American audience in mind. It’s true enough that the Kings do owe a lot of their success to Brit popularity; in 2004 debut album ‘Youth and Young Manhood’ came in at number 3 in the UK album chart, whilst reaching the not-so-dizzying-heights of 113 in their native America. Their second album ‘Aha Shake Heartbreak’ continued the trend by charting number 3 (still 22 places above the US) in the UK charts. As Kings of Leon vanished from the stage with ‘Black Thumbnail’ they left behind them the impression that they were every bit the home grown wonders that ‘Kaiser Chiefs’ were; they were a truly ‘British’ band.

Did they deserve the headline slot? I think so, yes. The set was a satisfying two hour long spate of songs spanning all their four albums; they were a great festival band and really rose to the challenge of playing to such a large and diverse audience. The band were in good voice and good spirits and the sound quality was exceptional. After playing the Reading show the band seemed to come to their senses enough to play a good show at Leeds, perhaps realising that, after all, ‘those rainy days they ain’t so bad when you’re the king.’