Oxford Imps
Email [email protected] to be added to the audition list

Performance value: 7
Friendliness: 4
Next big thing? 6

An improvised comedy troupe and one of the most famous of the Oxford theatre groups. But many would doubt their reputation as the most talented bunch of frustrated thesps in Oxford and argue that the imps’ egos are far larger than the laughs they get. If you are unfortunate enough to go to a less than amusing show, make sure you don’t talk to a performer about it, they’re sure to blame the audience rather than their own lack of talent…

Tabs Are For Flying
Email [email protected] with your year of graduation

Performance value: 4
Friendliness: 8
Next big thing? 1

Most of you have probably never heard of them, and judging bu the rather sub-standard “jokes” on their website, you might want to keep it that way. Taff is the organisation for all those wh are interested in getting involved behind the scenes in theatre-lighting, set design etc. There are bound to be some who are keen, but it seems to be all the work with none of the glory…

Onassis
To join our mailing list, email [email protected]

Performance value: 6
Friendliness: 7
Next big thing? 4

Committed to the performance of Greek drama, Onassis is a graduate programme which researches, funds, performs and preserves classical drama. An incredibly professional group who are regulars at the Edinburgh festival, but some may find them a little too serious for their liking…

Magdalen College Players
Email [email protected]

Performance value: 5
Friendliness: 7
Next big thing? 5

Probably the most active, and best known of the numerous college dramatic societies. Don’t think that just because it’s theatre on a college level it’s inferior to the likes of OUDS. Magdalen College Players are an active bunch who are keen to develop talent rather than just use their friends in each production (like some of the groups on this page). Opportunities to direct as well.

OU Light Entertainment Society
Email the president – [email protected]

Performance value: 9
Friendliness: 9
Next big thing? 1

A non-profit making drama society who are committed to providing entertainment for those who cannot travel to it. As the name suggests, there are no three hour long Greek tragedies here, but this recommends it to most. A light hearted dramatic society with more than their CVs on their minds. Join, indulge your inner thesp, and feel smug that you’re doing something worthwhile.

OU Classical Drama Society
Send your ideas to [email protected]

Performance value: 5
Friendliness: 7
Next big thing? 4

OUCDS is lesser known than its counterpart, OUDS, but this is not indication of the quality of its theatre. Originally established to promote the performance of classical plays in the original language and translation, it now supports several productions a year. If you’re a budding classicist thesp make sure you get involved; if not, don’t bother.

Oxford University Drama Society
Watch Romeo and Juliet, O’Reilly Theatre at Keble, Saturday 22nd November 8.30pm

Performance value: 7
Friendliness: 6
Next big thing? 8

Claiming to be the most vibrant student drama scene in England, OUDS is the umbrella organisation for Oxford drama and puts on over forty productions a term. Accolade aside, OUDS is terribly luvvie and more than just a little bit rah (if only in an ‘I left my Geordie vowels behind at 18, darling’ way). If you’re serious about acting, stay away from their committee and go for a lesser known production which doesn’t have their grubby paws all over it.

The Oxford Revue
Check out FEAR at OFS 20th-24th November

Performance value: 9
Friendliness: 9
Next big thing? 7

Almost the same idea as the Imps, but infinitely funnier and without the ego, the revue are a comedy group with more ambitious ideas than just improv. But don’t expect cutting edge experimental comedy; the imps know what they’re good at and they stick to it. The impressive list of alumni more or less speaks for itself…

Oxford Imps
Email [email protected] to be added to the audition list

Performance value 7
Friendliness4
Next big thing? 6

In South America it is common to hear back-packers refer to the ‘Gringo Trail’; the well-trodden routes that foreigners (‘gringos’) take through South America. You can easily tell when you are on the Gringo Trail by the availability of brownies and book exchanges, and the fact that the Israeli in the dorm bed next to you was on the same bus as you last week.

You realise you have strayed off the trail when you find that the town you are in isn’t endorsed by the Lonely Planet, the only transport out is once a day in the back of a truck, and cigarettes can be given to you as change.
Many gringos proudly boast of having ventured off the gringo trail, and I am guilty of this myself.

A New Zealander I met in Bolivia who had lived in the country for over 10 years looked at me with a mixture of horror and confusion when I informed him of my plans to get from Rurrenabaque, the main gateway to the Bolivian Amazon Basin, to Trinidad by bus instead of plane. “There’s nothing to see on the way” he told me, “and the roads are just dirt tracks through the jungle.” He was right and the journeys by minibus, bus, truck and motorbike were indeed the most uncomfortable of my life.

That said there is a reason why the gringo trail is so well-trodden. As exciting as it will later sound to your friends back home, it can be quite disturbing, to say the least, to be woken up on an overnight bus ride in the middle of nowhere by armed soldiers looking through your baggage with a search light. Not to mention that you might get quite hungry in off-trail parts of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador unless you develop a taste for guinea pig or don’t mind eating plain rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

There are different types of gringo, but the most annoying type is the pretentious gringo. He won’t mind the guinea pig – in fact he’ll seek it out just to prove it to you. This is the gringo who would never call himself a gringo, he is the free spirit hippy traveller who speaks good Spanish, doesn’t use the Lonely Planet, and, like the locals, has a packet of coca leaves in his bag.

For many indigenous Andean people the coca leaf has an importance comparable with tea in the UK. Just imagine if US foreign policy was to bomb the PG Tips factories. Coca leaves are still used by the miners of Potosi, where the silver that financed the Spanish empire was produced. In the hellish conditions of the mines, coca leaves give a lift similar to coca cola and cocaine, two of the most famous products of the coca leaf.

For South Americans, coca leaves seem to be the solution to any ailments. My friend got an eye infection whilst doing the Inca Trail and our guide proceeded to pour coca leaf tea into her eye. It didn’t help.

The coca leaf is one of South America’s many ubiquitous symbols. Another is the alpaca, which can be seen, eaten and worn throughout Bolivia and Peru. Alpaca is the generic meat of any ‘Menu Del Dia’ and most gringos will be sporting alpaca jumpers and hats to go with their gringo pants (ridiculous and unflattering, striped trousers worn exclusively by gringos). This includes the pretentious gringo who will certainly continue to wear them at home in order to prompt questions about his adventurous travels.

Gringos also enjoy drinking local beers, such as the Cusquena of Cusco and Arequipena of Arequipa, and then purchasing t-shirts with the logos on. The most dominant symbol of South America is the image of Che Guevara. I even spotted Che Guevara cigarettes in Peru. A pilgrimage to the remote part of Bolivia where he was killed and buried is definitely one of the highlights of the trail.

A sharp contrast to the pretentious gringo is the gap year traveller. You will find this gringo in the Irish bar, where he has bumped into friends from school. Gap year gringos will begin their travels with the utmost caution, fearing all locals and hiding their passports in their underwear.

They will also stay in large ‘party hostels’, which organise dressing up and going out to clubs that play English music. It prepares them well for the next three years at university. The gap year gringo will also ensure that their trip is fully recorded on Facebook, so they can keep in touch with friends in South East Asia.

Life on and occasionally off the gringo trail has its ups and downs but ultimately nothing beats it. I substantiate this claim by reference to the countless gringos who have missed their return flight to remain on the trail indefinitely. I met one gringo who was still moving after 8 years on the trail.

It took a hard earned place at Oxford University to make me fly home from Buenos Aires having landed in Mexico City nearly 5 months previously. There is no point trying too hard to get off the gringo trail; it’s South America, not the Costa del Sol.

You can go to the continent’s most amazing attractions, for example Laguna de Quilotoa in Ecuador, a crater lake 4000m high in the Andes, and sit watching the sun rise without a single gringo in sight. Or Machu Pichu, which I trekked to for 4 days, finishing early enough on the 5th day to see the sun rise through the ancient sun gate and fall across the historic Inca ruins.

Also on the gringo trail is one of the highest lakes in the world, Lake Titicaca, where the water, the sky and the cloudy Andean mountains were all so blue that I sat for hours trying to take them all in. We haven’t even mentioned the Amazon, where you can fish for piranhas, swim with pink river dolphins and fall asleep to the noise of the howler monkeys.

Despite their annoying, boastful behaviour, it’s easy to see why gringos are as proud as they come. Finally, a word of warning, if you visit South America make sure you have a good reason to come home…and make sure you buy the t-shirt.  

In 1909, explorer, naturalist, philanthropist, soldier and art collector Robert Sterling Clark planned an epic voyage of 3700 miles across China’s northern regions. However, a combination of the murder of his interpreter, the slight distraction of the Boxer Rebellion and the constant potential for imminent robbery made the completion of this impossible.

Clark, an interesting fellow, went on to found an internationally significant art collection, (the Clark Art Institute near Boston) and breed racehorses, but his journey is recorded both in text and in photographs in ‘Through Shen-kan: the account of the Clark expedition in northern China 1908-9′.

And thus, in 2009, to celebrate the centennial of the Clark expedition, a troupe from the Oxford University Exploration Club set out to recreate the route, (thankfully with the aid of modern transportation). Victoria Thwaites, human scientist, redoubtable voyager and ‘medical officer’ was one of them seeking to emulate Clark’s mix of gung-ho and scientific observation.

“The journey itself, (no longer limited to pack mules and porters), was a fantastic experience”. Threading their way along the Yellow River and following the same route that Clark and his compatriots took, (deduced from photographs in his manuscript with the help of the Chinese guide companies in Shanghai), in a plethora of vehicles meant that Victoria and her fellow travelers saw a dimension of China that other tourists certainly missed; aided by having Robert Sterling Clark as a constant, slightly acerbic traveling companion.

“Traveling through China and the Tibetan hinterland in the midst of Olympic fever was also fascinating”, says Victoria, whose course of study allowed her to use the expedition as a means of observing China and its ethnic groups post-Cultural Revolution. These regions of northern China were far from the traditional tourist routes; the sight of a red-haired Westerner, or indeed any Caucasian, was enough to draw crowds of fascinated onlookers and multiple photographs.

However, despite warm welcomes into homes and the incredible friendliness of the people, there were periods of trial. “A particularly interesting moment was traveling through the ruins of an earthquake-shattered Chengdu on a crowded minibus, just before another tremor struck”, related Victoria in a typically relaxed fashion.

This is not the end for Victoria’s exploratory urge; “I’m planning on doing something properly adventurous next year; kayaking in the Himalayas seems like a pretty good idea”. What with Victoria plotting the conquering of the known world, it seems reassuring to know that Ranulph Fiennes has a nascent successor.

Dame Vivien Duffield, arguably Britain’s leading philanthropist, is no stranger to the trials and tribulations of undergraduate life at Oxford. She herself began her degree in Modern and Medieval Languages at Lady Margaret Hall in 1963, when the presence of women in Oxford was still very much a novelty and 10 pm curfews were still very much enforced. Dame Vivien chuckles whilst reminiscing about her exploits playing backgammon into the early hours at Christchurch and then scaling the walls into LMH rather unsuccessfully, resulting in a broken arm, a 3 am hospital visit, and a very irate Jewish father (the entrepreneur Charles Clore who owned Selfridges).

Nevertheless, it is certainly fortunate for Oxford that Dame Vivien’s escapades left her intact to direct what she herself dubs ‘the campaign of campaigns’. This aims to deliver an almighty £1.25 billion to ‘sustain and enhance Oxford’, and to allow it to compete with the astronomical endowments of universities such as Harvard and Yale.

Launched in May, the campaign is backed by the Chancellor, Lord Patten of Barnes and Richard Dawkins among other notable alumni. With her characteristic chutzpah and impressive record there could be noone better suited for the job. ‘I’ve got one last big one in me,’ she says. ‘And this is the ultimate challenge. Oxford is everything rolled into one – it’s the British Library, it’s the National Gallery, it’s the Weizmann Institute. It’s got theatre.

It’s got everything. There is something for everybody.’ Her passion is infectious as she runs her fingers through her highlights in a theatrical way, becoming increasing vexed: ‘Why do middle-class English parents bleed themselves dry to send their children to private schools, and the moment they get to university, they won’t cough up?’ Without drawing a breath, she answers her own question: “It is this attitude we have that universities should be free. We have always taken them for granted. For a long time the colleges [at Oxford] didn’t even bother to raise money at all. It is a miracle that we have three or four universities among the world’s best. I don’t know how they do it.’ Refreshingly blunt, as always, she unabashedly proclaims: ‘I am a great elitist – for brains.’

Although of course committed to Oxford Dame Vivien has of course been engine behind a multiplicity of other noble causes, with tremendous success. She has been described my numerous people as ‘dangerous’ company, given her redoubtable reputation for conjuring money out of nowhere, and especially out of people’s own pockets. Her deep passion is, of course, opera, and she jokes that ‘Royal Opera House’ will be found engraved on her heart. It was she who was the driving force in the raising of around £100 million from private sources, most found within the pages of her own address book. Her money raising schemes included a gala performance of The Nutcracker in 1984 to raise money for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. “I had this mad idea of charging £5,000 for two tickets. It was a fortune. And we sold out, and raised £1m.’ Her major current project is the Clore Leadership Programme to train future leaders in arts management, which is helping to train the future generations of art leaders, inspired, she says, by the fact that ‘everything seemed to be being run by Antipodeans a few years ago.’

It is certainly not difficult to see why Dame Vivien achieves such remarkable results. What she lacks in stature she certainly makes up for in sheer force of personality. Whilst she may lament her age: ‘I’ve got a bus pass,’ her boundless energy and stamina are frankly alarming. With a plethora of charitable interests under her watch, a myriad of social engagements and five homes, she rarely spends more than two nights in a place. Even more important, she is a veritable social chameleon. Looking around her Chelsea flat the walls are festooned with images of the Dame. From the most glitzy gala event at the Royal Opera House, dripping in diamonds and discussing the last act of Onegin with Prince Charles, to interrogating Tessa Jowell about London’s bizarre 13 minute stint at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, to lunching with Mick Jagger in St Tropez; with each she is in her element.

At the drop of a hat she can turn on the most disarming of charm, with her deep smoky voice no doubt a devastating tool for schmoozing. However, when her patience is frustrated she readily admits to her consummate skill in ‘nagging and bullying.’ She certainly does not suffer fools glady: ‘England’s quite rich, but rich people here think everybody wants them for their opinions, not their money.’

Perhaps even more striking than Dame Vivien’s fabled ability to raise money is her even greater enthusiasm for giving it away. She has parted with an estimated £176 million from her various foundations and is still distributing $6 million a year. After putting £5.5 million of her own money into the reconstruction of the Royal Opera House she purchased Constable’s The Opening of Waterloo Bridge as a gift to the nation and given £2.5 million each to the Tate Modern and British Museum. To her the philanthropy is not a chore, rather, a pleasure. ‘I’m always saying how lucky I am that I can actually make people happy and do what one wants to do. Its part of Jewish ethics that one always looks after others.’

Nevertheless, on the subject of money, especially, she is refreshingly brusque. Emblazoned on a pillow behind her is the unabashed motto: ‘Better to be nouveau riche than no riche at all.’ Certainly, her advice on money is simple. ‘The only word of advice my father ever gave me was when I was 21 and they were letting women into Lloyd’s. He forbade me to join and said: ‘Never join anything you don’t understand. There is always someone cleverer than you.’

Perhaps the most striking feature about Dame Vivien is her total lack of self-righteousness, even given her own enormous personal generosity. Not once does she use the pious phrase ‘making a difference.’ All she does say, without a hint of sentimentality is: ‘It is the most wonderful gift in the world to be able to do things for other people.’ She repeats one of her favourite fundraising phrases: ‘Shrouds don’t have pockets.’ With this natural impresario at the helm, it certainly seems that Oxford’s future is in safe hands.