Members of Oxford Brookes’ University Rugby Club paraded in hunting uniforms, wore sex toys and attacked a woman’s car while she was with her two-year old daughter in a social on Cowley Road.
When police arrived at the scene they were also found parts of an animal carcass. The incident left members of the public intimidated and was described as “inappropriate and offensive”.
Despite a formal apology from the club President, Ronnie Gunson, Brookes University’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Janet Beer, said the matter was being taken “extremely seriously”.
Of all the performing artists, actors often seem to suffer from the greatest kind of inferiority complex. Perpetually eager to show us that it’s some kind of highly specialised skill rather than just good looks, the compulsion has been lengthily mocked in modern pop culture. Think Team America (‘Act, Gary, damnit, act!’), and you’re almost there: it’s getting a hilarious new slashing in Oxford’s own Rhys Jones’ and Rob Hemmens’ musical The Academy.
We follow the story of Amy (Rebecca Tay), a starry-eyed innocent who joins the rigorous training regime at the austere Academy of the Science of Acting and Directing (ASAD). A promising student, she seems set for stardom, but soon discovers that the school’s scientific methods may not be as clandestine as they first seemed, with the Headmistress’ overseeing strange goings-on in the off-limits ‘graduate area.’ Apparently, ASAD really exists somewhere in London and the idea for the musical was born when Jones and Hemmens first came across the school’s ominously sounding name in some promotional material.
The drama and music continuously verge on the farcical: there’s an all-singing all-dancing lesson on dying a convincing stage death (which scientifically distinguishes between the dramatic, self-sacrificial, romantic and screamy death), and a cheesy romance between Amy and head boy Will (Robin Thompson). The deal is clinched (or perhaps killed?) by the ‘hey-hey-heying’ chorus and nonsensical romance lines of the ‘tell me a story and make it come true’ type.
But most of the humour draws on the antagonist, the quick-tempered ASAD Headmistress (the vocally capable Emma Lewis), whose increasingly oddball plan for world domination Amy has to stop. Her belting tango hymn to the virtues of the scientific approach to theatre (‘Guided by your heart you won’t get far / follow me and you will be a star’) is a great evil genius anthem. It will be interesting to see how her plan is carried out when the production is staged in 6th week.
At the time of writing, the production was in early rehearsal stages, and looked like it was still finding its rhythm. The acting needs some brushing up, but if The Academy comes off, it could do to drama schools what The Producers did to show business… so watch out for it.
The Ashmolean Museum is due to close for a year while major redevelopment takes place.
The museum, founded in 1683, is the UK’s oldest public museum, and its collections range from Bronze Age tools to drawings by Michelangelo and Raphael.
Rick Mather, an award winning architect, has designed a new building that doubles the existing gallery space and features 39 new galleries, a new education centre, and Oxford’s first roof-top cafe.
The first mice have arrived for testing at Oxford’s new biomedical sciences research laboratory, as part of a staged plan to move animals in to the facility.
In July 2004 animal rights protesters from SPEAK halted construction until November 2005, after the University gained a court order restricting demonstrations to one day a week.
In the face of hostility Professor Alastair Buchan, head of Oxford’s medical sciences division, voiced his belief that the facility is a “significant step forward for biomedical research”.
Students at New College have expressed anger following an MCR decision to swap popular undergraduate housing with less popular MCR housing.
The Weston Building is a highly rated accommodation block, currently housing fourth years, but after the swap fourth years will have to live in the subsidiary Sacher Building.
A second-year student described the accommodation in the Sacher building as distinctly inferior.
He said that the Sacher building has “all separate rooms… they seem quite unfriendly and boxy.”
In contrast, students living in the Weston Building live in, “6 bedroom flats with patios looking over the sportsgrounds”.
Students at New College have claimed that the Governing Body gave the JCR very short notice about the vote.
A second-year student said, ” I think it’s just quite arrogant of college not to really consult the JCR first… it seemed like they were trying to do it so that the JCR didn’t notice it at all.
“I think it’s quite unfair that students applying will think that they’re going to receive good fourth-year accommodation and then not get it.”
Current students were initially angered over the swap because they feared that it would affect them during their time at the college.
At a JCR meeting on Sunday, FHA Rep Stephen McGlynn proposed a motion, seconded by JCR President Matt Ranger, stating the JCR’s opinion that the swap should be postponed until summer 2012, by which time all of the current students will have graduated.
The college’s original goal, according to the meeting minutes, was that “such a move would be completed by three years’ time” from Michaelmas term 2008 and that “college may complete this move before then”.
MCR President Thomas Addock also attended the JCR meeting. Entz rep Hardeep Rai said of the MCR’s participation, “we’re usually defensive and we don’t like change – but it was almost off-putting how nice they [the MCR] were. There has been dialogue about changes to the deadline… it’s actually nothing of the nightmare that we thought it might be.”
Michael Burden, the Dean, said that he had “nothing particular to say about the switch… it’s a very complex situation”.
The JCR President is scheduled for a meeting with the Dean on Wednesday the 12th.
I do not know enough about opera to say whether Isabella Cheevers, lead soprano in Lennox Berkeley’s A Dinner Engagement, is extraordinary or merely excellent. I know enough about theatre, though, to say this of her co-stars: bad acting looks even worse when set to music.
Additionally, I know enough about Oxford venues to wish that director and eminent thesp Max Hoehn had found anywhere – and I do mean anywhere – other than the Moser to stage this one-act comic opera. The technical explanation for such a small venue is that ‘young voices don’t carry’.
Well, if the audience can even hear the singers above Benedict Lewis-Smith’s excellent chamber orchestra, it will only be because countertenor Joe Bolger (who plays comic Cockney Mrs Kneebone with a kind of horrid friskiness) has no conception of the dynamics outlined in Berkeley’s 1950s score. His voice is extraordinary, but his performance much too self-satisfied. Casting the counter-tenor in a female role is the one interesting decision Hoehn has made.
The plot revolves around the visit of Grand Duchess (Cathy Bell) and her son (William Blake) to impoverished aristocrats George Coltart and Taya Smith. Smith, and Coltart in particular, both seem to think that opening eyes and mouth very wide constitutes acting. Blake has the tendency to move like a small, angry penguin, but sings divinely, in nice comic style. As an errand boy, Edmund Hastings gives the funniest performance, but unfortunately has only eight lines.
Isabella Cheevers doesn’t have a lot of voice (there are problems with aspiration and she’s a little weak above high F), but the voice she does have is outstanding. Combined with a welcome naturalness in her acting, she more than redeems the piece. Of the three stars which follow, one is for her, one for Berkeley’s witty, adventurous and allusive score, and one for the ambition of the director-conductor team.
You could do worse than see A Dinner Engagement: it has inspired me to see more opera. Just not this one.
I am currently playing Otto in Through the Leaves, a remarkable play about the relationship between a tripe butcher and a heavy drinking factory worker set in 1970s West Germany, written by that country’s most frequently performed living playwright. It is the most enjoyable, moving and funny play that I’ve been in, and I’m writing this because I want people to come who’ve never heard of Franz Xaver Kroetz.
Kroetz was born in Munich in 1946. In the ‘60s he attended drama school, and worked as a banana cutter, a truck driver, and an orderly in a mental hospital to support himself. In the ‘70s he became an active member of the German Communist Party, and in 1971 attained celebrity when productions of two of his plays were disrupted by neo-fascists, causing the German police to place guards around the theatre. His 1970s plays depict men and women reduced to silence by their social condition, and are remarkable for their unflinching realism.
Approaching Kroetz is difficult; his style might be Beckettian, his silences Pinteresque – but that doesn’t say very much at all. Playwriting is, of course, a literary activity, but being a playwright is also about making, about labour and scaffolding: there’s a lot of grafting involved that isn’t primarily literary, but has more to do with making the play work.
Reading plays comparatively is like assessing houses solely on their HIPS report: does it have cavity wall insulation? Does it have loft insulation? You can ask of a play: does it have meaningful silences?, or, is there a sink on stage? All you will get is a series of ticked boxes – but you can’t tell from them whether you’re dealing with a tower block or the Palace of Versailles.
What attracted me about Kroetz was not the undoubted literary achievement of his plays, but the root cause behind them. Through the Leaves was written at a time when German communism had extended, in a few extreme cases, into terrorism: the Red Army Faction, formerly known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, were at large in Germany and committing violent murders in the name of freedom, and Kroetz, like many of his communist contemporaries, became a target for neo-fascist groups.
He would leave the communist party in 1980, having drawn disapproval for his unheroic characters; but at this time, he was an avowedly political playwright, whose plays depicted the faults and weaknesses of a society he wanted to reform. His work is arresting and fascinating as a result of the passions that motivated it and the ideas behind it. Kroetz’s profile in England should be much higher: his plays deserve wider recognition for their passionate and moving intensity.
The overwhelming majority of Oxford students do not know when the OUSU elections are taking place and don’t even know who the presidential candidates are, a Cherwell survey has revealed.
Voting is due to open between Tuesday and Thursday next week, but only 17.8% of students knew that the elections are in sixth week, with some under the impression that they had already taken place.
Only 36% of those polled said that they intended to vote this year, despite the fact that online voting has been introduced by OUSU.
The poll also revealed that more than two-thirds of Oxford students cannot name any of the presidential candidates.
Luke Tryl, former President of the Oxford Union Society, is the most widely known, with 24% of students aware he is running.
Only 11% could name Stefan Baskerville, former JCR president of University College, whilst less than half that named John Maher, former JCR president of Keble College.
Baskerville appears to have the most backing at this stage, however, with the biggest proportion of those surveyed who intend to vote pledging him their support.
In a sample of almost 200 students, very few seemed fully informed on the upcoming election, with only three able to name all four candidates – a group which includes Aidan Simpson, the anti-tuition fees campaigner from Somerville College.
As further evidence of this, four students quizzed this week about the OUSU elections were under the impression that Lewis Iwu, the current OUSU President, was one of this year’s candidates.
Word of mouth
Many students claimed to only have heard of candidates because they had been invited to their Facebook groups or because they are in the same college as the candidate.
Of students polled at Keble, for example, 50% said they plan to vote for John Maher, their ex-JCR President.
The poll results left plenty of food for thought for the OUSU presidential candidates, with scores of apathetic students condemning the institution as hopeless and irrelevant.
One student even claimed to have no idea what OUSU was. Thomas Crawford, a first year Mathematics student, admitted, “I don’t even know what it is, to be honest.” He was not the only undergraduate to be somewhat oblivious to the current OUSU race.
James Gillard, a fresher from Jesus College, asked, “What relevance does this have to me? Doesn’t my JCR handle all of this? The ramifications of this vote have not been explained to me in any way.”
When asked for his opinion, a Worcesterite asked, “Are the elections even this term?”
Despite general apathy, however, turnout in next week’s OUSU elections is expected to substantially increase on previous years’ thanks to a complete reformation of polling.
Whereas previous polls were conducted by traditional balloting methods over a single day, this year’s poll will be carried out over three days and conducted entirely online.
Madeline Stanley, OUSU Returning Officer, revealed that each student will be sent a unique voter number which they will be able to use only once.
She stressed that she had upmost confidence in the new system, despite fears in some quarters that there could be teething problems.
“To give you some idea of the security this system has, it has been used by Westminster City Council and twenty local authorities,” she said.
“It could have been advertised better”
“Each individual’s vote is secure and moving to another computer won’t get you another vote.”
Many students, however, were unaware that they could now cast their ballots via the web.
“It could have been advertised better,” said one student, while another said that uncertainty about how to vote would probably stop her from bothering.
Others were encouraged by the change. “I don’t really care about OUSU, but if it’s online, why not?” quipped one student.
The vast majority of students, however, were unconvinced that their vote would make a difference to improving OUSU as an institution either way.
“I’ve never seen the effect of OUSU on my life,” said one voter, with another labelling OUSU “a little playground for people who want to put it on their CV.”
“It doesn’t matter who’s president, all the same things go on.”
Tears For Fears’ 1995 album, Everybody Loves A Happy Ending, could have been made for Donnie Darko. Its lilting melodies and bittersweet poetry are no less poignant than Mad World and no less nostalgic than Head Over Heels.
It is clear that Tears For Fears’ music in Donnie Darko had a massive impact on their career. Their previous release had been a best-of in 2001, with the last new work released in 1995. Curt Smith had left the band in 1990 and Roland Orzabal officially retired in 1996.
Basically, TFF was dead, and fans grieved. After Gary Jules released the single of Mad World, however, their old albums began flying off the shelf and they reunited to release an album, following it with a triumphant world tour.
Donnie Darko was riding the tip of the crest of a wave of 1980’s revival. Suddenly, enough time had passed for the 80’s to be cool again and TFF specifically were highlighted. They did not need the film to make them into a success, unlike Jules, they were already a success.
Donnie Darko merely reminded the public of the wonder and beauty of the best of a past era, complete with nostalgic images. Finally, there was more than one TFF song used, ‘Head Over Heels’ featuring in one of the most important sequences of the film.
So, the conclusion is clear. The career of Tears For Fears was thankfullly resurrected by the influence of the film: both are examples of popular culture reachimg the sublime.
It’s not often a kids’ movie makes an interesting point, but this time Pixar wasn’t afraid to step up to the mark and offend. In ninety minutes it cut us down to size, highlighting our selfishness, greed and apathy.
The film begins on earth, wholly deserted save for a little robot garbage collector named Wall-E and a planet-load of rubbish. He spends the first half hour of the film sifting through various relics of humanity which have now been left to rust.
One of the film’s many saving graces is its lack of celebrity; there are no Zach Efron or Lindsay Lohan voice-overs. Instead, the animated AI give themselves personalities through a mixture of cutesy anthropomorphism and endless repetitions of their names, hence ‘Waaaaallll-Eeee’.
The adventure continues, leaving behind the desert landscapes of our post-apocalyptic world for the endless beauty of outer space where WALL-E finds true love, makes a whole host of robot friends (such as BRL-A, a faulty mobile umbrella robot which has trouble keeping itself closed) and encourages the humans to return to earth.
It’s here social satire reaches its height, with the humans having spent so long in their robot-run, luxury spaceship that they have become too fat to move. Instead they lounge around in mobile deck chairs constantly watching television and eating fast food – not much has changed. The scene in which the spaceship tips to one side sending hundreds of obese, ball shaped people rolling across the floor is simply hilarious.
So WALL-E manages to successfully break the mould, simultaneously being visually stunning, a social satire and a heartfelt, funny children’s movie. This is more than just a film for all the family; this is a film for all of humanity. It’s high time we got up off our fat arses and did something with our lives before we reduce our planet to dust and expect someone or something else to pick up the pieces.
