Monday 15th September 2025
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Review: An Englishman Abroad

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‘He was English, he was upper-class, and he was drunk’: director Alev Scott’s production promises forty minutes of relentlessly dry, wry and witty observations of the English upper-classes.

A meeting is imagined between Guy Burgess – the infamous member of the ‘Cambridge Five’ – and Coral Browne – actress and socialite. Bennett’s script is soaked with social paradox, criticism and hilarity. Exiled to Moscow at the end of his life, Burgess is plagued by alcoholism and regret.

Browne becomes his link to London high-society. Alice Glover’s realisation of the character is utterly superb. She fluctuates between beautiful soliloquising, which draws a contested line between theatre and life, and a quick wit which undermines English and Russian society in turn – ‘If this is Communism, I don’t like it. It’s dull.’ She is the highlight of this production.

Tom Richards’ Burgess is the epitome of Englishness. With a voice as rich and robust as good port, his languid movement and relentless joviality finely captures his background – yet watching Hamlet, he admits that he did fall asleep. ‘Englishness’ is effectively mocked and celebrated.

It is only lamentable that such a performance comes at the expense of enough focus upon Burgess’ character. The ambiguity of his relationship with a young, male, Russian ballet dancer – ‘Am I a reward or a punishment?’ – was awkward and reluctant, whilst Frankie Parham, playing the lover, bordered dangerously on crude parody rather than subtle satire.

Several opportunities for affective realisation of Bennett’s dark social commentary upon the post-Cold War state were lost under the inanity of socialite dialogue. Yet the image of Browne taking Burgess’ suit measurements, his arms outstretched – a crucified martyr to his love for ‘Englishness’ – is particularly touching.

Four stars

Theatrical Thrills

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If I have to go see you act, there had better be a red carpet involved.’ Like Sex and the City’s Samantha, I am a theatre-sceptic (sorry boys, that’s pretty much all she and I have in common). 

On a bad day, I’ll be heard condemning the theatre as a world of unreal melodrama, postulating classicists and ‘short man syndrome.’ Its audience fares marginally worse. So Oxford’s drama scene has quite a task on its hands with me; think converting Alan Sugar to arthouse advertising.

 

I see you rolling your eyes at my pretentious and deliberately subversive attitude – totally unwarranted. I am that rare thing; a theatre critic whose priority is audience gratification. If more pleasure is to be derived from spending the ticket price on a Gü pudding lovingly devoured in the company of The Apprentice, then the performance has failed. A tough, if not not unattainable standard.

 

In my Oxford theatre-going career, just one show has made the grade. There is no better indicator of a production’s success than feeling a post-performance need to relive its greatest moments to long-suffering friends and family. And there is no better test of great comedy writing than seeing your makeshift audience doubled up with laughter, despite one’s clumsy delivery and sporadic fits of giggling. 

Judged by these criteria, Trinity Term’s The Oxford Revue and Friends at the Oxford Playhouse was one seriously Güd show. Not perfect, no, but there was more than enough brilliance to outweigh the bad, and the home team unquestionably stole the show. 

The audience was treated to a medley of sketches showcasing comedy talent from Oxford, Durham, and that lesser-known ‘university’, Cambridge. The material ranged from poetry to politics via the Famous Five, with J.K. Rowling’s sorting hat topping the bill. Magic.

 

Fortunately I am not guilty of committing the most unforgivable of journalistic acts, that is, singing the praises of a treat which can not be sampled by my readers. Far from giving a one-off performance, The Oxford Revue spoils us with fortnightly sketches at The Wheatsheaf. 

 

What I will say, is that the theatre setting makes the whole experience more special, more memorable, better at showing off the prodigious acting talent. The stars unquestionably hold their own on stage.

 

One quibble – scrap the final sketch of the show. I’m afraid war-related humour should be left to Blackadder. After all, it is what remains with the audience; and it is a great pity if an otherwise delicious offering leaves a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Royworld – Man In The Machine

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Royworld – bit of a boring name, isn’t it?

In fact, it’s the kind of name that would put someone off a band. It conjures up images of fat bearded men in their mid-thirties, living in Milton Keynes and making inoffensively dull music. I have no idea if the band members actually fit that description, but their music certainly does.
Man In The Machine is an album of ‘nice’ music. But being nice is bad. ‘Nice’ is the word that people use when they can’t think of any other description. If you introduce someone to your friends and all they can come up with is ‘yeah, he seemed nice…’ then that means your friend has the personality of a goldfish.

Just look at the ‘nice guy’ phenomenon, or Harry Enfield’s ‘Tim Nice-But-Dim’. They’re really not things that you want to be aspiring to, are they? Royworld is the musical equivalent of the nice guy who sits back, being nice, and watches as the girl he loves is swept away by the confident and suave jock, perhaps represented in this analogy by Razorlight.

This CD is the kind that you put on, and then instantly forget about. Nothing but silence-filler. I can’t really pick out many tracks which have any kind of distinguishing, stand out features. Title track ‘Man In The Machine’ is notable for having a really creepy voice in it, but I don’t think that was really the intention.

At times they go for an epic sound similar to Sigur Rós, but inevitably fail miserably. ‘Astronaut’ starts with a glimmer of possibility, which is then cruelly extinguished by horribly synthesised voices, the kind of thing that Air or Björk would go in for during one of their more deranged moments.

So give yourself up to Razorlight’s advances, even though the guilt will set in with the first post–coital cigarette. At least it’ll be more interesting that this album.

Two stars

Interview: The Ting Tings

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I’m meeting the Ting Tings at their finest hour. Last night, after their success at the Radio 1 Big Weekend, their single ‘That’s Not My Name’ reached Number 1. They seem unable to believe it has actually happened.

At seven in the evening, they are also still impressively hung over from a night of celebrating back home in Manchester. Katie White, the lead singer and guitarist, explains that it still doesn’t seem real; they don’t feel any different in themselves from last week or even last month.

The Ting Tings were first unleashed on the Introducing Stage at the Glastonbury Festival last year. Both played in smaller bands before finally teaming up in early 2007.

Working in other bands was an unpleasant experience, but learning to ignore other people’s advice seems to have been the lesson. ‘We knew we didn’t want any producer telling us what to do,’ says Jules, ‘because to us, that’s killing it.’

The duo are itching to do everything themselves, from tinkering with the instruments, to taking their own promotional photos, to creating their own vinyl sleeves. ‘We created these playful, customised sleeves from older ones, so people could compare and see what they got, like oh, I’ve got Elvis, what have you got? Depeche Mode.’

I ask if this is a backlash against the way pop has been going for the past decade. They agree, with another invective against producers, before adding that it’s also of a move away from the typical four–piece Manchester sound, where everything was created and marketed along similar lines.

‘Everyone makes music in Manchester, probably ’cos it’s such bad weather all the time, people spend loads of time in their bedrooms,’ laughs Katie, ‘but we’ve really tried to move away from that whole Smiths thing. I think we sound the least like a Manchester band!’

In fact, their whole rise to fame has come about in the least traditional way possible. Their success has largely been due to the internet, where their songs were available for free long before their first single was released.

Katie is an inveterate MySpace user, who takes feedback from fans and even virtually DJs on her nights off – like last night, playing unsigned records she’d been sent from Berlin. ‘That kind of contact is phenomenal, breaking down the barrier that producers put in your way.’

I sense trouble for producers in the future, particularly since the Ting Tings have conclusively proven that you don’t need a hired suit to make it in the music industry. But what about the Radiohead approach? Is taking away the price–tag really the way forward?

Katie hesitates before answering: ‘I think it’s fine for those bands to do that sort of thing, but if you’re a small band, with a smaller fan–base, you don’t really have the clout to do that.’ Or the money to fall back on if it goes wrong, I suggest.

But their appearance on the lucrative festival circuit may change all that. Apart from Glastonbury, they’re appearing at Benecassim, various smaller festivals in Japan, and the United States.

All very exciting, but what are they aiming for after that? Neither of them really knows. ‘The music you make is part of one period,’ says Jules, ‘maybe six months of your life. You can’t go back to it. But we know we want to keep on connecting with a wide range of people and making our own stuff. We want to change the way people think about pop, so it’s a creative kind of music again.’

Raw, unpolished, infectiously catchy – the Ting Tings have definitely got the new pop sound sewn up.

Review: Jules et Jim

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Jules et Jim presents perhaps the epitome of Nouvelle Vague (or New Wave) film: unknown actors, real-life sets, natural lighting, and bags of improvisation – all in all (and very much in the student spirit) a low-budget production. As such, it’s a brilliant effort.

Leg-fetishist director and producer François Truffaut wished to move away from the artificial, grandiose tradition of le cinéma du papa to create something a little closer to home. Based on Henri-Pierre Roché‘s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, Jules et Jim takes an unconventional stance on what could otherwise have been a horribly cliché love-triangle.

Set around the First World War, with authentic wartime footage and newsreel-style voiceovers, you can‘t help but admire Truffaut‘s stylistic choices: he was a firm believer in the notion of le caméra-stylo, the idea that cinematography isn’t just art for art’s (and entertainment’s) sake, but a means of expression for the writer himself.

On a more technical note, however, the concept of the caméra léger (or light/travelling camera) meant that Truffaut could shoot longer detail-based scenes on the move (very hi-tech for 1962), most notably in a ‘search for signs of civilisation’ shot.

And of course, a Truffaut is not a Truffaut without a freeze frame (or four) thrown in for good measure – beautifully done; and if you don’t have your wits about you, you might just miss the most subtle one of them all (I’ll give you a clue: it’s of Jules and Jim…).

Oscar Werner, Henri Serre and Jeanne Moreau who play the roles of Jules, Jim and Catherine respectively, impressively capture the essence of each character and, given Truffaut’s hands-off approach to directing, deliver many a poignant scene in a spectacularly befitting manner that makes for a lasting impression on the audience.

And, if you can’t quite get enough of this fabulous trio, Truffaut’s other Nouvelle Vague films include the semi-autobiographical Les Quatre Cents Coups said to have launched the French New Wave, Les Mistons, a parody short-film of The Misfits, and the legendary A Bout De Souffle co-written with Jean Luc Godard.

Despite its age, Nouvelle Vague remains as fresh as its first conception, allowing Jules et Jim’s endurance and re-release.

Four stars.

Review: Sex And The City

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The makers of the hit television programme Sex and the City sat in a bright, air conditioned room in a high rise office block, sipping mineral water (still), and discussing their next move.

‘Right – we’ve got twenty six minutes of material: Carrie’s getting married, the other girls are having relationship difficulties as usual (I assume), and it’s in New York- the Big City’. ‘Don’t forget the Sex’. ‘Oh yeah. Lots of sex.’ ‘Soooooo… we need another two hours. What shall we do?’ ‘Dresses. Big ones, little ones, ones with straps, ones without. Give each one a five minute close up, and we’re there.’

And so, one rather boring idea was stretched into a very long catwalk of a film. A flat catwalk, with no undulations, no troughs and no peaks, across which Carrie and her gal-pals were invited to parade up and down. They didn’t even trip, Naomi style.

There were some lovely shoes on show: Manolos, Jimmis, Vuittons, Chanels – all of which were slipped on and paraded before our footwear hungry eyes. Mmm. If you don’t like shoes so much, there are always the bags; and the restaurants, and the cocktails look divine. And New York, Oh! New York – ‘A place a girl goes to find two things: labels and love.’

These are the reasons to watch this film. Stroll in, sit down, and allow material beauty to diffuse through your eyes, activating the sexiness centre in the brain (the amygdala).

For the full aesthetic experience, you could even bring earplugs: there shouldn’t be much else to distract you. You’d do well to ignore the music. This film concentrates on the visual, at the expense of everything else: there were at least three (long) scenes that focused entirely on the trying-on and strutting-around-in designer costumes.

If watching a gaggle of quatrogenerians guzzle champagne and spying on Sarah Jessica-Parker crawl tiger-like across the floor is your glass of margarita, you’ll lap up Sex and The City like a spinster in a singles bar, much as the ‘girls’ did at the low points of their lives.

I would describe the plot, but I lost it about fifteen minutes into the film. There was something about a marriage, some other stuff about a cheating husband, and I think someone mentioned a baby at some point, but couldn’t tell you for sure. Every twenty minutes a sex-scene was shoved in: this was a reverse porn film – nudity taking the place of any actual characterisation or storyline.

There’s very little in this film to recommend. The storyline is predictable and facile, as are the jokes. Even if you’re a hardcore fan, wait for the DVD. It has a great fast-forward function.

One star

It’s just not cricket

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In the world of sport, a sudden emphasis on physical attributes has sprung up. Gone are the days when the late George Best played boozed-up wing-man in a Manchester nightclub on the Friday night, only to become a dazzling winger at Old Trafford the following afternoon.

 

Several of the nation’s sports have been criminally subjected to a sub-standard quality of competitor, with clubs substituting six-pack stomachs for skill. For anyone who finds swallowing this new mindset tougher than a wrestler’s breast tissue, perhaps korfball is an option.

 

 That’s not to say there are eight Andy Fordham body doubles shuffling around the court, but teamwork and tactics are the attributes which gain prominence.  As Rosie Hart, captain of OUKoC explains, ‘it’s much more a tactical game than a show of brute strength.’

 

It is easy to see why. No running, no dribbling, no contact. Indeed, the focus is heavily on a passing game, with attempts to basket the ball only allowed if a defender is not in a position to block the shot.

 

Given that it was founded by Dutch schoolteacher Nico Broekhuysen in the early 20th century, Korfball’s all-inclusive nature should be expected. It is the only truly unisex sport, with four of each gender lining up in an eight-person team.

 

The archetypal ‘fat kid’ won’t be placed in defence the whole game either, as the four attackers and four defenders swap after every two goals – something which Rosie Hart believes ensures the sport’s mammoth popularity: ‘This together with the fact that the vast majority of  people haven’t even heard of korfball before they reach university  helps attract a much wider range of people than any other sport.’

 

Unlike Aussie Rules, which was spotlighted a fortnight ago, korfball has no players from the two countries in which the sport is most prominent – Holland and Belgium; an odd pair of countries, given their flat lands and korfball’s extremely high baskets: they’re over a foot and a half higher than the regulatory basketball and netball variations.

Clearly the sport is translating well to other countries, as the plethora of nationalities which compose the Oxford University squad have experienced recent success, winning two out of the last three Varsity encounters and finishing an impressive 2nd in the BUSA Nationals.

 

Korfball is a game which many people enjoy and gain success in regularly. And there isn’t an African defensive midfielder in sight.

Summer Eights victory for Balliol

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A stunning Summer Eights performance from Balliol College saw them seize the men’s headship for the first time in over half a century. Thousands of spectators lined the banks of the Isis last Saturday to see the victorious crew squeak past Oriel, whilst Teddy Hall retained the women’s headship with a thoroughly dominant display.

It was a worthy finish to one of the most competitive Summer Eights contests in recent years, climaxing with the two leading men’s crews on the river battling it out stroke for stroke down the finishing straight.

 

Roaring past the boathouses, the powerful Oriel crew had pushed right up on Balliol and were soon overlapping them by a foot. Balliol cox Zhan Su however bravely steered his boat away from its hot pursuers as his crew held their advantage all the way up to the line, sending their chasing supporters racing joyously back down the riverbank with their arms triumphantly aloft.     

By all accounts it was a deserved victory for an experienced crew who enjoyed a sensational blade-winning performance at Torpids earlier this year, confirming the club’s dominance throughout this year. Although much of the pre-race hype had focused on a Christ Church crew stacked with Blues oarsmen and an Oriel boat that included 36-year-old American World Cup gold medalist Michael Wherley, Balliol demonstrated outstanding technique and rhythm bordering on the sheer mechanical to go the head for the first time since the spring of 1956. 

It marked the end of Magdalen’s own stranglehold on the headship since 2004, as they slid down to a disappointing fourth place on the river, whilst the hotly-tipped Pembroke also dropped from second to fifth after breaking their rudder on the first day. The fall of both crews, both extremely talented, can be attributed chiefly to an impeccable standard of Eights at the top of the men’s division unseen in recent years. 

 

There was a similar show of immaculate rowing in the Women’s Division I, with much of the praise deservingly being showered on what proved once again to be a formidable Teddy Hall crew. Racing to retain the headship, the result was quite simply never in doubt, as they comfortably outclassed the boats behind them with an exhibition of strength that no-one in the division could match.  

Finishing off the week as they had started it – ahead of Christ Church – their captain Helen Taylor was absolutely delighted with finishing head of the river for the third successive year. ‘It’s absolutely incredible,’ she said. ‘We didn’t expect to be able to row that well.’

 

Reflecting on the margin of their victory on a windy last day, she admitted: ‘I don’t know where that came from. We had been rowing well all week, but that last row-over just felt so good. It’s amazing.’

As the winning crews toasted their success however, others were forced to ponder a more subdued Summer Eights. Amongst the disappointed men’s crews were Keble, who suffered the indignity of ‘spoons’ having being bumped down every day from seventh to eleventh on the river. Exeter only escaped the dubious award themselves by holding off Wadham on the final day to cling onto the last spot in Men’s Division I.

 

Meanwhile Worcester were left thanking their lucky stars, having fulfilled all the pessimistic pre-Eights predictions by being comprehensibly bumped on the first three days. Having dropped a horrifying ten places down the river during Torpids last term, they were saved from their second successive set of spoons when Trinity were bumped just as they were closing in on them, securing blades for a veteran Wolfson crew who were the stand-out boat of Division II. 

 

Amongst the women, it was Somervile who went home with a new set of cutlery, as they plummeted from fourth to eighth in Women’s Division I, whilst their rivals Osler-Green rose two places to third.  

Climbing back into Oxford rowing’s top tier was a rejuvenated New College M1, although much of the limelight was dedicated to the progress of the galactico oarsmen in Christ Church’s boat. Brimming with Blues and American graduate students from their affiliated Kellogg College, the aptly nicknamed ‘Gunship’ even paddled up to the start on the first day uniformly clad in khaki vests and tin helmets.

 

Despite three bumps over the course of the week however, they were to be denied blades after Oriel caught Pembroke ahead of them on the second day.

 

It would prove to be the major talking point of this year’s Summer Eights, after it later emerged that Oriel had in fact subbed in their coach, former Great Britain rower Henry Bailhache-Webb, after one of their rowers was struck down by illness – despite Webb having never studied at Oxford University.

 

The controversy saw both the Pembroke and Christ Church men’s crews taking to the water on the third day wearing t-shirts reading ‘I’m at Oxford,’ as Oriel received loud choruses of boos whenever passing the infuriated spectators around the Pembroke and Christ Church boathouses.

 

Oriel Men’s Captain David Woods declined to comment, but it is believed that his crew escaped reprimand due to the fact that Webb was subbing in for a current GB rower and so was not technically improving the rowing standard of the boat.  

 

Webb was back to watching from the bank, however, when his crew were later held off by Balliol to round off a truly memorable week.

Not-So-Golden Brown?

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Crewe, May 22 2008: the day and place in which Gordon Brown’s premiership may have passed the point of no return.

 

For most of the university students of Britain, this will come as no great shock; you resolved never to tick that box with the rose next to it ever again after it whacked an extra £3,000 a year onto your university expenses. Over the ten years past, however, Labour’s control of British politics had been virtually unassailable.

 

Despite the war, foot and mouth disease, petrol strikes and dodgy dossiers,  people largely had confidence in the government. The bedrock of Labour success, combined with an ineffectual opposition, was a sound, nay flourishing economy, which defined the party’s rhetoric for a decade.

But Melvyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, made clear last week that the good times are over. Unemployment is rising, oil has hit $125 a barrel, and inflation is running at around 4%.

 

All of this can be blamed on global economic forces and dishonest bankers rather than the government. For the voters of Crewe and Nantwich, however, the culprit is clear: Gordon Brown, who would perhaps be forgiven were it not for the 10p debacle that consigned no fewer than 22 million of us to higher tax.

 

According to a Guardian/ICM poll published last Tuesday, Labour are a shocking 14 points behind the Conservatives – worse than at any time since May 1987, just before Margaret Thatcher won her third election by a landslide. The poll also asked voters to compare Brown to David Cameron; the latter leads Brown by a 21 point gap today. 

 

In pursuit of ‘triangulation’ and that supposed political nirvana of ‘Middle England’, Labour has become unrecognisible to its core voters. On inheritance tax, on income tax, on immigration, on anti-terrorism legislation, Gordon Brown has maintained the shoddy New Labour practice of stealing the Right’s clothes.

And here we return to Crewe. The people of this old industrial railway seat, which has delivered a Labour MP for the past sixty years, felt out of touch with their longtime party and thus delivered a real blow to Labour by electing a Tory MP last Thursday.

 

Yet Gordon may be able to reverse this if he reconnects with the core vote. Why not deliver on that pledge to build 3 million new homes? Why not work on his target of eliminating child poverty by 2020, something the Rowntree Foundation says he will fall well short of? What of the pledge for a renewed constitutional settlement?

 

Drag it out of the mindless tedium of committee discussion and bring it to the people. There are potentially a further two years of this government, and if Brown is bold, he can at least make them  two years to remember.

Democracy in Africa

May 25 2008 was the 50th Anniversary of African Liberation Day, which was founded by the leaders of independent African states at the first conference held to mark their freedom (uhuru) from colonial rule in Accra, Ghana, in 1958.  During the intervening five decades, the hopes of what independence would bring were dashed on the rocks of authoritarian rule and economic collapse. 

 

However, a tentative process of recovery since the early 1990s suggests that,  as in 1958, Africa now stands at a crossroads.  African countries are more likely to make good on this new opportunity if foreign governments maintain the pressure on African leaders to democratise, but Western governments should not overplay their hand.

 

African Liberation Day was established with three main aims.  First, to celebrate the achievement of those states that had already gained independence.  Second, to highlight the plight of those countries that at the time were still labouring under forms of colonial rule.  Finally, to demonstrate and reinforce pan-African solidarity and to critique Western imperialism. Sadly, many of these aims remain unfulfilled. 

 

Although there is no one ‘Africa’, but rather a collection of remarkably diverse states, the depressing fate of the continent has resulted in its becoming synonymous with famine and conflict in the public consciousness. 

 

With a few exceptions – including Botswana and Mauritius – external domination during colonial rule was replaced either by civil conflict or by military rule and single-party dominance.  While Africa finally became ‘free’  with the end of apartheid in South Africa in the early 1990s, many African states remain so desperately poor that their independence is compromised by their economic reliance on foreign powers. 

 

African governments now find that economic policy is largely dictated by the IMF and the World Bank; a subordinate position in the global economy makes it virtually impossible to go it alone.

 

Since the early 1990s, however, things have started to change. The remarkable commitment of African peoples to democracy, the weakening of authoritarian regimes, and the encouragement of the international community have resulted in political liberalization. 

 

Most African countries now hold multi-party elections, and many have started on the long road to economic recovery.  However, African elites in countries including Kenya, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe have shown that they are not yet ready to play by the rules of the democratic game.

 

Both Western and African governments have an important role to play in persuading these elites to relinquish their grip.  Democratic African leaders must not let their commitment to pan-African solidarity gag them from speaking out against human rights abuses perpetrated by African leaders. 

 

The US and the UK must not allow their war on terror to promote supportive relationships with friendly authoritarian governments such as those in Kenya and Ethiopia.  African and Western governments should coordinate to protect pro-democracy activists and demand that leaders respect their own constitutions.

But it is naïve to think that foreign governments, whether African or Western, can ensure successful democratisation.  They are far more effective at immediate regime change than at securing long-term stability, as demonstrated by the painful case of Iraq. 

 

Robert Mugabe has shown that authoritarian rule can be maintained in the face of international condemnation and domesticeconomic collapse, so long as leaders are sufficiently devious and self-serving. Instead, African populations must devise new ways to hold their leaders accountable, and African leaders must allow their power to be constrained. 

 

Genuine democracy in Africa can only come from within.