‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore is brimming with sexual violence: the dominance of men over women. The play charts the story of Giovanni’s incestuous lust-fuelled seduction of his sister Annabella and her subsequent marriage. Using techniques such as televised porn, director Sam Pritchard has tried to move the Jacobean play into the modern day, and updated it to reflect our society’s ongoing obsession with sex and scandal.Set in an upper- middle class household, the play aims to confront society’s view of women as sex objects. On stage, in the action, it succeeds. Matt Orton’s Giovanni is electrifying. His passion, rage and sexual energy is revealed as much by the intensity of his silences as by the intense violence in grasping his sister’s face in his hands and growling the declaration of his perverse love. Annabella, played by Charlotte Bayley, is the perfect portrait of a woman whose dignity, as well as her body, has been defiled by her brother’s sexual aggression. She seems to give herself willingly to him, but her tremor of fear as Giovanni touches her reveals her terror, a terror as much at her own submission as at her brother’s assault. The directing is at its best here too; Pritchard lets us dwell on Annabella, alone in her bed, her face buried in her hands, her body racked by sobs. The aftermath is revealed to be as important as the act.With this sensitivity revealed in the acting itself, the flashes of pornography that bridge the scenes are strikingly gratuitous. It is almost as if the director fears that we won’t understand the play’s point. Yet making it explicit in the grainy shots of sex acts detracts and distracts. Also bizarre was the decision to make the sinister Friar into a religious talk- show host. It detracted from the power of the play, and skewed the focus of criticism. Is the play attacking the moral hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, or of chatshow hosts? Either is a fair target, but by conflating the two, the concentration is lost, and the intensity blurred.The acting remains top-notch though. Will Cudmore puts in a fantastic, sinuous, dangerous performance as Vasques, and Charlotte Norris’ Putana reveals that woman’s complicity in sexual violence is just as demeaning as man’s sexual aggression. ‘Tis pity that the production sometimes submits to the desire to shock the audience – not just that she’s a whore.By Timothy Sherwin

William Hedley, 18, is one of the first ever boys to hold an offer for St Hilda’s. The Shrewsbury School pupil spent last Saturday afternoon exploring his new turf at an open day organised for those with conditional offers for Michaelmas 2008. Will has heard mixed reports of what the Hilda’s girls have in store for him and admits that he’s not quite sure what to expect come October. Will’s friends are clearly optimistic about the prospect of him going to a former all-girls’ college. “I made a bet with one of my school friends. If I don’t sleep with 20 girls by the end of first year I have to take him on holiday,” says Will.St Hilda’s has repeatedly refused to give out any figures regarding how many boys they’re expecting to take at the start of the academic year, and estimates vary wildly. However, according to Will, about 20 of the 50 who attended the open day were boys.Having initially applied to Wadham to read German, Will got pooled to St Hilda’s during the application process. His memories of the interview period are somewhat jaded:“It was horrible weather and I went out the night before because I’d thought my interviews were over.”“I was annoyed only because I wanted to go home and thought I wouldn’t have to go through any more interviews and questioning – but St Hilda’s itself wasn’t a problem and the interview there went really well. At the Open Day, I talked to lots of other boys who had been pooled there and some of them said they had been disappointed at where they had been sent.“Even a girl said that when she was applying somewhere else, she had thought of Hilda’s as a ‘drop-out’ college and hoped she wouldn’t end up there. Unlucky for her, then, I guess.”Will has said that the Open Day on Saturday was well organised, but that it was clear the College was still adjusting to change.“In some areas, it was a bit obvious that it had been a girl’s college for decades,” he says, “especially with sport. They took a lot of pride in showing us the netball and tennis facilities, but there’s nothing there for boys yet.“They didn’t say much about the fact that taking boys is a big change for the college except to say that accommodation will be mixed when we arrive.”Luise Birgelen, JCR Sport’s Rep at St Hilda’s said that students are doing what they can to make provisions for the male cohort when they arrive in Michaelmas. “We are doing our best to accommodate new male members of the college,” she said. “Because there will be so few initially, however, we’re anticipating having to set up corporations with other colleges.“Also, St Hilda’s has been successful in securing sponsorship for women’s sports this year and we’re hoping to have a similar situation in 08/09 where financial support will help the college adapt to an increasing number of male members. However, as the process of introducing boys at St Hilda’s will obviously be staggered over a number of years, changes to college facilities will also have to be a gradual process,” she said.JCR President Sam Gisborne has said that St Hilda’s JCR is proposing to alter its constitution to allow a male welfare officer and a male sports officer to be elected, among other new roles which will help to inaugurate the new arrivals at the college.She also said that St Hilda’s had spent considerable time in discussing provisions for a single-sex block of accommodation for female students who felt it was their right to request it, having joined the college unaware that men would be accepted as students during their course.“This issue was discussed at length in Michaelmas 2006 and the idea of a single sex block was rejected on the grounds that it would be a logistical nightmare and that there wouldn’t be enough volunteers to fill the rooms. Instead the JCR agreed that there should be single sex corridors throughout the first year accommodation in the initial intake in 2008.”

In May last year, Cherwell broke the news that our student union had copied a crucial document from the student union of another university. The OUSU Rent Document, which is supposed to provide helpful advice for Oxford’s JCRs in negotiating rent increases with colleges, was found to be 80 percent identical to the Cambridge’s Student Union (CUSU) version.It was striking not just because it had been copied in the first place, but because it had been done with such utter incompetence; several references to ‘Cambridge’ and ‘CUSU’ remained in the text when even a basic ‘find and replace’ would have removed them.At the time, then OUSU President Alan Strickland explained it away as an administrative error: the wrong version of the file had been uploaded onto the website. This was at least plausible, however unlikely it seemed. OUSU promised to rectify their mistaken immediately and all was forgiven and forgotten.Nine months later, the same rent document is finding its way into the pigeon-holes of JCR Presidents and Treasurers. It has been amended somewhat cynically to remove the explicit references to Cambridge, but even with this blatant detail excepted, the document is still 78 percent identical.
As OUSU Rent Officer Dom Weinberg tells us encouragingly, “I also changed the order of the guide and made an overview page.” It’s nice to know that our elected officials put so much effort into these matters. It is difficult to decide what is most shocking about this. There is the fact the rent officer deigned to remove the named references to Cambridge, yet did not feel it necessary to alter the document any further. Then there is the absurdly unapologetic reaction to the revelation that, despite much flapping and red-faced apologising after the original expose, the bloody thing still hasn’t been changed.Despite the stereotypes, Oxford is not 78% identical to Cambridge. It is an absurd failure of our student union to not only hand out advice originally written for another university, but to neglect to rectify it when prompted. Fix it.

Proposals for a new indoor tennis court on Iffley Road have come up against fierce opposition from locals, including Professor of Theology, Andrew Linzey.Professor Linzey said, “We are not opposed to development on the sports ground per se, what we are opposed to is huge, ugly buildings in a conservation area.“Surely the University can do better than an ‘up-turned sink’ design. It is in the University’s own interest to come to an understanding with local residents.”The plans show a centre just over 25 feet high to be located on the University sports ground which, from some positions, would obscure views towards the city centre. The large, six court indoor tennis building would be built just next to the rugby pitch and very close to a nearby main road. Designs include plans to dig out the area adjacent to the road so the building can stand lower, but the roof still would still stretch a few metres above the fence. The current wooden fence bordering the site would be replaced by tall iron railings.A spokesperson for the University said, “The planning application was registered by the City Council on 15 January and provided residents with the full statutory consultation period to consider and respond to proposals.”She added, “Comments that were made have been taken into account in the final proposals where possible.” However,  members of the Iffley Area Residents Association have said that they feel this response is simply not good enough.Professor Linzey has teamed up with the Association in a stand against the plans. David Barton, Chair of the Association said, “The view from the road beside it will be of a very large, ugly grey zinc roof, divided by lighting panels, stretching back across the field for 33 metres. In our view, the designers haven’t considered the impact of implementing these plans at this particular location, given that it is situated within a conservation area, and close to the Grade 1 Listed building of St John’s Church.”In their submission as a Residents Association, Professor Linzey and co-members will suggest that the building is poorly designed and highly unsuited to the location. They will do so along with those who live opposite the site on Marston Street.Nearby resident Sarah Wild said, “The University obviously cannot have both indoors and the outdoors in the same place because of the restriction at the Iffley Road site; so the answer would be to have a split site – one with primarily indoor and one with primarily outdoor facilities.”The objections of the Resident’s Association will be heard formally at a consultation to be hosted by Oxford City Council. A spokesperson for the Council commented on planning procedures. “As part of the normal planning process we have consulted residents and their comments will be taken into consideration when the application is reviewed,” he said.Oxford University held a public exhibition of the plans at the University Rugby Club pavilion this week where Professor Linzey and the rest of the Association were invited as guests. However, the next discussions concerning the application are not to take place until March.

Oxford is to award scholarships to Middle Eastern journalists.The Mona Megalli Fellowship, part of the Reuters Foundation Fellowship Program, is open to mid-career journalists from the Middle East.The program commemorates Mona Megalli, a prominent Egyptian-American Reuters journalist who died in 2007 after a long illness. Applicants are asked to submit details of their research topics, and should have five years' professional journalistic experience, minimum. The last day to apply is March 30.by Andreas Televantos

About 200 members of the group Pro-Test marched in Oxford on Saturday to declare their support for animal testing for scientific purposes and to demonstrate against “fear and intimidation” from animal rights groups.
Pro-Test is a group founded in January 2006 by sixteen year-old Laurie Pycroft, in support of the building of a new biomedical research facility in South Parks road, which is now nearing completion. The organisation’s three main aims are to “defend the rights of researchers to work in peace”; to “celebrate the successes of animal research in developing treatments for disease”; and to “communicate a better understanding about animal research to non-scientists everywhere”.
The rally began at noon with speeches made twice along Broad Street and then again at the biomedical facility. The Pro-Testers marched along Broad Street chanting, “No more fear, animal research wanted here.”
The rally was a peaceful affair until one man came to the front of the crowd and shouted while Dr Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, was speaking. The shouter was escorted away by the police.
Dr Harris said, “There was someone heckling but I didn’t hear. The point was that I had a microphone and he didn’t. He is entitled to his freedom of speech, and he has a perfectly legitimate ethical point of view.”
But he went on to say that the arguments advocated by animal rights activists are “completely wrong in some of the pseudo-scientific arguments they use”.
“It is still factually correct that animal testing is a necessity,” he added.
Evan Harris said that the Pro-Test campaign “has been an overall success, showing the public of both the necessity and the benefits of the laboratory.”
Harris’ continued support for the laboratory was backed by Tom Holder, an Oxford student and one of the main organisers of the march.
Holder believes that there are widespread misconceptions about animal testing and argues that “it should go ahead for better welfare for the scientists and the animals."“It is something about which people don’t always consider all the facts,” he said. “A lot of people still think cosmetic testing is carried out, this is categorically not true. Cosmetic testing has been illegal in the UK since 1999."
In 2006, after gathering 500 signatures in a matter of days, Pro-Test forced OUSU to hold an university student-wide referendum on animal testing. 90.4% of the votes backed a motion supporting animal testing and the building of the Oxford laboratory.In 2008, the march attracted only 200 supporters, in contrast to the 600 of 2006. However, Holder still maintained that the decrease in numbers also shows how Pro-Test is winning the debate.
“It is becoming an increasingly uncontroversial issue with the public mood now one of acceptance. Perhaps this was reflected in the turn out at the march; people are becoming less involved,” he said.
However, a spokesperson for SPEAK, an organisation which campaigns for animal rights, dismissed both the importance of the march and the completion of the new biomedical facility.
She denied that the Pro-Test movement was making headway with the public. She said, “The very poor attendance at the demonstration illustrates that the public do not support the mutilation and brutalisation of animals in the name of so-called science.”
“We are quite ready for the next phase of our campaign to change the facility from an animal torture institution to one for alternatives for animal testing,” she added.
A notice on SPEAK’s website urges supporters to protest at its “Oxford Degree Days Demo” on the 1st March.
Watch the Cherwell24 Video report of the rally.

Review by Frankie Parham 

Evidently February is the month when everyone is up the duff.  While a teen-flick about pregnancy, Juno, is raking in the box office profits, Katie McGettigan has directed an equally triumphant production of Amelia Whittington’s Be My Baby.  

Set in 1964, we follow the progress of nineteen year-old Mary Adams (Alexandra Hedges), now in her seventh month of pregnancy, unmarried and forced by her prim mother (Frances Rose) to live in a private hospice. Despite the unsympathetic Matron (Camille Watts), the dreary institution has its comforts: Mary befriends three other inmates, similarly all heaving their literal and emotional burdens. Dolores (Crissy Taylor) is the lovingly dappy northerner, contrasting with the sombre Norma (Helen Harvey) and brutally honest Queenie (Jenni Payne). Together, they discover the realities of their positions; they are helpless in a world where money, husband and home are to be their concerns. Love doesn’t come into it.  

In the bland setting of Exeter’s Saskatchewen room (however exotic that name might sound) you really get the sense of some drab ’60s institution for badly behaved girls. Hedges, ceaselessly quivering with nervous naivety, brings an infective enthusiasm to her character, creating a foundation for the play to stand on. Similarly impressive are her three fellow “sinners”: Harvey is a brilliantly restrained Norma, allowing her angst to gradually increase to the point of madness, while Taylor is consistently genuine for all her childish idiocy. Payne probably has the hardest job as the predictable cynic with a soft centre, but she brings credibility to the role. Ultimately, she draws the most pathos from an audience that has already had its sympathies sucked up by all the others: from the beginning, the shocking reasons why each character is there are slowly revealed. Even Watts’ Matron, who runs the place with the cold sobriety of a Nurse Ratchet, eventually exposes her pitiable suffering with particular subtlety.  

For a man’s world, the play is refreshingly deficient of any male roles. A guy would have a lot to live up to with this cast, since Katie and her gang have truly shown what Oxford drama is all about. Seizing occupation of an abandoned classroom, borrowing some theatre lights and probably using their own clothes, the girls – unlike their ’60s counterparts – have done it their way. How things have changed…  
 

4/5 

7:30pm Wed/Thurs

Turl Street Arts Festival: Saskatchewen Room, Exeter College