Whenever I hear that a new adaptation of Alice Through the Looking Glass is being made, whether in theatre or film, I react with very little enthusiasm.

Most often I worry that the adaptation will stress the well-mannered "English" nature of it excessively, and lose much of the haunting darkness that casts itself over so many scenes in the book; that it will force through its own interpretative critical agenda to the extent that so much resonance of the piece is lost. I can unequivocally say that this new adaptation for the stage succeeds by avoiding both of these dangers, whilst it remains innovative in its experimentation.

The opening scene, the prologue to the play, has a truly haunting quality to it: a lone, indistinct figure delivers the poem in a truly ethereal way as chill piano music accompanies him. One of the great features of the performance is the innovative use of the chorus. Not only does it provide a flexible selection of actors to play the characters Alice meets, but it is also able to narrate Alice's adventures and to reinforce with backing vocals and performance many of the play's poems and much of its action.

The performance of the play's poems especially reveal the power behind such a decision: “Jabberwocky", for instance, uses the vocal range offered by the chorus to switch from the haunting and mysterious, to the violent and animated, and then to the joyous, flowing easily into and out of each stage. Indeed the best aspect of this play is that it respects Carroll's own caveat, which he represents in the character of Humpty Dumpty: that a true understanding of the book and its poetry is not to be achieved through careful, academic analysis, but through an appreciation of the language itself, its sounds, and the emotions it conveys in those resonances.

Indeed the focus of the play through the quality of the acting, the brilliant, though at times incongruous, music, and the experimental set design and props, is always kept on the ridiculous and illogical world that Alice has slipped into, especially with the script's insistent preservation of the absurd paradoxes and contradictions throughout.

However, the play does seem to lack the shape (rather than unity: a quite absurd word in the chaotic world of the looking glass) that would be required in adapting such a book to the stage. Occasionally, too, one feels that it is too long and meandering to hold our interest constantly. The script, despite having many thematic touches of brilliance, should have been edited to a more manageable length. Moreover, on occasion the choreography of chaos falls below the standard one has come to expect from the rest of the play in terms of crafted absurdity.

However, if you wanted to see a play that combines both wit, darkness, and challenges to the secure reason of our existence in the strange and illogical reversed world of the looking glass, then you couldn't choose a better play to see, whose concepts are never betrayed by the quality of its acting and presentation.

by James Taylor

Oxford University’s honorary degrees for 2008 have been announced. The economist, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, will receive a degree of doctor of civil law, while philosophy professor Thomas Nagel will get a degree of doctor of letters. Cell physiologist Professor Bert Sakmann, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Sheila Evans Widnall, and Crystallographer Professor Ada Yonath, will be given doctor of science degrees, while soprano Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby will get a degree of doctor of music. The honours will be awarded at Encaenia on Wednesday 18 June 2008.by Andreas Televantos

Sir Richard Branson is planning to open a health centre in Oxford where GPs would work alongside private health practitioners. Virgin Healthcare would offer services like dentistry, pharmacies and complementary therapies in state-of-the-art buildings. It coincides with a Government strategy to get private firms running health centres whilst still being contracted to carry out NHS GP work. Critics have accused the proposal of providing an opportunity for Virgin to market its additional services to potentially vulnerable patients when they’re in need of medical care.by Nadya Thorman

Roger Cohen’s latest column in the International Herald Tribune paints a concerning picture of the ignorance of all too many German youths. Speaking to a few school children, he found an amazing lack of knowledge about German’s very recent history:

"Communism? What's that?" said Ricardo Westendorf, 17, a student at the Carl-von-Linné school in what was East Berlin. "I think we talked about it in a history lesson, but I was ill."

Ouch.

This isn’t uncommon though.

I’ve been taking a language course for foreign students at the university here in Frankfurt. They did, admittedly, all go to school outside Germany in places like Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Uzbekistan. But they’ve all been accepted, or will soon be accepted, to study a full academic course at a German university.

On one occasion, the teacher wrote up on the board (in German) “National Socialism”, and asked what things we associated with it. Suggestions included the Berlin Wall, the separation of Germany and the reunification. The teacher nodded along until, finally, breaking to them that these things had nothing to do with the Nazis.

He then asked if we knew anything about resistance to the National Socialists, so someone brought up the name Stauffenberg. He was the one who tried to assassinate the Führer in 1944. The student, I think from somewhere in the old Soviet Bloc, was asked to expand on this and explain what Stauffenberg did.

He said he tried to assassinate Hitler… in the 1980s.

Cohen’s findings are no exception.

Hat tip: Passages

UPDATE: On a less serious note, this quote from the same article is a great one worthy of Gareth Southgate's quip about Winston Churchill, Iain Duncan Smith and Sven-Göran Eriksson:

We dreamed of paradise and woke up in North-Rhine Westphalia.

Cherwell 24 is not responsible for the content of external links

PREMIER DIVISION 
New 1 Oriel 2 
Oriel eased past a dogged New College to maintain their climb of the Premier Division table. New started well, but didn't make the most of some early pressure, with shots firing over and wide. Oriel gained in confidence and started to pass the ball well.  Hammad saw an effort go just past the post and another cleared off the line. As Warner and Surman began to control the midfield for Oriel, Wilson came into the game and netted with a half-volley from distance. After half time, the game became more scrappy with few real chances coming for either side. Despite this, substitute Tom Webb led the Oriel attack and doubled the lead with neat control and a cool finish. New threw men forward towards the end, but a lack of creativity saw few chances for the home side. Oriel's defence was organised and would have taken home a clean sheet if not for an alert New striker tapping home after a parry from Byas in goal. Harry Hoare 


DIVISION ONE 

St Hugh’s 1 St Catz 3 (Last Monday) 
St Catz went into this game as clear favourites against a Hugh's side that is desperately trying to avoid relegation for a second year running. The game saw few clear chances in the first half until Hugh's was awarded a penalty after 25 minutes, when Adhip Rawal was brought down by the Catz keeper.  Rawal hit the net from the spot and gave St Hugh's a surprising lead against the league leaders.  Catz bounced back and took control of the game.  They were rewarded by an equaliser through Ryan Taylor just before the break.  St Hugh's battled hard in the second half, however, and struggled to get hold of the ball.  Catz clearly dominated the game and possession, and Taylor added two more to his account to help Catz to a deserved 3-1 win.  Adhip Rawal 


Keble 7 St Hugh’s 1 
With both sides chasing their respective goals, this was a must win match; Keble needed a win to keep their promotion hopes alive, while St Hugh's needed a win in their fight against relegation. The match kicked off with Hugh's playing against the wind, the sun in their eyes, causing them all sorts of difficulties, and sure enough after 10 minutes of concerted Keble pressure, a good cross from the Keble right back found Askham in the box.  After composing himself, Askham slotted the ball away. This was to be the start of a difficult first half for Hugh's, letting in five goals in all. The second half was much tighter, with Hugh's making good use of the wind and getting a goal back. Any hint of a comeback was swiftly snuffed out, though, when Downpatrick scored two leaving the final score at 7-1, with Michael Gajdus the Keble striker getting a hat trick. Seb Singh 


DIVISION TWO 

Merton/Mansfield 3 St Peters 1 
After an early scare at going one nil down from a scrappy goal from a corner, Merton-Mansfield soon got into their stride and drew level by half time with a cute finish from Robbie Coleman.  After a number of missed chances, Lloyd Thomas finally added a second before a late goal from Robbie Coleman sealed the win to take Merton-Mansfield back to the top of the table.  Reuben Holt 

Pacifist raises the issue (commenting on my last post) that Germany’s reluctance to get involved in military operations such as Afghanistan may not have anything to do with its past. He ponders:

Do you really think it has anything to do with their military past? Surely it has more to do with them having the sense to realise Afganistan [sic] is a murderous hell-hole from which they'll never be able to withdraw troops once they're in there.

This got me wondering whether the premise of the survey question (take part HERE) is even accurate.

There’s no doubt that the factor is worth at least considering — the Washington Post notes

a strong reluctance to send soldiers into battle given the country's Nazi legacy,

and according to the International Herald Tribune:

The experience of Nazism is actively alive in contemporary public debates over everything from the country's troops in Afghanistan to the low birth rate to the country's dealings with foreigners. Often it seems to stifle discussion that could proceed more openly in other countries with fewer taboos.

There are other factors though. The same Post report points out three:

* They see it as America’s own problem

* German scepticism of “an American combat-style approach”

* Chancellor Merkel having to work in coalition less pro-US political rivals

In addition, I’d add the rise in very left-wing anti-American politics in Germany (remember this guy?).

The issues are many, of course. As one German politician remarked:

It's a little bit too simple to put all this on a pacifist and reluctant German public

But I think our Pacifist may have got it with the most obvious and simple explanation.

Cherwell 24 is not responsible for the content of external links

Admittedly, it is difficult to talk about a play with full confidence when the only performance you’ve seen is one in which a translator is bravely attempting to interpret the words on stage into English in your left ear. However, in the one scene of the OU Chinese Drama Society’s new production of the play ‘I Love Peach Blossom’ that I saw, this hardly seemed to matter: the clever direction by Qian Li and the polished – at times graceful – movements of the actors managed to convey more meaning than many English productions I have seen. And – despite my knowledge of Chinese being entirely nonexistent – the language only seemed to heighten the drama instead of distancing me from the action, which could have been a potential problem for a non-Chinese speaking audience.

The production centres on a love triangle between three actors (played by Bing Su, Moyang Chen and Yuchen Xia), who cannot decide on how to finish their play. But (and this is where things get a little confusing) the play they are performing is itself about a love triangle, which becomes increasingly sinister when the wife’s lover Yan is trapped inside her bedroom after her drunken husband Yin returns home unexpectedly.

Eventually the play-within-a-play descends into violence, with the actors arguing over who deserves to be killed: should Yan obey his lover’s wishes and stab her husband? Or should the actors keep with tradition and let the wife be murdered for enticing Yan to commit such a terrible deed? As the play continues, the outside world of the actors merges with the world of the play, providing a fascinating comment on the connection between China’s past and present.

This unique production by the university’s Chinese Drama Society stands out among Oxford’s range of theatre, which at times can feel slightly boxed-in. The skilled performances of the actors – together with the excellent music and costumes – should create an exceptional atmosphere within the intimate confines of the BT. And fortunately for any members of the audience who don’t speak Chinese, no translator will be needed: surtitles will be included for the actual production.

‘I Love Peach Blossom’ by Jingzhi Zou will be on at the BT from Tuesday 5th – Saturday 9th February, at 7.30pm.