Saturday, May 3, 2025
Blog Page 451

Opinion- The Problem With Liberty

Ben OBrien
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Opinion- The Problem With Liberty

As the spectacle that is the Trump-era rolls on, it is increasingly hard to imagine that the United States was once regarded, with both wonder and envy, as the democratic project par excellence. In the nineteenth-century, French thinker Alexis de Tocqueville and like-minded Europeans looked across the Atlantic with admiration, where they saw a great political experiment being played out in real time, and on a continental scale. These Europeans saw a new kind of society, in which the Enlightenment ideal of individuals’ right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, as the Declaration of Independence (1776) put it, had found its political expression. And so, Tocqueville went to America for a lesson in how to run a democracy.

But as the impact of coronavirus magnifies and exacerbates the US’s racial inequalities and lack of affordable healthcare, one wonders what Tocqueville would think now. Freedom must feel like an empty ideal for many. Has the great experiment with liberty gone wrong?

There is a simple force to the idea that individuals are born free and have certain inalienable rights. The US constitution and Bill of Rights first articulated many things now taken for granted in liberal democracies – the right to trial by jury, freedom of religion, speech, press, and many other liberties now considered basic. So enduring are these ideas that, nearly two hundred years later, US libertarian Robert Nozick could write almost as a matter of fact that, “[i]ndividuals have rights, and there are things no person or group may do to them.” In one way or another, this has been the guiding intuition of the most influential Anglo-American political philosophy of the last two centuries. And it is a powerful one; indeed, it is so deeply engrained in liberal democratic culture that it can be forgotten how radical the idea was at the turn of the nineteenth century.

But historically the problem has not been with the ideal itself, but its application. Even as Tocqueville admired America, equality and liberty was in reality enjoyed only by a select portion of the population. It was not enjoyed by Native Americans, many of whom were driven from their land or massacred. Neither was it enjoyed by most African Americans: transatlantic slavery was abolished in 1808, but the domestic slave trade prospered.

The irony is that this sort of exclusivity is entirely in keeping with liberalism, a doctrine which throughout its history has made grand claims about the universality of human rights whilst in practice denying them to certain groups, often on the basis of their supposed “irrationality” or “backwardness”.

Thanks to abolition and the civil rights movement the Constitution is now more inclusive, but the founding ideal still seems disconnected from reality. Coronavirus has laid bare the meagre levels of state help available to those who need it most. Eighty-seven million Americans either have no healthcare insurance or are underinsured. The virus has also hit African Americans disproportionality hard: though they make up less than fifteen percent of the population, they account for thirty percent of coronavirus-related deaths.

Perhaps this is what happens when the original ideal is distorted beyond recognition – when the idea of individual liberty becomes twisted into a libertarian or neoliberal view that equates taxation and redistribution with theft, or “forced labour” as Nozick put it. The merits of that view can be debated, but one thing is clear: it does not follow through on the promise of a truly equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

University staff applicants not informed of hiring freeze before applying

David Tritsch
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University staff applicants not informed of hiring freeze before applying

In wake of the ongoing COVID-19 public health crisis, the University has put into effect a 12-month recruitment freeze and redeployment protocol for all internally funded posts. However, applications for many positions are still being advertised, meaning candidates may only be informed of the hiring freeze after they have applied.

The University’s jobs website states: “In light of the coronavirus (COVID-19) challenges, the University is re-assessing its resource requirements. As a result, we are pausing some existing recruitment until further notice.”

The HR recruitment protocol clarified that “all recruitment exercises that are currently underway must be paused immediately (if an offer has not already been made) and the posts assessed against the new criteria for approval.”

Cherwell understands that some applicants have only been informed of the recruitment freeze after applying for jobs.

Aris Katzourakis, Oxford University and College Union Co-President, stated: “All jobs currently advertised may go through the anticipated processes for approval put in place in the current circumstances and therefore applicants could be contacted to be told the job has been withdrawn at any stage.”

An Oxford DPhil alumni criticised Oxford for failing to inform candidates in advance that recruitment procedures had been halted.

Wishing to remain anonymous, they told Cherwell: “Academia is already incredibly precarious for early career researchers, and academic job applications take days, if not weeks to complete well – indeed, many postdocs spend more time on job applications for their next position than on the research that they need to publish to help progress through the academic system.”

The University reportedly hopes to continue the recruitment process as soon as possible and will be in contact with candidates in the future to provide further updates.

According to the protocol, new research posts may only be created or fixed-term contracts extended if “there are overwhelming operational imperatives to fill the post.” Some other conditions such as posts that must be filled for legal requirements or safety reasons may also lead to approval of new contracts.

The protocol applies to recruitment across the University, including all departments and subsidiary companies. It does not apply to colleges or Permanent Private Halls. The University of Oxford is the largest employer in Oxfordshire and currently employs more than 1800 academic staff, more than 5,500 research and research support staff, and more than 6,100 graduate research students.

In response to hiring freezes and having to move teaching online, the board of Universities UK (UUK) has released a proposal to the UK government about a possible industry bailout plan, reportedly worth £2bn. According to the proposal, public funding could mitigate the impact of the ongoing crisis, as well as providing stability for students and researchers across the UK.

The University has been contacted for comment.

Image Credit to Theonlysilentbob/ Wikimedia Commons

Virtual access events held for offer holders and prospective applicants

Lucy Tansley
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Virtual access events held for offer holders and prospective applicants

Colleges are updating their access provisions for prospective students in light of the coronavirus outbreak. Following social distancing guidelines, the University has stated on is website that until further notice, planned outreach events and open days will not go ahead. It is “working hard to explore alternative options” and to transfer events into “digital experiences”.

Last week, Trinity College collaborated with the University to host an online open day for offer holders, welcoming 45 students from the Northeast over Zoom, to give advice and guidance in these times of uncertainty. 

Worcester College is launching a website for secondary school students to offer help for students from year 7 to 13, and have also started a YouTube channel aimed at those thinking of applying to Oxford. Recent videos include a guide to applying to Oxbridge and an introduction to university for students in years 10 and 11. Outreach events with schools in their link areas in the North of England are planned to continue “in virtual form”. 

Christ Church has also taken measures to move its access provisions online. The access team told Cherwell that they plan to “work together with the central team” to offer a “coherent and complementary” replacement to the July open day. Its access initiative run in collaboration with St Anne’s, “Aim for Oxford”, and its own programme “Christ Church Horizons”, will both now run digitally. The college also plans to hold online Q&As with its undergraduates, personal statement webinars, and online live sessions with its link areas in the Northeast. Its annual “Women in PPE” day will now take place using Microsoft Teams on the 26th May, for female-identifying prospective students interested in the subject. 

Wadham have similarly adapted their access initiatives for the lockdown era, offering YouTube videos and articles for school-age students and online seminars to help with writing personal statements and other application processes. They have also paired up with Causeway Education “to provide mentoring support for 250 pupils from link schools with high proportions of widening participation pupils in Year 12 and relatively poor progression to top universities.” Under this scheme, school pupils are paired with subject specialists to support them through their applications. 

Balliol is hosting a virtual history taster day next week for potential applicants, and other departments have hosted or plan to host online open days live-streamed online. 

University-wide, access schemes have been introduced to aid prospective students with the application process. OxBuddy, a student initiative set up by current undergraduates, pairs current students with those thinking of applying in order to answer questions about life at Oxford.

Further updates on outreach provisions are expected to be released in the coming months. 

Image credit to Ukexpat/ Wikimedia Commons

The Land of the Free: Anti-Lockdown Protests Sweep Across America

Francesca Mencattelli
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The Land of the Free: Anti-Lockdown Protests Sweep Across America

The beginning of another week in lockdown for one third of the global population has brought with it a proliferation of ‘anti-lockdown’ protests, focalised in the US. Despite the US currently holding the highest recorded number of coronavirus cases and deaths in the world – numbering over 1.1 million and 66,000 respectively – anti-lockdown protests have burgeoned in numerous states, including California, Ohio and Washington.

1st May saw New York’s first anti-lockdown protest, with thousands taking to the streets to criticise the government’s imposition of stricter containment measures. Such protests are underpinned by the desire for ‘liberty’ from lockdown; and yet, the poignant irony of staging an anti-lockdown rally in a city with 13,000 recorded coronavirus deaths is not enough to highlight to protestors the moral and ethical consequences of their method and demands.

Anti-lockdown protests present a twofold infringement upon the rights of others, denying people the ability to protect both their own health, and the safety of their family. While the right to protest is a crucial democratic freedom, in the current climate the nature and aim of these protests threatens other more fundamental rights, predominantly to health and to life. The ‘freedom’ espoused by these protests runs counterintuitively to the right to life enshrined in the American constitution. As such, a ‘freedom’ protest which threatens the basic liberties of others can be seen as ethically and logically self-negating.

The debate underpinning these protests is not as binary as ‘lockdown’ or ‘liberty’. In the current circumstances, it is unfeasible to envisage a society in which the pre-outbreak freedoms of all individuals remain intact; if lockdown were to be lifted – which is the ultimate aim of these protests – the ensuing situation would deprive the most vulnerable members of society of their basic right to life. In such a scenario, physical ‘freedom’ is surely tainted by the moral repercussions of knowing that negligence can, and will, endanger the lives of others.

Considering this potential outcome, the opportunity cost emanating from temporarily circumscribed physical liberties is validated by the associated ability to protect the health and save the lives of many. A key positive which has emerged from global containment policies – and threatened only by a minority of ‘anti-lockdown’ protestors – is a shifting conceptualisation of liberty as something fundamentally communal.

In the US, statistics demonstrate a significant reduction in road traffic in major cities (for example, 67% in Los Angeles and 75% in San Francisco in March). In the UK, road traffic has fallen by 73% and national rail journeys by 77% in comparison to pre-outbreak levels. Likewise, mid-March statistics for global air traffic show a 48% reduction in scheduled flights corresponding to the same week in 2019. These figures demonstrate a consistent and widespread understanding of the need for individual liberties to be subsumed by the more urgent requirements of the communal in this period. The current pandemic has helped re-conceptualise freedom as a communal entity rather than a personal possession which, when over-stepped by some, detracts from the rights of others.

In a democratic context, freedom is often taken as synonymous with equality. The Covid-19 pandemic has complicated this association, demonstrating that conceding to anti-lockdown protestors the kind of freedom they request will in fact lead to greater inequalities between the healthy and vulnerable in society. Such disparities are augmented by emerging evidence of the discrepant socio-cultural impact of the virus, which could be further exacerbated by lifting restrictions at the wrong moment. While lockdown is certainly not without its own subset of financial and social repercussions, we should trust that a regulation seemingly functioning paradoxically to democratic principles will, in these circumstances, benefit society in the long run. Feeling isolated is unequivocally a natural response to unprecedented social constraints; but lockdown is ultimately a communal sacrifice, which will engender communal benefits.

The Last Five Years- Preview

Akrivi Ventouras
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The Last Five Years- Preview

Having watched the preview, I am excited to see and listen to the full-length production of the musical. Both Maggie Moriarty as Cathy and Peter Todd as Jamie provide gripping performances. This is my first time watching The Last Five Years, and I was immediately struck by the discord of watching Cathy’s opening song, in pain over the end of her marriage, immediately followed by a young Jamie’s excitement at his new relationship. This continued in the poignant interlacing of timelines throughout the scenes of the preview, which pit together, for example, Jamie’s book deal success and Cathy’s later difficulties in her career.

As stated in the promotional material this musical charts “the individual and shared lives of Cathy and Jamie, as they grow together and grow apart.” The preview highlights that this is not a ‘typical’ story of lost love, rather we see how the characters’ individual aspirations, failures and successes entwine into their shared history, backed by a moving soundtrack.

The show is made even more impressive in that it has been created, as in rehearsed, filmed,the music recorded, entirely in quarantine. Q&As on the production company’s website point to the technical difficulties they have had to overcome in order to create this perfectly timed and synced piece of theatre entirely from their bedrooms. The production company have stressed that this is a digitised theatrical performance and not a film. At first I was sceptical as to how they would be able to pull off scenes were the characters would have been together on stage. Yet somehow,  take for example Cathy’s second song where she tells Jamie that she can’t understand how he can stand there “And see I’m crying/And not do anything at all” , you feel that Jamie is there but just out of shot. Judging from the preview I felt the same could be said for the actors’ performance. The audience might be remote and online but, in the energy they have given the show, I felt that they  knew that we would be there, watching.

One-off viewing on Saturday 9th May, 7:30pm 

Tickets are £3 and can be bought from www.00productions.co.uk/tickets 

Review: Normal People – from book to screen

Lucy Thynne
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Review: Normal People – from book to screen

When it was announced last year that Sally Rooney’s second novel, Normal People, would be adapted into a BBC and Hulu television series, the excitement was more than tangible. With this excitement, however, came much trepidation. The book is a brilliant will-they-won’t-they tale of love between Irish young adults, Marianne and Connell, and has been met with a huge tide of critical acclaim: Rooney was quickly dubbed as the “voice of a generation” for her ability to capture the zeitgeist in sharp, deceptively simple prose. Normal People became, in short, a very beloved book, and the task of translating this onto screen would be anything but easy.

Thankfully, readers had no need to be anxious. Directors Lenny Abrahamson (Room, The Little Stranger) and Hettie Macdonald (Howards End, Beautiful Thing) have delivered a series that is as tightly controlled as it is expansive, with the twelve half-hour episodes spanning four years of Marianne and Connell’s relationship. The adaptation is impeccably faithful to the novel with much of the dialogue lifted verbatim, and unlike most television series today, maintains the linear narrative of the book. Normal People is a story that lends itself well to this episodic format, and the result is a stunning achievement: each episode feels like a short story within itself, presented in an exquisite, easily digestible thirty minutes.

Despite Rooney’s involvement in the writing of the series (alongside Alice Birch), the series is most definitely an adaptation, not a recreation. Transposing Normal People to screen is a challenge, not only because the majority of the novel is grounded in the interior monologues of characters. Sometimes, these are simply shifted into speech – Marianne confesses aloud to Connell that she has watched him on the football pitch and thought of him in a sexual way – but most of this introspection is conveyed in facial expressions and meaningful glances, the camera guided by the directors’ expert eyes. “At times Connell has the sensation that he and Marianne are like figure-skaters, improvising their discussions so adeptly and in such perfect synchronisation that it surprises them both. She tosses herself gracefully into the air, and each time, without knowing how he’s going to do it, he catches her,” Rooney writes. Connell is describing here the conversations he shares with Marianne, but it’s an apt description for how their dialogue makes the jump to screen. Every line flows perfectly, as if improvised; as viewers, we put our blind faith in the actors to be tossed into the air and caught again.

And the acting is, helpfully, superb. The decision to cast Connell (Paul Mescal) and Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) as relatively unknown actors is a smart one. It allows Rooney’s story to do what it is best at doing: to offer us a refreshing glimpse of a tale we already know, the old refigured in the new. Edgar-Jones gives us a more than credible insight into the complexities of Marianne’s character, and despite hailing from North London, skilfully showcases a near-authentic accent. Mescal, however, is the true breakout star here. It is difficult to believe that this is the actor’s screen debut, for such a tender, excruciatingly measured portrait of modern masculinity. The scene in which Connell breaks down in front of a university therapist is unbearable to watch – it is so movingly captured by Mescal.  

Some elements, however, did not do justice to the book. Marianne’s dark path into sexual masochism was far from convincing, and much more fleshed out in the book as an integral part to her character development. The series, which had previously established itself to not flinch away from anything (the sex is awkward, the lad-culture ugly), then skirts around the subject of Marianne’s abuse from her brother Alan. Slamming the door on her nose, Alan’s violence can easily be mistaken for an accident. In the book, however, Rooney writes that “Not for the first time Marianne thinks cruelty does not only hurt the victim, but the perpetrator also, and maybe more deeply and more permanently.” The complexities of bullying are far more compellingly portrayed in the school scenes, or in the nastiness of Marianne’s insecure boyfriend, Jamie (Fionn O’Shea).

Nonetheless, it is a near-perfect adaptation. Viewers of Normal People are destined to fall into two camps: those who were lovers of the book, and those who come to the story afresh on a wave of curiosity and internet hype. Both will leave immensely moved, nostalgic, and touched by the small beauty of this series. It demands to be watched.

‘All the world’s a stage’: Culture in translation

Sofía Sanabria de Felipe
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‘All the world’s a stage’: Culture in translation

With Shakespeare’s birth and death date happening on the 23rd of April, I’ve been thinking about what a great man he was. So many plays. Such a legacy left behind for the world to enjoy. Generation after generation finding ways to adapt his work to contemporary settings, finding meaning in every scene and soliloquy; the desire to interpret his works never ever fully satisfied. He was, after all, the man who unlocked the secret that is human nature. That managed to encapsulate it so perfectly in his characters. It is because of this ability of his that his early modern works still seem to speak to us. That we laugh at his slapstick jokes, cry or rejoice at the death of renowned characters, an ever-growing feeling of “relatedness” running through the theatrical experience. And yet, I couldn’t help but wonder how it came to be that a man in the early modern period, gifted and great as he was, managed to unlock that secret. Managed to crack the code that would put an end to futile disagreements between individuals and give way to at least a couple of hours of entertainment for the many, existential realisations for the few. Somehow, despite asserting it in countless essays, I came to doubt the validity of such a statement.

As humans, our experience of the world seems to be some sort of continuous dialogue between the external socio-political, cultural context, and our internal psychological and emotional systems. We can’t help but use the hermeneutics that these external systems provide us to express our internal perception of our experience to others, and it is often in that process of expression that we manage to make sense of it in the first place. In simpler terms, our experience of the world and our place within it is undoubtedly shaped by the language and culture we’re surrounded by. Which brings me to my original point: how could it be that a man, writing in the 16th century, in a single language, had managed to crack the universality of human nature?

It seems obvious that he hadn’t. And there are a number of ways of demonstrating this.

As someone who’s had the privilege of being raised in an environment where learning many languages and being exposed to different cultures was not only encouraged, but often facilitated, the idea that emotions and experiences feel very different depending on the language and context, is quite a recurring theme in my life. I found it ridiculously endearing when I first learned in French that to “miss someone” was described as “you are missing from me”, a fact which seemed to strengthen the idea that relationships involve a relation between two individuals, between two counterparts. I was often confused at the claims made by people who commented on the harshness of the German language, that it spurred in them a recollection of aggressive experiences and emotions. Funny, to me German had always seemed soft, soothing, and comforting. But then again, my years living in the country lie amongst the fondest of my childhood memories…

It’s taken me a while to understand what people mean when they say that French and Italian speak the language of love and seduction. For years all they seemed to me were grammatical structures to play around with and learn, associate with them with Latin and Spanish to make sense of them all, and further my study of them along. There was no room for love in this barren, artificial approach to them. Of course, there wasn’t. Because love, as edgy and mysterious an emotion as it may be, is undoubtedly something associated with feeling, part of the organic essence of language, part of that crucial interrelationship between the internal and external circumstances of experience. So, it couldn’t possibly be found solely through grammatical structures. Or my experience of a French lesson in school, for that matter. No; it required a setting. A set of characters. A plot. And a soundtrack. And it was recently that I found that, neatly wrapped up in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The development of the relationship between Marianne and Héloïse was painted across a canvas of cinematic windy beach walks, and it was to the soundtrack of the French language that I was able to interpret it, able to understand, for once, what people had meant about French-speaking the language of love.

I was having a rather geeky conversation with a friend about phonetics the other day. He asked me how a particular feature of English phonetics would translate into Spanish, how it would sound like. My immediate response was that it would sound like an upper-class teenager, who spent their summers in some kind of yacht in Miami. He laughed (reacted) and asked me to replicate that. Naturally, I couldn’t for the life of me do it. It wasn’t because I didn’t know what I was referring to, nor because I hadn’t been exposed to it before. So I went online. Went onto YouTube to see if I could find a clip of Lu from Élite, one of Netflix’s Spanish shows that I’m helplessly addicted to, speaking. I sent it over and that was largely the end of the conversation. But it did make me wonder how and why my brain had decided to collate the two, a linguistic phenomenon and a cultural paradigm, together. Maybe it was because that was something I’d unconsciously picked up on from the way my classmates spoke in school. Maybe because it had become a rather vivid image of my experience of upper class, youth Spanish culture, now, albeit in exaggerated form, made available by a binge-watchable show.  

Naturally, none of these unlock the secrets of human nature. They are all still very much a part of the Western world cultural tradition and as such further the accomplishments of Shakespeare only ever so slightly. There is, undoubtedly, a milliard of cultures that I have, as of yet, not been able to experience. And some that I may never experience at all, at least not in the same manner as others. But there was a point to this. A point to my reflection of the experience of how language and culture have brought me closer to that “unlocking” of human nature. Far from giving me a definition, it’s made me more acutely aware of the role language plays in mediating between our internal and external experiences of the world around us. It’s made me crave an ever-growing desire to experience these other cultures, these other sides that makeup if there is such a thing, universal human experience. Which is why, even if it is with subtitles in the language of that great bard who first sparked interest in a genuine possibility to unlock the secrecy of human nature, I shall proceed to embark myself on a voyage of multicultural experience, fencing against layers of meaning, the impact of historical, socio-political events, that remain imbedded in these languages, generations on.

Review: Richard II

Allyson Obber
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Review: Richard II

Not Way Forward Productions has managed to put up a brilliant virtual version of ‘Richard II’ in pre-recorded video format. It is well-executed – a good effort that overcomes many of the hurdles that an online play might face. It runs at less than an hour long with accurately adapted Shakespearean dialogue – if that feels daunting, there are subtitles – that follows Richard II, an inept king (or queen, in this adaptation) and a very flawed man (or woman, in this case), clumsily governing England as the people start rebelling and the nobles conspire against him.

The format of the play must be commended as well. It is online, and, while it is clearly because of the current pandemic, it was also brilliantly used as a framing device for the story, using Zoom meetings and phone calls as the methods of communication between characters. It gives the story a very realistic atmosphere, as characters are limited in space and action, and elements such as set design or costumes cannot bring cohesion to the play in the way they normally would – while still being tastefully selected. In some way, this weirdly intimate format makes the characters feel more like actual people.

This is helped by Dorothy McDowell’s great directing. There is not a moment where the scene feels slow: stillness and movement are carefully balanced, with the actors showing the idiosyncrasies of their characters very well. From Northumberland’s (Harry Berry) composure and self-assurance, to York’s (Lola Beal) anxieties and resignation, everything must be conveyed briefly and efficiently, making every action purposeful. Relationships between characters were rendered quite well, which is not an easy task considering that the actors did not share the same space.

The cast worked together seamlessly, with no one actor stealing the scene or disrupting the flow. This is an ensemble piece, with many characters dividing the screen time in an impressive balancing act. Maggie Moriarty, playing the title character, managed to be both delightfully horrible and pathetically weak, while still not feeling like an overbearing presence. Even Henry Bolingbroke (Maya Jasinka), feels understated: while prideful and with a great feeling of righteousness, they do not feel like an incredibly powerful antagonistic force – but a more flawed, human one.

It is a good adaptation of ‘Richard II’, maintaining the important plot points while sacrificing minor ones. This is understandable considering the length of the final product, yet at times it does feel slightly rushed, with decisions feeling too abrupt or unwarranted, and not enough time given for the audience to pause and take in the story. It is certainly not boring, but if you are unfamiliar with the plot then you might wonder why certain things are happening. Still, this should not worry too much, as it does not happen often and the plot is still comprehensible – it might just not be very clear in some moments!

Overall, it is a very well-balanced, well-crafted play, that offers a very enjoyable hour of theatre and fulfils its promise, with a clearly good crew behind the scenes and an equally good cast.

Ralph Fiennes: from Hamlet… to Lear?

Cecilia Wang
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Ralph Fiennes: from Hamlet… to Lear?

With his aquiline nose, translucent skin and deep pale eyes, Ralph Fiennes certainly makes an impression. And that is even before he speaks or emotes – with his melodic eyes and brows that seem to convey depths of inner feeling. It is no wonder GQ Culture considers him the ultimate cosmopolitan, “both parodically English and consummately European, the way classical music isn’t bound by borders, either”.

The most topical of his prodigious work right now is perhaps ‘Antony and Cleopatra’, soon to be broadcast through NT at Home. It’s directed by Simon Godwin – who smilingly revealed that his young children consider him a ‘cheeky daddy’ – summing up many of his approaches to Shakespearean adaptations. Yes, the language is rhythmic to the ear. Yes, the drama sets the heart racing. But how wasteful would it be if one couldn’t use it to make people laugh? This production is sensually intoxicating, accommodating to the eyes with Cleopatra’s sumptuous wardrobe and the occasional flashing of Ralph Fiennes’ torso (so well-preserved by ashtanga yoga); to the ears by the marvellous juxtaposition of Okonedo’s fiery deliveries and Fiennes’ more mellow voice. To set these all in an idyllic place, the National Theatre rolls out an impressive swimming pool as part of the rotating stage. The casting choice is well-balanced. It enables Okonedo to shine as a lustful, mercurial, bewitching Cleopatra possessed by her attraction to Antony.

I sometimes got the feeling that Okonedo’s Cleopatra was taking most of the thunder whilst at the National Theatre but this is misleading. Fiennes may not possess the famed velvety voice that infused a regal tone into the deliveries of Laurence Olivier or Richard Burton, but his voice allows precious insight into a Roman general less defined by public pageants and macho battles. He is more animated through his deep-seated yet death-haunted love. Antony springs into life from hollow-eyed marble statues and becomes a superlative being. It is one of the rare Fiennes’ performances where the emotion is worn so outwardly. Perhaps Okonedo’s seduction is too inducing or perhaps Shakespeare’s verse permeates the body and bursts out so uncontrollably to the surface, Fiennes’ Antony is too impactful to miss.

Ralph Fiennes in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’: image by Johan Persson.

I first consciously encountered Fiennes in The English Patient (I say consciously, as I had yet to realise that he metamorphosed into Voldemort!) In this, Fiennes is utterly un-English, playing a Hungarian count flying airplanes around African deserts for the Royal Geographical Society. Watching the film was an utterly cathartic experience, as one poetically races through every sinew of human emotions in the space of less than three hours. Scott Thomas, who plays the object of Fiennes’ ill-fated yet irresistible love, later quipped, “seeing The English Patient is wonderfully draining, but imagine acting in it for six months”.’ Yet, the catharsis is worth every exertion, and one emerges from this marathon only wishing to immerse in it all again. Amidst the fragmented flashbacks, the infinite yet every-morphing deserts and the frantic chaos that was Egypt a century ago, the clarity of his acting pierces through. The film encapsulates a talent of Fiennes: the conveyance of emotional magnitude through minimal actions. His count, Laszlo de Almasy, was first programmed to conceal – initially due to his nature and then to hide his badly-burnt face and immobile body. Yet, the less that is spoken, the more one senses. Here, love drives everyone mad: mad to defy reason, and mad with cruelty towards one’s beloved.

This capacity for evil is fully played out in Schindler’s List, in the role of the Nazi commandant, Amon Goth. Fiennes’ Goth shoots Jews randomly whilst relaxing on his balcony, casually rapes women and remains unrepentant with a piercing stare up until the very end. Many have remarked about the end of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, where the titular role is asked thrice, ‘repent!’ and replied negatively every time, in a depiction of convicted unrepentance to the end. Fiennes’ performance gives this phenomenon more mindless evil. One follows his deep eyes closely, scared by their self-assured hunt for destruction.

Such eyes are also capable of undiluted bliss, as played out in Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Greene’s The End of the Affair. In the fleeting joy of Sarah and Henry’ union, Fiennes impresses upon one an infinite instant of romantic and spiritual fulfilment.

So far, this list has done injustice to Fiennes’ less-discussed comic presence. Of course, he stars as the verbally uncouth yet sartorially impeccable ‘M’ in the Bond franchise, is pitch-perfect, invoking bathos with a straight face. His short appearance in the Coen Brother’s Hail, Caesar! as a tweed-wearing and caveat-wrapped director stands out with its technical precision. Even in his voice-acting as the prideful hunter, Lord Victor Quartermaine, in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Rare Rabbit injects much alacrity. This comic talent is given a full stage in Wes Anderson’s hauntingly beautiful drama, The Grand Budapest Hotel, where Fiennes enthralls as the vainglorious yet utterly transfixing concierge Monsieur Gustav. The role is exquisite, inviting one to marvel at his every word and movement. His mastery of the Cockney accent in In Bruges allows a hilarious transformation into a verbose and violent gangster, who cajoles and delights. A less determinately comical but more energetic role as a Rock n’ Roll star in Guadagnino’s A Bigger Splash releases a wilder side of Fiennes.

A more contemplative side is played out in roles such as the adaptation of The Constant Gardener, where Fiennes plays a diplomat well-versed in nurturing temperance, as the title suggests, yet elopes with a rebel lecture-attendee and eventually embarks on a dangerous course. This transformation is played out on a subtle scale. This inner debate is given force in his generous adaptation of Coriolanus, alongside weighty thespians such as Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Cox. One sees a proud soldier ill-programmed for the complexity of this world, yet struggling violently until the very end – much like in his depiction of Antony.

Fiennes is obsessed with Russian culture – he’s acted in Russian and directed a film (The White Crow) about Rudolf Nureyev, a Russian ballet dancer. Perhaps it is this essential cosmopolitanism that so draws one to Fiennes’ artistic expressions. His knowledge of everything from Beethoven to post-modern art and a life-long of studied enlightenment has enabled him to convey an inviting knowingness that draws us to his inner world. He grew up in a crowded and ever-moving household that had more pedigree and culture than money, culminating in a ferocious appetite for culture. This is a man, who, in real life, knows directors of art galleries across continents and hops on the Eurostar to go to Paris – a man whose life has been steeped in the immersion and understanding and creation of artistic experiences. One is perpetually fascinated, eager to discover more. His first role after being catapulted into fame by The Schindler’s List, defying all expectations, was to play Hamlet in a small London theatre, delivering the famed soliloquy with his back to the audience. If the saying that every Shakespearean actor plays Hamlet when young(ish) and King Lear when aged rings true here, one can yet await in delicious anticipation of Fiennes’ crowning Lear.

‘A far cry from high kicks and pom lines’: introducing Oxford’s cheerleading scene

Thomas Lyne
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‘A far cry from high kicks and pom lines’: introducing Oxford’s cheerleading scene

First of all: do you think people’s perception of cheerleading is skewed by the High School movie tradition, or more recently by the Netflix original documentary, Cheer? If so, in what ways? Are there any myths you’d like to bust?

Emily Lord: Coming from the US to the UK, I think that people’s perception of cheerleading is skewed by movie stereotypes and possibly Cheer (although Cheer is indeed an accurate portrayal of Collegiate cheerleading, at least at that level). Since high school cheerleading isn’t a thing here, people really have no exposure to it. You’re unlikely to have had a cheerleading team at your secondary school, so unless you happen to know someone who cheers outside of school, your only exposure is probably through these portrayals. The Bring it On franchise and Glee’s portrayal of cheerleaders definitely are not super accurate: why do they wear their uniforms to school every day? Where are the coaches?

Alexia Benchimol: I think the perception of a cheerleader as a dumb blonde on the sidelines is changing. The media and documentaries like Cheer are showing that cheerleading is a very challenging sport and that there’s no set prototype for what a cheerleader is like, or what a cheerleader looks like. On the team we have people with different body types, genders, sexual orientations, personalities, you name it.

Francesca Dyas: Whenever I told people I was doing cheerleading, their first question was always, ‘for what team?’ I was constantly explaining that cheer is the sport, and it’s competitive and very physically demanding.Cheer has helped to dispel the idea that cheerleaders are just on the sidelines and I think it is changing people’s perceptions of the sport for the better.

Molly Abella: It definitely isn’t always as glamourous as it seems, – a trick we are taught for when our hands get sweaty from holding flyers up is to wipe them on the bottoms of our feet so that we don’t drop anybody – a far cry from high kicks and pomlines!

Tell us about the training regime. How would you say cheerleading compares to other sports in Oxford?

Alanah Grant-St James: We train at least twice a week, often more when we’re coming up to competition season. The sessions are hard. You have to build up a lot of strength, stamina and endurance to survive a ‘full out’ (running through the whole routine as we would in a competition, i.e. giving it everything we’ve got). When we’re working on a specific section over and over again or doing full outs, our shoulders, legs and wrists will be aching, and we’ve just got to push through the pain to avoid making mistakes.

Molly Abella: There is a huge level to camaraderie with the training, which I would say is found in many Oxford sports but when other teams talk about everyone lifting each other up, we mean it literally! Within a stunt group, you get a huge degree of trust, as the flyer is certainly putting their physical safety in your hands – so they have to know that you are strong enough and coordinated enough to keep them in the air – or willing to take a foot to the face to protect them if something goes wrong! 

How does competition work? What does a competition day look like?  

Harriet Byrne: The night before competition we all had a cheer movie night and watched Bring it On to have some team bonding and nerve-busting. Just like the Navarro cheerleaders, we have a lot of our own traditions. Before performing, we each received a bead to tie on our cheer shoes, receiving one to mark every competition we partake in. Next we exchanged anonymous support cards, called snaps, in which we write a supportive message about one of our fellow teammates.

Emily Lord: Competition days (for us) start at 3 in the morning! Since there aren’t any competitions at Oxford, we have to travel by coach to the competition location. Unless you want to do your makeup on the road, you have to have all your makeup and hair ready before you board! I never thought I’d be trying to apply a blue smoky eye at 3AM just to sit on a coach for 3 hours.

We run through the stunt sequence, jumps, tumbling if we have it, and then will most likely mark through the routine as a whole again, maybe putting in stunts we think need extra work. It’s important to be fully warm and have practiced hitting the stunts, but also we don’t want to tire ourselves out before we go onto the competition mat.

Once our team name is called, we can step out onto the main mat in front of everyone! Those two and a half minutes are simultaneously the shortest and longest 150 seconds of your life. You’re thinking ‘oh my god I’m so tired, there’s no way I can finish this’ and at the same time thinking “oh my god it’s already the final 8-count?” Then comes the waiting. For us, at both our competitions we were one of the first teams to perform, so we had a long time to wait between competing and hearing the results.

Francesca Dyas: Typically we’re there for about 12 hours, however because we’re Oxford this means trying to find a quiet area in a packed and noisy stadium to try and do some work.

And what about scoring? How does it compare to say, artistic or rhythmic gymnastics?

Emily Lord: There are rigidly scored technical elements, but also subjective judges’ interpretations. Certain skills, such as jumps, stunts, pyramid elements, or tumbling are scored higher than others (basically, harder skills are worth more points), but you can get deductions for mistakes, such as not landing a tumbling pass, wobbling in a stunt, and of course falling. You also get a score for ‘overall impression’ – this is a subjective score that judges give, but they’re all pretty much looking for the same thing: high energy, big smiles, and good technique.

Alexia Benchimol: I used to do rhythmic gymnastics before university, and one of the differences in scoring is that cheer focuses more on performance. “Cheer faces”, the facial expressions we make while we perform, make routines look very fun. They also make for hilarious pictures.

Harriett Byrne: Deductions can also result from obvious mistakes and vulgarity – sticking your tongue out is a big no!

What’s the social scene like? 

Harriet Byrne: As newly elected social secretary, the cheer social scene is one of the most exciting aspects of being an Oxford cheerleader. Once a week we attend a ‘crewdate’ – turning up to a local restaurant with another university team, and playing traditional Oxford drinking games, usually followed by a night out at Park End! We have also organised bar crawls, awards evenings, and invited each other to our respective college formals and bops; however, we also make sure to have a balance of non-drinking events in order to help build team cohesion. For me personally, the social aspect has been really important, and I would say that some of my closest and most trusted friends are cheerleaders. I haven’t had the easiest time in Oxford, having to resit first year following a subject change, and whenever I had a problem, my fellow cheerleaders were always there to support me.

Molly Abella: We all get on like a house on fire, possibly because when you’ve sweated together, caught each other at every possible angle, and heard every variation of songs themed around fire the bond is pretty unbreakable. I think a lot of people have a bad image of the social side of sports clubs, but I would say we break a lot of stereotypes by having a lot of fun but always making everyone feel comfortable and included. 

How do people get into cheerleading in Oxford? Have most people cheered before or is it something lots of people take up for the first time at university?

Alanah Grant-St James: In the UK, you’d be pretty lucky to find a cheerleading club in your local area. Most people on Oxford Sirens, like me, had never done cheerleading before university and got into it by seeing our stall at the Freshers’ Fair or by doing cheerleading cuppers in Trinity. This sport attracts people who are enthusiastic, want to be challenged physically, and want to join a team with an amazing, supportive atmosphere.

Harriett Byrne: I’d always wanted to do cheer but there aren’t many opportunities for cheer in the UK outside of university, so I joined with no prior experience. I initially wanted to be a base, as I wasn’t flexible at all, but was surprised when I got put as a flyer. At first I was awful and had the least skill and flexibility out of all the flyers, but by attending training every week and stretching outside of training I slowly started to see myself improve.

Francesca Dyas: Our team was probably about 70% new people this year so if you want to do it just try out! The coaches are brilliant and teach everything from scratch, and it’s such a supportive environment that you can really feel confident when trying new things: I definitely did.

We’re still waiting for a decision from the Blues Committee as to whether the Sirens will be granted Blues status. It seems that there’s a lot of momentum behind the movement to gain recognition, with national coverage of the parallel campaigns in Oxford and Cambridge? How have these developments affected the lobbying campaign? 

Charlie Smith, President of the Oxford Sirens: We’ve been in touch with the previous Blues student captains, who read our draft application and think it’s very strong. This is obviously encouraging! We’re now waiting to hear back from Sportsfed for a final decision, as we know it’s going to be discussed at the next meeting (in Michelmas).

All this aside, I’m confident that the attention cheer in general has been getting will lend credence to our claims that it’s a sport the university should be rewarding with Blues status and all the prestige that confers! Its recognition as an Olympic sport has certainly helped make cheer mainstream and any momentum we’ve built recently has only been attempting to build on that.

I should point out that my predecessor, Hannah Hayler, has actually been doing this fantastic work driving the Blues application thus far, so she deserves any and all credit for any eventual success we might have. I only took over a few months ago and have mostly been organising the various interviews we’ve been having to get the word out.

My personal hope is that the positive press will show the committee that the Sirens are creating positive sentiment for the university amongst the wider public, particularly helping to cultivate an image of Oxford as a forward-looking institution. After all, people are always surprised to hear that such an old university has a thriving (and nationally competitive!) cheerleading squad, of all things, and so I believe that people hearing about us paints the university as a whole in a good light.

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