Friday 4th July 2025
Blog Page 599

Luxury fashion in 2019- will it ever be ‘accessible’?

Sophie Grapentin
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Luxury fashion in 2019- will it ever be ‘accessible’?

Anna Wintour once said that one of the things she adored most about the fashion industry is its constant drive to evolve and its focus on the future. Karl Lagerfeld mused that fashion is a mirror of the zeitgeist and that nothing is more unsettled than the zeitgeist. Looking at the developments in the world of luxury fashion it sure seems to have changed a lot – a new focus on ethical consumerism has led to the invention of new materials such as vegan leathers, a growing second-hand market makes status symbols like a Hermès bag more readily available than ever and renting concepts like ‘Rent the runway’ make clothes as exchangeable as library books. On the other hand, some aspects that make high quality high price fashion so luxurious have remained surprisingly continuous. With all the developments that make luxury fashion more accessible and by necessity also less exclusive, it was only a matter of time until stars and actors had come up with a new and even more exclusive way to dress: vintage designer fashion. A general trend towards personalisation and customisation is also visible. Last year Louis Vuitton released a collection of colourful patches you could choose from to create a unique one-of-a-kind bag or purse. 

With the idea of ethical consumerism consumers now want fashion that does not just fit their personal aesthetic but also expresses their personal moral code. Stella McCartney’s designs for example do not use any animal products. She uses recycled polyester instead of calf leather and is supporting research into cruelty free silk thread created through replicating the way in which spiders spin their silky nets. Earlier this year the world’s first vegan fashion week was organised in Los Angeles.  

Owning a piece of high end fashion is always a status symbol and the industry has often used limited edition colourways and long waiting times to create a feeling of exclusivity. Even if you had the $10,000 that could buy you a Hermès Birkin bag, your name would only be put down on a waiting list. Second stores and resale websites for designer brands have made it much easier to access status symbols like the Birkin, even if you aren’t Victoria Beckham or one of the Kardashians. Another way in which more people can participate in the world of luxury fashion is renting. Different services offer different renting systems. A subscription style like ‘Rent the runway’ will let you adopt a piece for up to a month before you have to send it back. Others offer special occasion items, namely ball gowns, to borrow for a few days. And in many ways this concept makes a lot of sense. Ballgowns are among the dresses that rarely get worn twice. They take up a lot of space in your wardrobe and you don’t have the deal with the dry-cleaning . So there are many good reasons to outsource all these problems to a professional. 

Still, what is defined as luxury fashion is constantly changing and for every development that makes high quality and high end clothing available more widely, there is a shift to create a new unreachable standard only possible for very few people. The luxury dresses of choice for red carpet events have lately been surprisingly often vintage. Do you remember Cardi B’s vintage Thierry Mugler gown from the 2019 Grammy’s? Or Kim Kardashian showing up in a skin-tight sheer 90s Paul Gaultier look earlier last month? When it comes to vintage fashion it is not just the price that makes it so exclusive. Pieces like these are difficult to find and you will either need a lot of time spent looking through charity shops, eBay listings and estate sales or have very good personal relations to a vintage dealer to get them. 

While many changes in the industry have allowed more people than ever before to participate in the circus that is high end designer fashion, stylists and celebrities also keep finding new ways to ensure extreme exclusivity – mainly vintage and customisation. To be able to own or even just wear a dress like that you have to know the right people.  

But this personal connection that makes clothing so luxurious is not exclusive to high end designer pieces. While my own wardrobe does not sport any fancy designer pieces, there are a few things in there that to me embody true luxury. My favourite is a bright red evening dress. It is not only ethically produced by a woman I know and adore but also made exactly to my measurements. Because it is made from ethically sourced fabric I know that only five were ever sold. It fulfils all the requirements I could ask for in a glamorous dress: it is unique and rare, fits my ethical standards as well as my body and I feel emotionally connected to not only the piece itself but also the people who created it. It shows: the things that make the high end dresses described above so special and luxurious are not all related to a high price tag.  

Love, Lust and Angst

Josh Taylor
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Love, Lust and Angst

With ruthless contempt for form, clarity, elegance, wholeness, and realism, he paints with intuitive strength of talent the most subtle visions of the soul.” So Arne Eggum described Munch in 1984, and so do we have a description that still rings true some 35 years on for the expressionist master of angst. Perhaps the only thing missing from the list of Munch’s artistic disregard is that of sensual discretion: in his ‘soulscapes’, Munch explores an almost perverse fascination with sexuality and femininity. They are the focal points of much of his print works that provide a thematic foundation to his works almost on a part with his introspective talent. The British Museum exhibition exploring Munch’s sensual prints, entitled Love and Angst, may just have easily been titled Lust and Angst, a name perhaps better suited to describing frames filled with recurring phallic symbols and sperm cell borders. Inspired by the Bohemian-cum-anarchist Hans Jaeger, Munch (a good name for intellectual grand-standing, as it’s not pronounced how it’s spelt) came to treat art as an “attempt to explain life and its meaning to [him]self” .Much of the angst seen in his works is rooted in the difficult social transformation from Jaeger-esque Bohemianism to an industrialised, modern world. This same time period saw the hyper-sexual strands of Freudian thought emerge with great publicity, and it is likely that Freudian psycho-analysis branched into Munch’s own self-perception, resulting in the evocatively sensual style Munch has become recognisable for.

The exhibition wastes no time in establishing the influences of these two men: walking in you immediately find Munch’s infamously introspective self-portrait. Bland, indistinct features are overwhelmed by a sea of black, that deep black which is only possible on a lithograph. The eerie glare of such a normal face floating without a neck as if drowning, trying to keep his head above water, implies that the real monster, unspoken and unseen, lies within: it is the black of the deeper soul which provides the angst, not the outward appearance of man. Turning immediately round a corner, you encounter an enigmatic portrait of Hans Jaeger; the description next to it sufficiently Bohemian and complimentary of his influences on Munch. An elusively intriguing portrait, it is difficult to pin the man down as you find yourself drawn in, but rather unsure where to look. And so the scene is set: here we have a man of great artistic potential, with introspective expressionism that, only after the gentle nudging of an anarchist and in the emerging growth of psychology, truly came to life in its jealous, sensual, guilty, layered forms. Following a quasi-chronological development of Munch’s career the exhibition hits all the expected notes. The Frieze of Life, a lithograph print of The Scream, and The Sick Child, all rightly feature in this exhibition (and likely on many an Instagram story), and serve as good signposts for Munch’s progression as an artist.

To find the real intrigue and power of Munch though, one must look deeper into his ability to develop themes and prints, adding subtleties of colour and complexity that one can only appreciate fully when seeing versions side by side. These rows of prints, developed from one frame to the next, are where Munch really comes to life. Take Towards the Forest: three variations of one print, depicting an embracing couple standing at the edge of the forest, looking inwards. With each print, the forest gains detail; by the third variation, the forest is marked with twigs, tangled brush, and large tree branches, compared to mere outlines of shapes in the first print. The couple, in the same position but now different surroundings, take on a new character: sorrowful, overwhelmed, and contemplating something far more pessimistic than before. They become much more dependent on each other, the physical contact of their embrace now supportive, not solely loving. Munch adds a visceral tone to each print: he is not merely painting over a canvas, but carving notches and nooks into a physical manifestation of the soulscape he is trying to create. If visceral sensuality is only implied in Towards the Forest, it is the foundation stone for his exploration of women, habitually associating them with the femme fatale. Munch’s early experiences with women were dominated by tragedy: his mother and favourite sister died of consumption during his childhood, his younger sister developed schizophrenia (which Munch feared he had inherited too), and he never married. It is little wonder that these experiences led to a melancholic frustration with femininity, combined with a perceived fragility, to culminate in a repressed obsession with female sensuality. Vampire, Puberty, The Madonna, and The Kiss all revolve around the female nude. Displayed alongside each other in a row of women who resemble pre-Raphaelite muses (think Kate Bush in Wuthering Heights), each contains such deep-rooted sensual frustration that it is difficult to know where to begin. The nudity itself, especially of a young girl in Puberty; the disgruntled foetus floating in the corner of The Madonna; the voyeurism of nude kissing in front of a window in The Kiss; the billowing strands of red hair entangling an embracer in Vampire: the sensual elements are endless. There are even sperm cell borders on several works and recurring phallic symbols disguised as the sun’s reflection on a body of water. Confused frustration and hyper-sensuality penetrate each work, yet underlying them all is a feminine fragility Munch experienced all too well. Puberty shows a girl, staring directly at the viewer, frightened by her being observed, a young girl lost in a vast world. Vampire is an embrace, a woman resting on top of a man, a symbiotic dependency verging on parasitism. The Madonna has a perverse sense of peace, her eyes close to shut, looking slightly fatigued, resting calmly. The woman in The Kiss looks too weak to stand: without her partner holding her she may well fall through the window behind. Munch’s capacity for inner-exploration through development of prints and themes is why, in spite of his work’s continued capacity to make the viewer uncomfortable, his artistic appeal has endured. His angst at the emerging modern world and sensual frustration at women he could never seem to understand combine to create an impactful exhibition at the British Museum, where his art is allowed to flourish in its own brilliance, without forgetting the importance of the influences he received.

The Sensuality of Female Loneliness

Amber Sidney-Woollett
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The Sensuality of Female Loneliness

Erica Garza’s memoir, Getting Off, about her struggle with porn and sex addiction concludes with her looking back on a photograph on her as a young child wearing a bright orange T-shirt with ‘BOYS’ emblazoned upon it in thick black letters. “Look at me, BOYS,” Garza writes, summoning the voice of her child-self, “I’m a girl and I am sexual. I’m a girl and I have desires. I’m a girl and I am proud. Look at me looking at you.”

Though this might seem to gesture towards Garza’s self-confidence, this could not be further from the truth of how she actually feels throughout her adolescence and even into adulthood. The interplay of “I’m” and “I am” carefully illustrates Garza’s discomfort with herself, her uncertainty about her identity as ‘a girl’ being reflected through the linguistic contraction each time. Though she has always embraced her sexuality and desires, her relationship with her gender has been more problematic. Garza always sees herself as a ‘girl’ not a ‘woman’ until she has learned to overcome her addictions, memorialising herself as ‘the girl’ who is ‘waiting for someone to show her some interest so she can put the loneliness away for a few hours.’ In Getting Off, Garza’s loneliness has a personality and personhood of its own. It takes the form of many different things through the memoir, but most frequently, that of Garza’s own self-destructive and transgressive sexual addiction and desire. She fills herself with a penis only to feel empty again following the encounter. Even the concluding lines of her memoir indicate this: “look at me looking at you,” portends to this estrangement and the distance which has been created between herself and the “boys.”

The protagonist of Janet Fitch’s White Oleander, Astrid, ends up in foster-care after her mother is imprisoned for the murder of a formerlover, and also casts herself into metaphor: “I’m a fish swimming by Ray, catch me if you can.” The fluidity of this image and Astrid’s quickness at selecting it indicates that her sense of her own sensuality is as malleable and ever-changing. “My loneliness tasted like pennies,” Astrid complains after writing a letter to her mother who encourages her to nurture her feelings of isolation. “Loneliness is the human condition,” Ingrid declares. “Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space.” This image of emptiness is a familiar motif of female writing where there is always a sense that they are waiting for something to come along and complete them.

In Anne Sexton’s poem ‘The Touch,’ the narrator describes her hunger for human contact and her ecstasy when she makes contact in the final stanza. “And all this is metaphor,” Sexton explains, “An ordinary hand – just lonely / for something to touch / that touches back. / The dog won’t do it.” The reference to her pet makes these lines almost bathetic whilst simultaneously exposing the very real effects of loneliness which can pervade through a persona completely. This disjoint between the real and the imagined is carried through by Garza who opens chapter five, ‘The Mean Girl,’ with the proclamation ‘We’re not making love […] We’re fucking.’ Anaïs Nin comments in her 1930 diaries that “Man can never know the loneliness a woman knows. Man lies in the woman’s womb only to gather strength, he nourishes himself from this fusion,’ whereas when women engage with their sensuality, they turn always to metaphor and speak in oxymoronic expressions. “I burn the way money burns,” Anne Sexton writes in her poem ‘The Breast’.

Sex and death are fundamental to the human experience and therefore the literary one. What is then most powerful and unusual about Sexton’s poetry is the fact she does not shy away from these taboo themes. She speaks openly of the female anatomy and sexual desire to the extent that her work might almost be deemed pornographic, her poems deliberately descend into allegory and metaphor in order to avoid such an indictment. The title: ‘The Ballard of the Lonely Masturbator’ already seems ironic, as if Sexton intends to exploit our own discomfort about such private acts. The ‘masturbator’ is by their very nature ‘lonely’ as if they were not ‘alone’ they would presumably be engaged in a sexual act of a slightly different nature. Similarly, Uterus is full of people, which bizarrely contradicts the sanctity of this physical ‘realm’ from which life comes forth, as the opening lines show: “Everyone in me is a bird./I am beating all my wings.” With this intense focus on the female anatomy, implied by the poem’s title, there comes a strange dislocation of the woman herself from her body as she morphs into some sort of visceral case to house birds, deriving her strength from these birds’ energy.

This can become a metaphor for looking at writing by women as the language they use is inherently a masculine one, according to Helen Cixious in The Laugh of the Medusa, a “[w]oman must write herself…must put herself into the text.” Yet what we see here is that there is no space left for the female voice to enter the poem, or her own body, as both have been overrun by “[e]veryone” else.


Aid should not be given selfishly

Becky Clark
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Aid should not be given selfishly

The Tory leadership election is heating up, and with it is the anti-aid rhetoric. Leadership hopeful Esther McVey has pledged to cut the UK’s foreign aid budget in half by £7bn to further fund schools and the police force. In a similar vein, Boris Johnson, the former Foreign Secretary and current frontrunner in the leadership contest, has previously called for the Department for International Development (DfID) to be shut down and instead subsumed by the Foreign Office. A notable exception is fellow contender and current International Development Secretary Rory Stewart, but his odds of becoming the next PM are looking rather thin.

This aid-sceptical sentiment is widely shared by politicians and the public alike. And when just this past month, poverty in Britain has been described as “systematic” and “tragic” by the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, you might think it reasonable for the government to at the very least restructure foreign aid to promote the UK’s interests. Yet such a view overlooks the compassionate case for aid, which should supersede any self-interested motives.

In his seminal essay Famine, Affluence and Morality, the philosopher Peter Singer eloquently articulates an argument for giving aid, contending that “if it is within our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.” According to Singer, it is immoral for rich individuals to spend money on luxuries rather than on reducing absolute poverty.

Even if you think that’s too demanding a requirement, there are many other reasons to think that Britain has a moral duty to give aid. For one thing, a person’s country of birth is a matter of luck rather than choice, and so there is no moral justification as to why one’s country of birth should be such a significant determinant of one’s life opportunities – giving aid is one way to compensate for this unjustified inequality. For another, the UK arguably owes reparations to many of the same low-income countries for past colonial injustices which the UK government previously committed and from which its citizens (including myself) have benefited.

Regardless of what argument you find to be most convincing, there certainly seems to be a strong ethical case for the UK giving aid to low-income countries in which people continue to live in extreme poverty. Of course, whether aid works at all is a separate matter; yet despite what the Daily Mail headlines might suggest, it cannot be denied that British aid has achieved a significant amount of good. To give just one example, DfID’s contributions to Gavi, the global vaccine alliance which immunises children against preventable diseases, have already gone a long way to reach its goal of saving the lives of 1.4 million children between 2016 and 2020 – this is a remarkable achievement which should not be diminished by aid sceptics.

Whilst it is true that aid can in certain instances harm its recipient countries, it is equally true that aid can have a hugely positive effect on them. The impact of foreign aid is far more nuanced than the media would have us believe, dependent on its specific nature and purpose. Take for instance the common criticism that aid is frequently siphoned off by corrupt officials, thus advantaging corrupt leaders in power at the expense of its intended recipients. We should, of course, be very concerned about this real possibility. However, the best response is not to cease to give aid altogether; instead, we should reduce instances of government-to-government aid to authoritarian regimes, require good governance conditions for any bilateral aid which does still occur, and promote bottom-up development initiatives which give more agency and show greater respect to citizens.

Ideally, foreign aid would simultaneously help the world’s poorest and advance the UK’s national interest. However, there are inevitably trade-offs involved in giving aid. The most efficient poverty-reducing interventions are often at odds with the type of aid which best promotes Britain’s strategic aims, such as combatting terrorism, fostering trade relations and creating new opportunities for UK businesses.

When Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson argued that UK foreign aid should be reorientated towards supporting British interests in an opportunistic move to enjoy the best of both worlds: a situation whereby the UK still technically spends 0.7% of its Gross National Income on Overseas Development Aid, thus giving the UK soft power on the world stage, whilst the spending of that money is increasingly shifted towards the pursuit of national goals over the most charitable ones.

This proposal is part of a worrying trend whereby progressively less British aid is being spent on the world’s most needy countries. Whilst in 2013 only 12% of the UK’s aid budget was spent outside of DfID, this had more than doubled to 27% by 2017. These other government departments do not have the same levels of transparency as DfID, nor as strong a commitment to improving the welfare of developing countries.

Indeed, the Institute for Fiscal Studies noted in its 2017 report that whilst it is enshrined into UK law that the primary objective of UK Overseas Development Aid is to alleviate global poverty, it is highly questionable whether government departments outside of DfID have met this obligation when spending British aid. Moreover, the UK government continues to spend hundreds of millions of the aid budget in middle-income countries; it seems outrageous that this can be passed off as ‘aid’ when the money is clearly not being spent with the world’s poorest in mind.

To give but one example, I was shocked when the DfID Facebook page proudly shared an article in April with the headline ‘Nigerian women warned not to come to Britain in government campaign’. It turns out that the UK government is using aid money to back an advertising campaign urging Nigerian women not to immigrate since this may put them at risk of human trafficking. Rather than making the journey easier for such women, tackling the poor conditions which lead people to make the difficult decision to leave their home country in the first place, or combatting illegal traffickers directly, the UK government has decided to support this campaign in a barely-disguised self-serving attempt to appease anti-immigrant popular opinion.

It’s no surprise that Theresa May, who famously proclaimed at the 2016 Conservative Party conference that “if you believe you are a citizen of the world, you’re a citizen of nowhere”, has headed up a government which has chosen to put the national interest ahead of the alleviation of human suffering. Given the current frontrunners in the Conservative leadership election, the use of foreign aid as an easy scapegoat seems unlikely to change anytime soon. What the UK government has shamefully failed to recognise is that aid should be given altruistically, not selfishly.

Corpus warns students of mumps outbreak

Angus Brown
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Corpus warns students of mumps outbreak

Corpus Christi has issued an email warning students of a mumps outbreak amongst the student population.

In an email addressed to “all students and tutors”, Corpus Christi’s Welfare Dean and College Nurse wrote that: “A number of students have been diagnosed with mumps so we thought it important to send out a message advising students what they need to look out for and what to do if they think they have mumps and advising tutors that mumps is circulating amongst the student body.”

The email quotes the diagnosis of mumps from the NHS website as follows: “Mumps is a contagious viral infection.  It is most recognisable by the painful swellings at the side of the face under the ears (the parotid glands), giving a person with mumps a distinctive “hamster face” appearance. 

“Other symptoms of mumps include headaches, joint pain and a high temperature, which may develop a few days before the swelling of the parotid glands.”

The email further advises students to “See the College Doctor (but inform the receptionist that you think you have mumps so they are aware prior to your arrival at the surgery) or contact the College Nurse.

“Rest, drink adequate fluids, and take paracetamol or ibuprofen for symptomatic relief.

“Apply warm or cold packs to the parotid gland as it may ease discomfort. 

“Do not attend tutorials, lectures or interact with other students for 5 days after the initial development of parotitis (inflammation of a parotid gland).  If you are able to go home it would be advisable to do so.”

It also notes that “Mumps is usually a self-limiting condition. It will usually resolve over 1–2 weeks, with no long-term consequences and antibiotic treatment is not required.”

Oxford was previously affected by a mumps outbreak at University College in October 2018.

Corpus Christi College has been contacted for comment.

If you are worried that you might have contracted mumps contact your GP for advice.

Foxes do the double in college Futsal

Cerys Baines
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Foxes do the double in college Futsal

A week of Futsal for 20 college teams and over 100 players reached its dramatic climax on Friday when the knockout stages of Women’s Futsal Cuppers 2019 were contested at Acer Nethercott Hall at Iffley.

The first quarter-final saw Saints 2nds (St Anne’s and St John’s) – who had only just scraped into the knockout stages after a last-minute equaliser against Worcester – face Lincoln 1sts. The first half of the game epotimised the differences between football and futsal, as it involved a lot of quick, pacey play, with the ball being knocked around very frequently. This style of play seemed to suit Lincoln and they were quick to take advantage of this, going 1-0 after a few minutes. However, Saints were quick to strike back, and a shot from kick-off from Becca North swept into the top right-hand corner of the Lincoln goal to make it 1-1.

After an uneventful second half in terms of chances, the game went to penalties. Shots from both sides either missed or were saved, which is often the case in a futsal penalty shootout, as the smaller nets mean strikers find it more difficult to hit the target, while goalkeepers has a much higher chance of success than in football. In the end, the Saints had another lucky passage through to the next round, winning 2-1 on penalties.

The M&Ms (Merton and Mansfield) managed to pull off a 1-0 victory in their quarter-final against Wadham thanks to a goal from Brigid Lahiff, the captain of the new Blues Futsal team who are set to be competing in BUCS next season. This meant they secured their place in the semi-finals where they faced Saints 2nds, who were already flagging from their tough quarter final game.

The first half of this semi-final fixture was a well-balanced and intense game, with chances being created by both sides. Saints employed the tactic of sending long balls over the top, but unfortunately for them, their striker had difficulty getting on the end of them. However, the Saints keeper balanced the game out, making a series of excellent saves to deny the M&Ms any luck. Despite this, things seemed to pick up for the M&Ms in the second half as they were able to increase the tempo and dominate possession. Their efforts were rewarded when, after receiving the ball from a corner, captain Lore Vleugels smashed the ball into the back of the net, sealing a 1-0 victory for the M&Ms, and guaranteeing her side a prestigious place in the final.

Saints 1sts also managed to nab a spot in the other semi-final match, after goals from Taiye Lawal and Jasmine Savage gave them a 2-0 victory over Magdalen in the quarters. They were up against tough opposition – none other than the mighty Foxes. The conglomerate of post-grad colleges had breezed through the group stages unbeaten and were fresh from a 3-0 win over St Catz in their quarter-final.

Surprisingly though, there were scenes in the first half. After a Foxes player went down, Saints took the initiative and managed to slot one past the keeper – only the second goal the Foxes had conceded in the whole competition. The rest of the half was shaky and hectic, as the Foxes were desperate not to let Saints extend their lead.

However, after a motivating half-time pep talk, the Foxes were ready to get back into the game. Different tactics were employed and the Foxes were now better at keeping track of the Saints striker Taiye Lawal, which meant the chances of success for their opposition were drastically reduced. A quick double from the Foxes put them back in the lead, yet there was still a lot to play for and Saints continued to defend very well and with a lot of heart. However, it was not to be for the Saints, and in the end the Foxes knocked them out of the park, finishing the game with a 4-1 victory. The final was shaping up to be an immense battle indeed.

At precisely 2:15, with the air in the hall becoming increasingly stuffy, said battle did commence. The Foxes had an extremely strong side including Lena Reim – the German tower who is renowned for pressuring and getting the ball off her opponents – Jenny Richards – the athletics Blue in shotput – and Kiah Rutz – the veteran football Blue – among others. On the other hand, due to lack of numbers, the M&Ms had to scrape around to get a team together, yet perhaps this was for the best, as Catz-turned-M&Ms keeper Robyn Harvey-Smith turned out to be instrumental in keeping the M&Ms in the game.

On the whole, the final was a very balanced game, with excellent passing and combinations on both sides. Both teams got some chances on goal, with Harvey-Smith making some monumental saves to deny the Foxes, and one shot from the M&Ms heading into the net through the legs of the Foxes keeper before in the last millisecond, she was able to stop the ball rolling over the line. However enjoyable the game was for both participants and spectators, it eventually ended at a meager 0-0 draw, meaning the champion of Futsal Cuppers would be determined by a penalty shootout.

In some controversial scenes, the Foxes did not allow Harvey-Smith to take up her place in goal for the M&Ms due to her being from another college, and this left captain Vleugels to take the helm and try and prevent any Foxes glory. In the end, it was the Foxes who clinched victory, winning 4-3 on penalties, making them the first team to do the double in Futsal, having also won the inter-collegiate Futsal league this year.

Review: A View from the Bridge – ‘dramatic, gripping and surprisingly funny’

Thomas Player
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Review: A View from the Bridge – ‘dramatic, gripping and surprisingly funny’

“Most of the time we settle for half and I like it better.”

Rest assured, you won’t have to settle for half with this accomplished production of Arthur Miller’s 1956 tragedy. Eddie Carbone, a straightforward and devoted family man, lives in “the slum that faces the bay on the seaward side of Brooklyn Bridge” with his wife Beatrice and niece Catherine. He is only too proud to put up his wife’s cousins when they “submarine” in on a ship from Italy, looking for illicit work in the land of opportunity.

The two cousins are almost polar opposites: strong, proud, hardworking Marco, and funny, blond, theatrical Rodolpho. Almost as soon as he walks through the door Rodolpho becomes the focus of the family’s attention: Catherine rapidly falls for his youthful charm, while Eddie takes an instant dislike, quickly coming to resent the stranger living on his floor. In Eddie’s eyes Marco is a suitably manly man, proud and keen to earn money to support his family back home. He suspects that Rodolpho, on the other hand, is a man’s man in the wrong way: a blond “punk” that’s “not right” as Eddie equivocates to his lawyer. Suffice to say that it’s not at all the match Eddie had imagined for his beloved niece.

The play is narrated by the lawyer Alfieri, who soon comes to understand the inevitably of our protagonist’s situation: Eddie is a fiercely tribal man caught between his overzealous protectiveness and misplaced love for his niece, and his deep seated mistrust of the unsuitable “punk” she so desperately wishes to marry.

Almost all of the action takes place in the Carbones’ front room, and the boiler-like atmosphere ramps up the pressure slowly throughout – you just know it isn’t going to end well. Performed with a pared back staging in the intimate black-box Pilch theatre, this production puts the performances centre stage.

The small cast were very impressive, wrangling bravely with the Brooklyn accent throughout and only occasionally slipping into “generic American”. Any blips can easily be put down to first night nerves, and there were some real standout performances.

Caleb Barron as Eddie deserves a special mention – his performance was nuanced and gripping, turning on a dime from genial husband and uncle to enraged patriarch. Joe Stanton played Alfieri, the lawyer-cum-narrator, with flair. At first this character seemed a bit out of place, even corny, pausing the action every ten minutes to give us his mob-lawyer opinion, but in the end I came to enjoy his conspiratorial style. He is our window onto these characters, and helps us to see how Eddie’s uncompromising view of the world leads to his inevitable fall.

The performance I saw ran very smoothly, which is no mean feat on an opening night. The set decoration and costume was minimal but effective, with clever use of lighting and music delineating the handful of different settings. One gripe: in any small theatre there’s a danger of bright lighting on stage leaving you and the rest of the audience semi-illuminated, making it hard to immerse yourself in the action. This play was no exception, with most of the “indoors” scenes very brightly lit – as a humble student newspaper reviewer I wouldn’t claim to know if this is inevitable, or if it could be improved, but there it is nevertheless.

The fact that I’m having to scrabble around amongst lighting technicalities to look for criticisms should give you some idea of how much I enjoyed this play. All in all it was a dramatic, gripping, and surprisingly funny story of love, selfishness, and prejudice, performed by a talented cast and crew – you won’t be disappointed.

Seventh heaven for OUCC at Lords

Toby Pettman
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Seventh heaven for OUCC at Lords

OUCC’s Men’s Blues side made it seven varsity wins in a row at Lords this week, with a comfortable win over the light blues.

Despite heavy cloud cover and a green wicket, captain Toby Pettman (leading the side in the absence of Alex Rackow who was stuck in the library) won the toss and chose to bat. However, the Cambridge seamers responded well to being put in to field by taking 3 quick wickets within the first 5 overs, as Oxford slumped to 28-3. However, Hargrave continued unphased by this, making his way to an excellent 50 at just shy of a run a ball, through a combination of crunching drives and cuts off the seamers and sweeps off the spinners.

He was superbly assisted by Jei Diwakar, on his Blues varsity debut, who was happy to play second fiddle to Hargrave, picking up singles with ease and finding the boundary with a series of eye-catching cover drives. The two combined to add 91 for the 4th wicket, dragging Oxford out of trouble before Hargrave eventually succumbed to his favoured sweep. This brought Duxbury to the crease, and him and Diwakar continued to work the ball around in the middle with a succession of quick singles. Diwakar brought up his 50 off around 70 balls, but when Duxbury was undone by the Cambridge leg spinner, an Oxford batting collapse followed.

Pettman hit his first ball for four, then ran himself out next ball, and Diwakar followed suit 2 overs later, running himself out for a well-made 52. Searle and Mingard were then swiftly back in the pavilion as well, and all of a sudden Oxford had collapsed from 150-4 to 174-9.

Enter number 11 Matt Fanning. He combined with Freddie Foster to not only bat out the remaining 9 overs, but also put on another 53 runs, with Foster making 26 and Fanning reaching 29 off only 33 balls. The highlight of their partnership came with Fanning taking more than 10 off the last over to give Oxford the momentum going into the break. The two batted with tremendous spirit and nous, with every run scored being loudly cheered by the Oxford balcony, as the team spirit of the Dark Blues shone through. It was to be a decisive, match-winning partnership, posting a slightly under-par but very competitive score of 227.

When it was their turn to bat, Cambridge responded well against the opening pair of Pettman and Searle. The Oxford openers extracted more pace and bounce from the wicket than the Cambridge bowlers and were able to regularly beat the bat, but so too were the Light Blue openers able to find the boundary, as they made their way to 45-0 after the opening powerplay.

Hereupon Pettman introduced Fanning and Foster to the bowling attack, – the heroes of the batting innings – and their impact was instant as Foster bowled the Cambridge opener with his first ball. Both Fanning and Foster ended with 3 wickets apiece, with Foster removing both openers and Fanning vitally removing the Cambridge captain for 0. The two pegged the Tabs back with a superb display of discipline to 74-5.

From here, it always looked unlikely that Cambridge would reach their target. Mingard and Diwakar were introduced into the attack and kept the pressure on as the run rate built. Diwakar ended up with two wickets to go with his 50 earlier in the day, meaning that Pettman and Searle were able to return to finish off the job against the Cambridge tail. Cambridge ended up being bowled out for 171, which coincidentally had been almost exactly the score when Fanning and Foster had come to the crease with Oxford 9 down.

Oxford have now won the last 7 varsity matches at Lords, and this win was particularly sweet having lost the T20 game in Cambridge the week before off the last ball. Fanning was rewarded with the man of the match award, although him and Foster both enjoyed equally superb days. All eyes will now be on the four-day first class match in Fenners, starting on the 2nd July, where Oxford will be looking to win their first ‘away series’ since 2013.

Lady Pat. R. Honising – First, Blue, or Spouse?

Lady Pat R. Honising
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Lady Pat. R. Honising – First, Blue, or Spouse?

Dear Agony Aunt,

It’s getting close to the end of my last year in Oxford… so close that I am writing to you instead of revising for my final tomorrow. That’s part of the issue – as the Lord above famously said, you aren’t really graduating Oxford unless you come out with a first, a spouse, or a blue, and I am currently on track to approximately zero of these things. Is it possible to get at least one in the three short weeks I have left here?

Lots of love,
A Frolicking Finalist

Dear Anon,

It’s a tough one my dear, I won’t beat around the bush. It is hard enough getting through scraping a low 2.i, a few unsuccessful tinder dates and an unused gym membership, nevermind a first, a spouse and a blue (I would know). But if we talk it through, however unlikely, you can take inspiration from the posters in the kitchens of all the yummy mummies in the nation and say that anything is possible. 

If we’re going to do this, we should start by realistic. Judging by the fact that you’re writing this the day before a final, I’ll be honest, it might be tactical to admit to yourself that you might have to narrow your pursuits to the latter two achievements. A first unfortunately doesn’t happen overnight, honey. I don’t know much about your sporting prowess either; it may be that it is somehow possible to get that sweet, sweet blue (but more importantly that sweet, sweet varsity profile picture) in three weeks, I quite honestly would not know. But, realistically, somehow I doubt that one too. It looks like finding a potential partner it is – so get in loser, we’re going spouse searching.

So you may be thinking, is it possible to find a partner for life in the space of three short, finals-infested weeks? It may not be the most likely of outcomes, but compared to the other two it’s certainly the easiest task ahead. There are several methods you could take depending on how #risky or how #academicallynegligent you’re feeling. You’ve got finals on the horizon, so unless you’re taking them in college, what place better and with more potential than Exam Schools: it’s practically the Love Island Villa of Central Oxford. Who needs to spend that tense fifteen minutes in the Big Sweaty Anticipation Tent looking over their notes, when you can don your spiciest sub fusc and get on the chirpse. Really, I’m sure absolutely everybody will appreciate being hit on in this environment, honest!

Hopefully your better judgement told you that the previous method is probably not going to land you with anything other than a restraining order, and that it’s time for plan B. Whilst it’s probably not the most ideal place to find the love of your life (think less Villa, more Casa Amor), there’s always the ever-reliable eighth week club scene. According to several recent and accurate studies, some of the strongest relationships have started on the Bridge dancefloor, and I’m sure if you give them a shoutout in your vows you’ll probably get free queue jump and maybe even a drinks token if you’re lucky. So don’t give up hope just yet – dress to the nines and hit Park End Street with nothing but your provisional license and some fierce determination. Keep it respectful, somehow I am sure the fit girl you meet in the smoking area would probably not appreciate a proposal right there and then, but with the right kind of luck, you never know.

Best of luck, and remember to send your Auntie dearest a wedding invite when the time comes,

Lady Pat xxx 

A weekend to remember

Oliver Donaldson
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A weekend to remember

If anything, this year’s Champions League Final acted as a smokescreen (or more precisely a red flare) to cover the more exciting and controversial events of a jam-packed weekend for sports fans around the world. Liverpool’s 2-0 victory against Tottenham to seal the club’s sixth European Cup was a drab affair and an underwhelming climax to what many believe to have been the greatest Champions League season ever. If this was the case, then why was this such a memorable weekend?

First of all, the weekend was memorable for Anthony Joshua for all the wrong reasons as he suffered a catastrophic defeat in his American debut in Madison Square Garden at the hands of Mexican American boxer Andy Ruiz Jr – a man many had written off with Joshua being considered a 1-25 favourite and possessing clear physical advantages. However, the fighter, who some had compared to the “wilderness explorer” kid from the film Up due to his rounded physique, boxed impressively to force a seventh-round stoppage and bring the heavyweight division to a standstill.

Continuing on the theme of sporting upsets, England were defeated by Pakistan in the Cricket World Cup on Monday (a little after the weekend, I know), a team they had defeated 4-0 in a recent series and who had been humiliated by West Indies on the very same ground (Trent Bridge) on Friday last week. Pakistan, batting first, managed to accumulate a total of 348-8, with multiple higher order batsmen contributing impressive totals and with England’s lacklustre fielding proving costly. England, needing to pull off the highest run chase in World Cup history, were unable to build on centuries from Joe Root and Jos Buttler and fell agonizingly short (14 runs to be exact) with a final total of 334-9.

In fact, the weekend was even more disheartening for English sports fans as Phil Neville’s England Women’s team surprisingly lost 0-1 to New Zealand Women’s team at the Amex Stadium in Brighton in their final warm-up game before the FIFA Women’s World Cup. With the Lionesses getting their World Cup campaign underway against Scotland in Nice on Sunday the 9th of June, this result was not the ideal preparation they might have wanted – perhaps excusable due to the absence of important players such as Demi Stokes, Rachel Daly, Mary Earps and Jade Moore.

Elsewhere, however, British interest was high in Johanna Konta’s run to the quarter-finals (and then the semi-finals) of the French Open despite being ranked 26th in the world. Such is the unpredictability and excitement of the women’s draw these days, Serena Williams and world number one Naomi Osaka crashed out of the competition in the round of 32 on Saturday, leaving the draw relatively open – with the world number three Simona Halep the highest ranked player still in the competition going into the latter stages.

In the men’s competition, however, all of the big names are still lurking menacingly in the tournament as I write this, with Nadal and Federer due to play one another in what is sure to be an epic semi-final on Friday. With all of the world’s top five in the quarter-finals, the latter stages of this year’s French Open are a thrilling prospect.

The week leading into this weekend, too, has been significant for another sporting titan, as Formula One star Lewis Hamilton claimed his 77th career victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, his fourth trophy this season and a showing that bodes well going into this weekend’s Montreal race.

The favourite to claim the World Championship, Hamilton seems to be back on top form and will make Mercedes one to watch for the duration of this season.

In the same vein – that of an old order re-asserting their control – European champions Saracens mounted an impressive comeback from eleven points behind to defeat Exeter 37-34 in the Premiership final at Twickenham on Saturday. Despite a spirited performance from Exeter, Saracens prevailed and have now won five of the last nine Premiership crowns.

This was also their second double (winning the European
Champions Cup as well as the Premiership) in four years, which must make them one of the great all-time English club sides. With the game being contested so well and some of England’s key players featuring for both Exeter and the dominant Saracens, this bodes well for the Rugby World Cup which kicks off in Japan in September.

Across the pond, some of America’s biggest national sports have now reached the playoff finals stage. In basketball, a Kevin Durant-less Golden State Warriors put in a strong away performance to beat the Toronto Raptors 109-104 and to level the bestof-seven NBA Finals series at 1-1. The Warriors, looking to win their third NBA Championship in succession, face the prospect of playing game three of the NBA Finals in Oakland without some of their key players – shooting guard and three-point specialist Klay Thompson as well as small forward and two-time NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant.

In the NHL finals, Eastern Conference champion the Boston Bruins dismantled Western Conference champion the St. Louis Blues 7-2 on Saturday to take a 2-1 lead in the series. The 2019 Stanley Cup Finals are finely poised, however, with the Blues tying the Finals as they beat the Bruins 4-2 on Monday.

There was also a very significant end-of-season event which took place more locally last week and which came to a “head” on Saturday: Summer VIIIs. For those not interested in rowing, or those who only went along to drink themselves into a Pimms-induced stupor, the results of this jam-packed event may easily have gone amiss. With Oriel winning the headship in the men’s event and Wolfson winning in the women’s event, there were also numerous blades distributed at the end of an exciting week of rowing. Indeed, most of the talk on the final day centred around how the men’s division one was klaxoned and cancelled because one of the men’s crews went perpendicular to the bank and the race was deemed too dangerous to continue. This is testament to the appeal of sport that surpasses winning and losing: it’s the thrills and spills that draw us in.

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