Tuesday 22nd July 2025
Blog Page 743

Universities Minister criticises ‘institutional hostility’ to debate

Ryan Gould
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Universities Minister criticises ‘institutional hostility’ to debate

The government is to crackdown on free speech on university campuses as a string of Oxford societies cause controversy over speaker invites.

Sam Gyimah, Universities Minister, said yesterday that attempts to silence debate on campuses was “chilling”, and called for student societies to stamp out “institutional hostility” to unfashionable yet lawful views.

Mr Gyimah’s announcement, the first government intervention since the free speech duty was imposed on universities and colleges under the Education Act in 1986, comes after two JCR committee members of Queen’s College cautioned students about attending an event featuring controversial political commentator Brendan O’Neill.

Brendan O’Neill, editor of Spiked, speaking at an Oxford Union debate on freedom of speech and the right to offend

Mr O’Neill, once described by The Sun as “the most hated man on UK campuses,” is due to attend a Third Week dinner hosted by the College’s Addison Society.
The society says it “invites speakers to come and enjoy dinner before sharing their thoughts on a topic of their choice, after which the floor is opened to questions and discussion.”

The JCR’s equalities and welfare teams criticised the Addison Society’s decision to invite Mr O’Neill in a joint email to all students: “Brendan O’Neill is recognised for his controversial opinions, many of which have sparked accusations of transphobia, homophobia, and misogyny. As the Equalities Team we do not endorse the views held by Brendan O’Neill and express serious concern for the impact his words may have for members of the JCR,” the email read.

Mr Gyimah told the free speech summit that a “society in which people feel they have a legitimate right to stop someone expressing their views on campus simply because they are unfashionable or unpopular is rather chilling. There is a risk that overzealous interpretation of a dizzying variety of rules is acting as a brake on legal free speech on campus.”

Under current law, universities must comply with the Equalities Act, Prevent Duty, and existing measures imposed by the Office for Students, the new university regulator which came into force on April 1.

Student unions are often registered charities, and instead are regulated by charities law.
The Oxford SU policy handbook states: “We will not allow the Prevent Duty to restrict our learning, debate, and research: we will lobby for the University to actively promote freedom of expression, whilst protecting safe spaces and students’ right to protest.”
Spiked! magazine – of which Mr O’Neill is the editor – gave Oxford SU a “red” ranking in its “Free Speech University Rankings” for 2017. It cited the banning of a “pro-life group and a student magazine” in its findings. It also gave the University a “red” ranking for its apparent restriction of “offensive” and “needlessly provocative” speech.

Mr Gyimah will use the Office for Students to impose the new government guidance could fine institutions which fail to uphold the rules. The new guidance, Mr Gyimah said, will provide clarity of rules for students and universities, as “bureaucrats or wreckers” must be prevented from “exploiting gaps for their own ends.” Ministers will have input from the National Union of Students, university vice chancellors, and regulators in forming the new rules.

Mr Gyimah hopes action will be taken to protect lawful free speech in “a new chapter” for openness. So-called “no-platforming” would be banned under the new measures.
Last week, 120 students gathered to protest the alleged “TERF” (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) group Women’s Place.

A joint statement from Oxford SU’s LGBTQ+ campaign and the University’s LGBTQ+ society said that Women’s Place were “one of several groups dedicated to challenging trans people’s existing rights in the UK”, and claimed they have “profil[ed] trans women as male sexual predators and vilif[ied] trans activists as violent oppressors of free speech.”
A statement released by Women’s Place says the statement “defames” Woman’s Place and its members and “contains many inaccuracies”.

A protest against the group Women’s Place

Oxford SU told Cherwell that it is “keen for greater legislative clarity of free speech on campus, given the current conflicting and confusing guidance from the government.”
“The Joint Commission on Human Rights’s (JCHR) inquiry, and our submission into this earlier this year, highlight this confusion, and could be used as a starting point.”
The JCHR, a parliamentary committee, criticised Oxford SU in a March report for their support of a WomCam protest which shut down a pro-life event, called “Abortion in Ireland”, in November 2017, to which police were called.

An Oxford SU spokesperson told Cherwell at the time that “student groups should have the right to peacefully protest.

Queen’s JCR slams Brendan O’Neill invite

Jeremiah O'Mahony
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Queen’s JCR slams Brendan O’Neill invite

Committee members of Queen’s College JCR have warned students not to attend an event featuring controversial political commentator Brendan O’Neill.

The JCR’s Equalities and Welfare committees sent an email to all undergraduates which expressed “serious concern” about O’Neill’s views.

The Addison Society, which describes itself as “a student-run, nonprofit society” had invited O’Neill to a dinner event in third week.

O’Neill, once described by The Sun as “the most hated man on UK campuses,” is a columnist for The Spectator and an editor of Spiked, whose ‘Free Speech Rankings’ recently gave Oxford a ‘red’ rating for the fourth year in a row.

He told Cherwell: “At the Addison Society dinner I intend to speak frankly and openly about various issues, including feminism, transgenderism, and freedom of speech, among other things. I do not set out to ‘create a stir’ there.

“But given how easy it is to create a stir on university campuses these days – you only have to dissent ever so slightly from the illiberal, identitarian dogma of official student bodies to find yourself branded ‘inappropriate’ – I would not be surprised if a stir were to be created.

“I would advise any student who feels that he or she or ze or they might be detrimentally ‘impacted’ upon by contentious ideas to avoid the dinner and perhaps to take refuge in their beds.

“Someone will, I hope, inform them when it’s all over and safe for them to come out again.”

In their email, the Equalities and Welfare committees said: “Brendan O’Neill is recognised for his controversial opinions, many of which have sparked accusations of transphobia, homophobia and misogyny.

“As the Equalities Team we do not endorse the views held by Brendan O’Neill and express serious concern for the impact his words may have for members of the JCR.

“Whilst we support debating and discussing ideas, we believe that a formal dinner fails to provide an appropriate or adequate platform to discuss and challenge contentious political views.”

The Addison Society’s president, Robert Holbrook, wrote in an open reply to the Equalities and Welfare committees’ email: “We decided to invite Brendan O’Neill to the Addison Society because he is a stimulating and thought-provoking speaker, and because we understand inclusivity, at least in part, to be about giving representation to varied political positions, and giving the opportunity to members of the JCR to engage with and challenge them.

“These necessarily include opinions which many members of college, including ourselves, may at times find disagreeable or offensive.” Holbrook said that the event has received support from “many members of both the JCR and MCR at Queen’s.”

Queen’s JCR Equalities officer, Rachel Anderson-Deas, told Cherwell that “the Equalities and Welfare teams are not taking any steps to noplatform O’Neill.”

The Addison Society’s previous invitees include Sir Paul Leve, a decorated dimplomat, and John Mitchinson, head of research for the show QI.

In 2017, the college’s JCR voted to ban all members of the executive committee from “exclusive and/or secretive dining societies”.

However, the Addison Society was not included in the motion, as any member of the college can ballot for a place on its dinners.

Cherwell has contacted Queen’s College for comment.

Students launch ‘mixed-race’ group

Eve Webster
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Students launch ‘mixed-race’ group

Two Somerville students have started the Oxford Mixed Heritage Community, a group for students who identify as “mixed-race”.

The group was set up by Jessica Macdonald and Alyssa Crabb, two second-year students at Somerville.

They set up a Facebook page over the Easter vacation which has thirty members. A welcome event is planned at Somerville for third week, however the group is still unofficial.
The pair told Cherwell that they were inspired to create the group after the HumSoc’s Diwali Ball last year, when they felt Oxford was missing a group where people of mixed heritage could share this sense of community.

Nearly 700 Oxford undergraduates identify as having mixed heritage, according to the University statistics page.

Macdonald told Cherwell that while most of the members are “what you would describe as mixed-race,” the group aims to be as inclusionary as possible and is open to anyone who “feels like their heritage comes from more than one place.”

She mentioned that second- or third-generation immigrants may simultaneously identify with British culture and that of their family. “We want this society to bring together people of mixed heritage within the University and create a community. Our main aims are to put on events and encourage discussion of mixed identity at the university and generally.”
Macdonald said some people of mixed heritage may feel “pressured to pick a side,” and identify with one part of their heritage more than others. She hopes that the group will make people open to “identify as mixed and not have to chose anything in particular.”

The group is yet to become an official society, which requires being endorsed by a member of the University’s congregation.

Macdonald said she would prefer to be endorsed by a congregation member of mixed-heritage, since they would have “more interest and understanding for the issues.” However, due to a lack of representation of mixed-heritage staff at the university, she believed that finding someone “might be a struggle.”

Somerville JCR access officer and a member of the group, Emily Louise, told Cherwell: “Being of mixed heritage can bring with it challenges. It can be tough finding your place and figuring out your identity, even more so in a space like Oxford.

“I think it really is a great idea to have a society which acknowledges that and that will hopefully build a community between individuals who can relate. I’m looking forward to the first mixer and seeing the group grow.”

The founders plan to arrange further social events this term, and to arrange a panel of influential people of mixed-heritage next year.

The group’s launch follows that of the Oxford Cultural Hub (OxCH), Oxford’s first joint BME society, which held its inaugural event in February. OxCH combines five BME societies from across the university: OUIS, ACS, HumSoc, PakSoc, and SikhSoc.

Haroon Zaman, cofounder of OxCH and president of PakSoc, told Cherwell: “United, we can ensure that the people who come after us from all these diverse backgrounds have the right kind of representation and influence and have the best possible university experience.”

Josh Tulloch, another OxCH cofounder, said: “There are unique challenges facing the BME community in Oxford.

“Yes, there are many things that divide us, but we are united in the vibrance of our cultures, the spice in our foods, our love of the dancefloor and the vim with which we approach life.”

He added: “This organisation aims to empower you, the members of our societies, to allow you to claim this space as your own. To relish in what makes you different. For we are not only different, but we are a distinguished set of communities.”

St Hilda’s creates new trans rep

Abby Ridsdill-Smith
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St Hilda’s creates new trans rep

St Hilda’s College JCR has passed a motion to appoint a transgender students’ officer.

The motion, which passed with 63 votes and 1 abstention, proposed that the JCR “introduce the Transgender Students officer as a JCR committee position,” which will be “reabsorbed into the responsibilities of the LGBTQ+ officer, if there is no one eligible who wishes to run for the role.”

Hilda’s will be the fifth college to introduce a transgender students officer, following Wadham, LMH, Magdalen, and St Hugh’s.

St Hilda’s LGBTQ+ officer and proposer of the motion, Poppy Price, told Cherwell: “After consultation with various students, we agreed that the introduction of a trans students officer would help to improve the welfare of trans students in college as well as providing them with a voice on the committee, as valued members of our community.

“I am so glad that the motion passed almost unanimously, and I am proud of our JCR for being willing to take this progressive step. I hope that in the future we will see more colleges follow suit.”

St Hilda’s JCR president, Antara Jaidev, told Cherwell: “The decision to introduce a Trans Rep at Hilda’s was a logical next step for a college that has a rich history of inclusivity and progress.

“The position will cater to the needs of students who identify as transgender, gender non-conforming, or those who believe they should be represented by the Trans Students Officer.

“The St Hilda’s JCR will ensure we leave no stone unturned when it comes to the welfare of every one of our members. I am personally brimming with pride to be part of a college that is so dedicated to equal representation.”

Uni executives defend grad rent hike

Barney Pite
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Uni executives defend grad rent hike

Members of the University’s governing body has defended the 5.8% price rise in graduate rent at an Oxford SU meeting.

Pro-Vice Chancellor for Planning and Resources, Dr David Prout, was asked whether he was concerned about possible student dropouts due to the increase in fees. Prout said: “A balance has to be struck. A line is drawn, and somehow people make choices.”

According to Head of Estates Finance, Sarah Davies, the 5.8% rent increase will generate £90,000 per unit in the next five years. She later clarified that this sum will not fully account for the costs of refurbishment and replacement, and that the University will cover the difference. Prout stressed the need for financial sustainability throughout the meeting. He said: “The University needs to balance a whole range of demands. We must consider how we ought to fund the University’s long term preeminent research achievements.We have to think about the long term enterprise. We can’t support it if we’re not breaking even.”

Oxford SU’s VP for charities and communities, Tom Barringer, who attended the meeting told  Cherwell:  “It is a great shame that students could not be consulted about this 5.8% increase beforehand, since the decision was made behind closed doors. It is strange that a university with a £1.3 billion budget seems so keen to isolate its graduate accommodation department and charge ‘sustainable rent’ – also known as passing on all building costs, including their construction, directly to students.”

The Property Management Sub Committee, which determines graduate accommodation rent, came to the 5.8% figure based on the Retail Price Index plus 1.8%. The committee also imposed a collar on the increase of 3.5% and a cap of 5.5%. The collar and cap will only come into effect next year, after the 5.8% increase, an SU rep told Cherwell. Sarah Davies opened the meeting by explaining the grounds for the rent hike. She said: “The University asked if graduate accommodation was sustainable. We investigated and found that refurbishments were needed, but reserves were depleted.”

Davies explained that accommodation funding is ‘ring fenced’, meaning no funds can be withdrawn or added. If accommodation needs more budget, they would have to borrow money. “An inability to cover the costs limits our ability to replace and reinvest.”

Davies added that accommodation would need to recover £7.2 million per year to fund refurbishments over the next five years. She broke this figure down to £3 million for running costs and utilities, and £4.2 million for ‘capital costs’ – meaning refurbishments and replacements. A standard single room en suite in the Castle Mill complex currently costs £591 per calendar month (pcm).

Following the hike, rents for the same room will rise to £625 pcm.   Davies explained that the University uses college-owned accommodation prices as a benchmark. Balliol College charges £609 pcm for B and C graduate rooms, while St John’s College charges £513.3 per month for a grade B room, plus a termly charge of £214 for ‘the general provision of services’.

The rent hike will only affect central University housing, likely creating greater demand for the limited college accommodation available to graduates. During the 2016-17 academic year, 57% of all full-time graduate students and 70% of full-time graduate freshers were housed either by the University or in colleges.

Cherwell asked for a transcript of the meeting but the request was refused. A separate request to film the meeting was also denied.

Travesties review – ‘a very competent production of a fiendishly complicated play’

Roddy Howland Jackson
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Travesties review – ‘a very competent production of a fiendishly complicated play’

“For every thousand people there’s nine hundred doing the work, ninety doing well, nine doing good, and one lucky bastard who’s the artist.” Henry Carr, the lead character in Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, may think little of the passive role of the artist, but in this case it’s surely the reviewer who counts as the “lucky bastard”. Free tickets? Check. Interval drink vouchers? Check. All this while a strong cast laboured deftly in “doing the work” of a demanding play – and “doing it well” at that.

Travesties charts the reminiscences of Henry Carr (Lee Simmonds), a minor British diplomat stationed in Switzerland in 1917, and his encounters with Tristan Tzara (Julia Pilkington), James Joyce (Kate Weir), and Vladimir Lenin (Staś Butler). If such an assembly sounds unlikely, that’s because it is – while Carr’s feud with Joyce is based in fact, Stoppard plays with Carr’s narrative unreliability to draw these famous figures into collision. As Bea Udale-Smith suggests in her director’s note, “the play, taken sincerely, is about a disintegrating mind”. History, art, identity, and purpose all compete for purchase in Carr’s memory, brewing a play that is as high-concept as it is entertaining.

But as Udale-Smith rightly acknowledges, “Travesties isn’t actually a sincere play.” The brilliance of Carr’s senility is that it allows Stoppard to explore profound questions within a profoundly silly environment. There’s a scene written entirely in limericks. Tzara reimagines Shakespeare with a pair of scissors. The action of the play slowly blurs into a self-aware pastiche of The Importance of Being Earnest. It’s thoroughly absurd, and thoroughly enjoyable – a relief, given the play’s intellectual heft, which can occasionally wear on the audience’s patience.

In the lead role, Simmonds is captivating, navigating the layers of Carr’s delusions with considerable dexterity. As a doddering narrator, his eyes dart anxiously at the audience for validation; as his younger self, he conjures remarkable comic timing and impressive facial elasticity. Pilkington brings ebullience to Tzara, while Butler is imposing as Lenin. Kate Weir plays an imperious Joyce, whose views on art are rendered the most convincingly by Stoppard: “An artist is the magician put among men to gratify – capriciously – their urge for immortality.” The big three historical figures drift at times into the realm of caricature, but given Carr’s tendency to exaggerate his memories, this can be forgiven. The female casting of Joyce and Tzara is a decision repaid by Weir’s and Pilkington’s performances, which compound the sense of distortion in Carr’s recollections.

Udale-Smith guides the audience through this breakdown confidently, adjusting us to Carr’s self-importance with clever spotlighting, and inventing an ensemble to visually fracture his account.

Only at times does this effort fall flat: Travesties is not a play about subtlety, but the music was often heavy-handed. Perhaps most upsettingly, the ‘Mr Gallagher and Mr Shean’ scene wasn’t quarried for all its comic potential. This is more than made up for by Jon Berry’s hilarious turn as Bennett, the champagne-guzzling servant with radical left-wing sympathies, which admittedly had me in stitches.

In an interview in February, Stoppard advised any future directors of the play that the actors need firstly to be audible, and secondly to be charming. I have few gripes about hearing the actors, and even fewer about the likeability of their performances. Udale-Smith has mounted a very competent production of a fiendishly complicated play – as such, Carr’s insistence on his “triumph in a demanding role” in The Importance of Being Earnest is an accolade that can be given to the team behind Travesties, only without any sense of dramatic irony.

Oxford students run for Council seats

Jeremiah O'Mahony
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Oxford students run for Council seats

Nine Oxford students are running in tomorrow’s Oxfordshire City Council elections.

The student-candidates include Jim Brennan, Matthew Hull, Finn Conway, Alexander Curtis, Adam Ellison, David Pearson, Harry Samuels, Emma Teworte, and Chris Witt.

Harry Samuels, a fourth-year Classicist at New College, is running as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Iffley Fields.

Samuels told Cherwell: “I’m running to give residents in Iffley fields – including hundreds of students who live out – the chance to vote for liberal values.

“I’m proud that the Lib Dems in Oxford are standing against Labour’s fines on the homeless and confiscations of property, in favour of more genuinely affordable housing, and continuing to stand up for EU citizens and guarantee they are supported while also calling for an exit from Brexit.”

Matthew Hull, a fourth-year Classicist at Oriel, is running as the Green Party candidate for Northfield Brook.

Hull told Cherwell: “I’m standing for fairer treatment of Oxfords homeless. Homeless numbers are skyrocketing, due to systematic neglect by national governments. Oxford should respond with care; instead, the Labour city council has fined homeless constituents and excluded them from public space.

“As a councillor, I would revoke these draconian council orders and protect vital homelessness services.“

Finn Conway, a second-year Classicist at Balliol, is running as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Holywell Ward.

Conway told Cherwell: “Our two primary issues this election are housing and homelessness. On both these issues, Labour have failed: they haven’t build nearly enough affordable housing; they’ve tried to bill tower block residents £50,000 per head for repairs; they’ve introduced fines that almost exclusively affect homeless people; and they’ve used new powers to confiscate their bedding and belongings.

“We’re offering an alternative this election: more compassionate solutions and a new approach to dealing with these issues – sorely needed in a council dominated by a Labour supermajority.”

Alexander Curtis, a third-year geographer at St Catherine’s, is running as the Conservative candidate for North Ward.

Curtis told Cherwell: “Oxford City Council is in a dire state, and the Labour administration running it have been allowed to get away with too much for too long. Rather than regularly voting in favour of the city council’s flawed policies like the Oxford Liberal Democrats, I would provide real opposition and promote viable alternatives to the current poor quality of governance if I was elected as city councillor for North ward.”

Jim Brennan, a second-year Geographer at St Peter’s, is running as the Conservative candidate for St Mary’s Ward.

Brennan told Cherwell: “The Conservatives next door in Cherwell have built 15 times as much affordable housing than this Labour council.

“I am the only candidate in my ward that actually lives there – do we really want career politicians? We back ourselves – the Conservatives are the only party and standing in every Oxford seat. Do we want this council properly opposed or not?”

He added: “To quote Public Enemy, fight the power.”

Adam Ellison, a second-year History and Politics student at Magdalen, is running as the Labour candidate in Wolvercote Ward.

Ellison told Cherwell: “Local elections can be hugely impactful in how we live our day to day lives. Young people getting involved in a local level, as voters and candidates, is essential to having our voices heard and ensuring that at all levels politics remains dynamic and representative of all ages and demographics.

“Democracy is healthier and stronger the more of us get involved and I hope not only to be a proactive and effective representative for the people of Wolvercote but to be a voice for students and young professionals in Oxford.”

David Pearson, a third-year Biologist at St Hilda’s, is running as the Conservative candidate for Holywell Ward.

Pearson told Cherwell: “I have always preferred the sincerity of grassroots campaigning to the dark arts of student politics. Policy starts with people, and this year is no different.

“I am excited to sand on a dynamic policy platform which really gets to the heart of the challenges facing our city.”

Emma Teworte, a first-year History and Politics student at St Hilda’s, is running as the Green Party candidate for Carfax Ward.

Tewrote told Cherwell: “I am standing in Carfax because I believe the City Council needs to be held to account. Labour currently has and will probably maintain an overwhelming majority on the Council – and that cannot be good for a healthy democracy.

“Having Greens on the Council is about more than improving democratic quality, though. We can make a real difference in policy.

“Climate breakdown is a global issue that I want to address on Council level. Just this week, a Green motion restricting single-use plastics was passed by the Council, for example. I want to work with student and local organisations to further this.”

Chris Witt, a DPhil student in Artificial Intelligence engineering at St Catherine’s, is running as the Green Party candidate for Blackbird Leys.

Witt told Cherwell: “It’s about giving the young people in Blackbird Leys choices; changing voting from something irrelevant to a realistic vehicle for expanding their horizons.

“The focus of the campaign is to make Blackbird Leys an attractive centre for start-ups, beginning with the grassroots of providing free IT training to residents. This will complement the anti-austerity and community building measures that the Green party stands for.”

The elections will be held tomorrow. Registered voters were sent poll cards with the details of their polling station in late March.

Students and residents protest Windrush scandal

Daniel Hall
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Students and residents protest Windrush scandal

Oxford students and residents came together on Monday evening to protest the government’s treatment of the Windrush generation.

The protest, organised by Oxford Stand Up to Racism, drew a crowd of over 50 people on the corner of Cornmarket and Queen Street.

Ian McKendrick, a spokesman for Oxford Stand Up to Racism, told Cherwell that the group was “calling for amnesty for Windrush and other Commonwealth citizens.” He said that the Windrush generation should be compensated for the homes lost, jobs sacrificed, and denied NHS treatment which came out of the government’s “hostile” immigration policy.

“We are attacking the whole immigration policy behind [the Windrush scandal] and Theresa May. The problem absolutely goes to the top.

“When Theresa May was at the Home Office, she was the architect of the hostile environment immigration policy for migrants. She’s fully complicit.”

Donald Norwood – a member of a church in Blackbird Leys, an area of Oxford with a large British Caribbean community– echoed McKendrick’s view. He said the scandal has “created a very nasty atmosphere.”

“It’s just not an accident, it was deliberate policy to make people feel uncomfortable.”

During the protest, members of the Oxford Windrush group spoke. They noted that 2018 will be the 70th anniversary of the year people from the Caribbean arrived in the UK on Empire Windrush, the ship that gave the generation its name. They announced events to celebrate the lives of members of that generation.

To pay tribute to the victims of the Windrush deportations, protesters laid lilies and sang songs, including Civil Rights gospel “We Shall Overcome”.

Chintha, a demonstrator and Oxford resident, told Cherwell: “You cannot undo the state of trauma and the state of total distress that some families went through – you cannot undo that.

“There’s no monetary reward that can take away the pain and the suffering and the sorrow of that period, so even if there is compensation and loads of apologies there’ll still be a lot of very hurt feelings.”

Dolcie Obhiozele, a member of the Windrush generation, moved from Jamaica to Oxford with her mother when she was 11. She recalled how both her mother and aunt had worked for New College as cleaning and catering staff.

Obhiozele told Cherwell: “Many of the colleges and the University, when I look at it, it is built on our back.”

Speaking of fellow Windrush citizens, she said: “These people have worked, and put in here – contributed to the NHS, to their pension. I can’t say how wicked and heartless it is.

“[The government] have just taken their money and everything from them, and just throw them out. It really isn’t right.”

Some of the protesters expressed disappointment at the low numbers of students who turned out to the demonstration. One protester asked: “This city has lots of students, and where are they today? Why can’t they come out for this?”

Louise Zakine, a French woman who has lived in the UK for 15 years, saw the event publicised on Facebook and wanted to show solidarity with the victims.

Zakine told Cherwell: “I’m worried for my friends, my French friends in London – I don’t know what will happen to them [after Brexit] so that’s a bit scary. They’ve been in the UK for over 15 years, and they live here.”

The leader of Oxford City Council, Susan Brown, condemned the treatment of the Windrush generation as “shameful”.

She said: “The way the Government has used its immigration laws to discriminate against the Windrush generation is utterly unacceptable and mean spirited. In Oxford we are proud of the huge contribution that they and other Commonwealth citizens have made to our city.

“On behalf of the City of Oxford I know that colleagues across the council will want to say ‘thank you’ to the African Caribbean community, as we do to all the different communities who contribute to the rich diversity of Oxford life.”

How do we stage Shakespeare in the digital age?

Lizzie Monaghan
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How do we stage Shakespeare in the digital age?

Since the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s passing in 2016, there has been an increasing pressure on directors to solve a problem. How, four centuries on, and countless revivals, adaptations, and re-writes later, could anyone say anything new about Shakespeare? How does one stage Shakespeare in the twenty-first century?

It’s a tall order. Given the sheer scale of Shakespeare’s theatrical legacy, it is a daunting task to provide an original take on the nation’s most celebrated playwright. Yet, in recent years, a few critically acclaimed efforts have  risen to the occasion, attempting to reimagine Shakespeare’s plays in ways that are innovative and contemporary, whilst still retaining that universality which makes them so compelling. Their solution? Digital technology.

With Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood recognises that weight of expectation felt by artistic directors as she follows a director’s attempt to stage a uniquely interactive production of The Tempest. The novel satirically mimics the supposedly definitive productions of our day.

Hag-Seed ridicules those lofty ambitions. It is as if the possibility of contributing anything meaningful with a modern adaption no longer viable. Instead directors must resort to absurd extremities in order to say something new.

Atwood makes a significant observation: she recognises the potential that digital advancements could have in unearthing unprecedented and authentic truths. “The Tempest is,” she says, “in some ways, an early multi-media musical. If Shakespeare were working today he’d be using every special effect technology now makes available.” And she suggests this in Hag-Seed.

The same year, these ambitions were played out onstage in Gregory Doran’s technologically ambitious production of The Tempest. The RSC painstakingly attempted to provide what they described as “a first-of-its kind live digital performance”. Atwood could easily have scripted Doran’s ambition to stage “a truly unique theatre experience, which marries our distinctive theatre skills with cutting edge technology, to give our audiences something out of the ordinary”.

Indeed, the use of motion-capture to generate Ariel’s avatar in real time onstage demonstrated a clear desire to do justice to the spectacle of The Tempest; to immerse the audience in “a human-digital interaction that feels ‘alive'”.

It was no doubt pioneering. However, this approach to adaptation is new and  imperfect. As a member of the audience, I noticed a stark disconnect between technological spectacles of storms and enchantments, and those moments of intimate and human exchange. Furthermore, the use of two-dimensional visual projections onto a three-dimensional theatre space doesn’t make it any easier to cultivate an experience that is immersive for a 270˚ audience in the round.

Some critics even dismissed the production as gimmicky, though I feel such a judgement is unduly harsh. The RSC is a theatre which professes to have “always been at the forefront of radical experiment”. It was right to attempt  to cross the digital with the theatrical so intricately. Whilst not an immediate triumph, it was an ambitious and worthy attempt, the first of its kind.

We are still in 2018. We are far from having a holistic view of what the definitive twenty-first century production could look like. Yet in looking at just the last decade, it is impossible to ignore the impact of modern technology on recent adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays.

Take, for instance, the 2017 production of Hamlet, directed by Robert Icke. Placed alongside the RSC’s earlier version from 2008, one can see the significant strides that have been made in such a short period of time. Icke’s clever staging more fully realises what the RSC’s Hamlet first put into motion, depicting Denmark as a recognisably modern surveillance state.

In 2008, the RSC dabbled in the occasional security camera, camcorder and false mirror. Ickes production goes all out. There are screens everywhere. The production opens in a control room with security guards closely monitoring dozens of locations on the screen looming large overhead. By its close, Hamlet has to shove a camera out of his mother’s face as she dies convulsing on the ground.

Icke, was able to more effectively integrate digital technology into the production without it appearing ‘gimmicky’. Instead, its use enriches the production, bringing the idea of the surveillance state into an authentically modern context.

Hamlet and The Tempest demand vastly different kinds of staging. It’s not hugely surprising that the latter, the more visually ambitious, has not yet reached its full potential at this early stage. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to envisage a similar progression for The Tempest, to imagine another director making the same kind of leap forward from Doran’s 2016 production, equipped with the right technology.

Doran’s adaptation is all the more significant for this reason. As a foundational production, it will shape future interpretations by providing that essential, basic template on which later directors will work. In time, it will come to good.

‘An anthology of divergent styles that promise a skyward trajectory’

Matthew Valentine
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‘An anthology of divergent styles that promise a skyward trajectory’

Geography feels like the beginning of something special. So polished is this selection of guitar-led, groove-infused tracks that it successfully belies an artist who is in fact only 22 years young and opts to produce his music in his bedroom. After having initially opted to veil himself from the spotlight before discovering his mellow yet stirring voice, Misch’s first full-length outing exhibits his journey from young producer to mature singer-songwriter.

That voice is emblematic of the mood on Geography. A distinctively British accent, it harks back to the mid to late 2000s’ surge in musicians who sang in the British vernacular. Misch’s voice is expressive yet effortless, never relying on belting out or falsetto to express himself, but rather mild, coffee-shop, musical minimalism. Clearly, he puts the craft of his songs above the pursuit of hedonistic showmanship.

Geography’s sonic amalgamation shows Misch’s insatiable hunger for expanding the range of styles at his disposal. However, his real talent lies in the fact that he has weaved all those styles onto one album with compelling conviction.

He displays this early on. ‘Before Paris’ is a soundscape discussing the issue of upholding artistic integrity in the face of the economic perils associated with a working musician.  ‘Tick Tock’, the album’s other instrumental skit, evokes a chilled house mood through its muffled synths and transitioning between a half-time swing feel to straight backbeat.  ‘South of the River’ betrays Misch’s true loyalties, proclaiming South London (and, more broadly, Britain) as where musical enterprise resides. A bold declaration, but one supported by the track’s lilting violin riff and driving funk guitar. It is a sonic universe, wrapped up by keyboard maestro Robert Araujo, who navigates the outro with a solo that will turn musos’ heads whilst inviting everyone else to the dance floor.

Collaborations see Misch work with old and new faces. Loyle Carner features on ‘Water Baby’, a track with a piano solo that exposes Robert Glasper’s influence, while ‘It Runs Through Me’ calls on the lyrical finesse of De La Soul. Here Misch seamlessly fuses his beat-making expertise with Latin rhythms, resulting in a song that sounds like a bossa nova indigenous to the suburbs of South Croydon. But it’s not just beats. Misch’s guitar playing prowess is littered throughout the album. ‘Movie’ is a slow jam which draws heavily on the nuances of John Mayer’s playing almost to a fault, sounding somewhat like the American’s equally emotive ballad, ‘Gravity’.

In many ways, Geography challenges conventional genre boundaries, culminating in a sound that has a finger in every pie. From hip-hop to Latin, it demonstrates Misch’s potent ability to draw from contrasting musical spheres, an ability which is sure to set his career on a skyward trajectory.

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