Monday 15th September 2025
Blog Page 81

OA4P protests continue, University pushes back

Isabel Thompson
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OA4P protests continue, University pushes back

Since Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) encampment “disbanded” after last term following an eviction notice from the University, the organisation has made clear their continued presence through a succession of events staged during the first weeks of Michaelmas term. Here’s a summary of their action, and the University’s response.

On 15th October, OA4P hosted a “Picnic for Palestine” in collaboration with ten other student societies, according to an old Instagram post. The event, held in University Parks, was advertised as “food and friendship”. Hours before the event, the University emailed some of the societies to inform them that the picnic was not approved to take place, an OA4P spokesperson told Cherwell, while other societies including Biology Soc, Vegan Soc, and Student Union Class Act were permitted to host similar picnics in the parks.

OA4P went ahead with the picnic but removed the other societies from its advertisement to “protect” their status. At the picnic, members of OA4P told Cherwell that they believe the University hoped that the new year and deconstruction of the physical encampment represented an end to OA4P’s action, but that this was not the case.

The following day, OA4P organised a “keffiyeh study” session in the upper floor of the Radcliffe Camera, where members of the University were invited to co-work independently whilst wearing keffiyehs. OA4P documented on social media how librarians at the Rad Cam responded by placing written notices only on the occupied desks, stating that the Rad Cam is an “inclusive and welcoming space for all readers”, and that users must behave in a way that is “conducive to productive study”.

The University told Cherwell that they have “clear policies on free speech and the right to protest”, and maintained that these policies have been carried out consistently in response to protest action by OA4P.

Later that day, OA4P released a statement on social media expressing solidarity with the unaffiliated group Palestine Action after they sprayed the University’s Wellington Square administrative offices with paint and damaged the ground floor windows days earlier. In a statement posted to social media, OA4P acknowledged their “shared goals in highlighting the complicity of the University of Oxford in Israeli occupation, apartheid and genocide”.

The University told Cherwell: “OA4P has broken rules on acceptable protest on a number of occasions and expressed solidarity with the violent criminal damage inflicted on the Wellington Square offices. As we have made clear, students who have crossed the line into unlawful or unacceptable behaviour may expect disciplinary action, fines or suspension.”

Concluding the events of First Week, OA4P held protests during matriculation, disrupting two ceremonies and staging a “die in” at the entrance to the Sheldonian.

Margaret Casely-Hayford: “Some people see me as the diversity candidate, I don’t mind it.”

Anuj Mishra
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Margaret Casely-Hayford: “Some people see me as the diversity candidate, I don’t mind it.”

If Margaret Casely-Hayford CBE were to be elected as Oxford’s Chancellor, she would be both the first woman and ethnic minority to rise to the symbolic helm of the University. Her candidacy carries momentous potential but has not been without disparagement, she recognises: “Some people see me as the ‘diversity champion’, the ‘diversity advocate,’ and, to an extent, I don’t really mind that to some it’s meant to be a criticism.”

Speaking to Cherwell, Casely-Hayford touched on her vision for the chancellorship, her experiences as the first black woman to become a partner at a City law firm, and her nomination to join the until recently exclusively male Garrick Club.

In terms of university chancellorships, this would not be Casely-Hayford’s first. She has already served as Chancellor of Coventry University for seven years. Regarding the current crisis facing the higher education sector, with a drop in international student numbers and frozen tuition fees leaving many universities struggling, Casely-Hayford spoke about Oxford’s place in the debate, despite its comparative financial strength:

“Oxford has a fantastic position in being recognised as the best university in the country and the world, so the voice of its leadership really carries an enormous amount of weight and responsibility. The higher education sector is in a really precarious position, it needs now to be championed.

“We’ve spent a lot of time saying, the benefit is earning more: ‘learn more, earn more.’ But it’s more than the benefit to the individual, there’s a huge raft of data required to ensure that people really see the social benefit, the health benefit, the culture benefit, and economic benefits to the country.”

Casely-Hayford stressed the need for iconic institutions, such as Oxford, not to “rest on their laurels”, rather to use their influence in uniting the sector. She reflected on her work as chair of Shakespeare’s Globe during the Covid pandemic:

“We realised that if we talked to government, as a unifying voice on behalf of all of theatre and all the arts, about the importance of the way the arts attract income into the country and benefit the public then that would help the Treasury’s thinking about how we support the arts.

“The government’s Cultural Recovery Fund was launched from our stage at The Globe, I thought that was incredibly symbolic of the fact that we were not being self-serving.”

The chancellorship race has become increasingly politically charged over recent months, with the high-profile candidacies of Labour stalwart Peter Mandelson and former Conservative leader William Hague.

Casely-Hayford, a lawyer by profession, has no such political background. Reflecting on the political character of the race, she said: “I think that the role of chancellor is intended to be a unifying, symbolic, ceremonial one. All of the colleges and halls have their own identity, but the unifying concept is the University.

“For individuals to enter the race who clearly have a political agenda, a political mandate that they push, is unfortunate. I do think, however, that, having a voice, a knowledge of politics and a political astuteness is an integral part of being in the role.”

Casely-Hayford studied Law at Somerville during her undergraduate years, “when it wasn’t co-ed”, she adds. “I just loved my time. I think I was probably far too sociable, but it has meant that I’ve had some amazing enduring friendships and have an incredible network.

“Although people are really collegiate, there’s also this sort of wider blanket of warmth. I really was welcomed, and I didn’t feel outside of anything.”

Casely-Hayford’s career began in the City, where she rose through the ranks at the law firm Dentons, and was the first black woman to be a partner at a City law firm. Reflecting on her experiences in the corporate sector, she said: “I’m so old that when I first started working, women in the City were still a rarity, and being a black woman in the City was like hen’s teeth.

“If I’m honest, it was a lonely position, and it made me tough because I had to be. I had to learn through my experience how to not be that ‘tough guy’ who never leaves the office.

“Women were expected to behave like men, for example, I remember one of my colleagues going off to a meeting when she was about 8 ¾ months pregnant. I just kept thinking, ‘go home and have a rest,’ and she wouldn’t do it because she was expected to go to the wire.

“The City was a tough place, and, gradually, we’ve all learned to be better. The younger generation is fantastic, because they do think about the fact that people need headspace to be able to perform better, and you don’t get headspace if you’re worried, anxious, nervous, or personally minimized.”

In previous interview, Casely-Hayford described her Somerville law tutor Dr Ann de Moor as an inspiration, recalling that de Moor had been “disappointed that I’d become ‘just a City lawyer’, telling me that she had expected more of me because of what I’d said about social justice years before, at my interview.”

Asked by Cherwell whether she had, in hindsight, stayed true to those social justice beliefs she had once held close, Casely-Hayford said: “You probably can hear from what I’ve said that my beliefs haven’t changed!”

She added: “In my interview I had been asked ‘where do you see yourself in ‘x’ number of years, and I said, ‘I want to be secretary general of the United Nations.’ So, when I went back to tell my tutor Ann de Moor that I’d been made a partner at a City law firm, she looked crestfallen and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve let Ann down, she had faith and expected more.’

“It was that experience that, in a way, made me throw my hat in the ring to become chair of ActionAid UK, an incredible international development organization that strives to end world poverty.”

Earlier this year, Casely-Hayford was one of seven women nominated to become the first female members of the Garrick Club, a London private members’ club which counts many legal professionals and members of the judiciary among its fold.

Speaking about the historic decision, Casely-Hayford said: “I’ve been to the Garrick a number of times for dinner or lunch, and it’s wall to wall carpeted with talent.

“I’m not saying that a group of people can’t form a club that’s just for them, if that’s what they want to do. But what I am saying is that the Garrick’s different because it has leading actors, leading lawyers and judges, all of whom are men. It’s important to consider the impact that camaraderie might have elsewhere.

“But it’s also to do with the fact that I’ve been incredibly thrilled when young people, who don’t necessarily come from a background that has a strong social network have said to me, ‘can you help me with something,’ or ‘can you give me some advice?’

“And I’m able to say, ‘I don’t actually know very much about that, but I know someone who does.’ If that’s a contribution I am able to make to their life, I think that I’d be happy with that.”

Casely-Hayford describes the position of Chancellor as “the world’s oldest glass ceiling,” pointing to the role’s 950 year-long history: “I think it would just be refreshing to look at somebody who’s different, but that’s not my asking for a free pass because of my gender and my ethnicity.

“I have been a Chancellor: I understand the symbolic and ceremonial aspects, I love and cherish the historic legacy, but I am also willing to push boundaries, test norms, and would champion those who want to do so within the university, whether it’s for the betterment of society, academe, or individuals, or even the environment.

“I hope I can bring all of that to make me, at least, in with a decent chance at becoming Oxford’s next Chancellor.”

Worcester Lake is leaking, the college appeals for ‘urgent’ repairs

Rani Chor
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Worcester Lake is leaking, the college appeals for ‘urgent’ repairs

Worcester College has made a fundraising appeal to support “urgent” repairs for its lake, which has been “leaking” since at least Trinity term of last year. The work to repair the lake is likely to cost over £350,000 according to an official video. The Lake Repair Fund, to which Old Members have pledged to match the first £50,000 of donations, is one of four funds donors can contribute to for Worcester’s Giving Day in late November. 

The lake is currently leaking into the nearby Oxford Canal. In light of recent heavy rainfalls – this September marked the wettest month Oxford has seen in 250 years – Worcester’s grounds-people have been given training and permission to use Isis Lock 46 to control the high water levels. A buildup of silt on the lakebed also poses a threat to the lake’s ecosystem.

The lake holds a dear place in the hearts of students, teachers, and visitors alike. It often serves as the backdrop for various art shows and performances hosted by the college, most notably an annual performance from Buskins, which has a strong claim to be Oxford’s oldest college drama society.

In a promotional video for the Giving Day, Worcester Provost David Isaac said “who can imagine Worcester without its lake?”. The head gardener described it as “the heart of the college [and] a very special place for all of us”. The Giving Day also seeks to raise money for music and student support. 

Worcester canon holds that Imran Khan, international cricket star and ex-prime minister of Pakistan who was recently ruled out of the race for Oxford Chancellor, once hit a cricket ball for six into the lake from the nearby field – a feat that has yet to be replicated.

The lake also plays a crucial role in one of the three components to the unofficial “Worcester Challenge”, which supposedly includes skinny dipping in the lake, public streaking, and copulation in its historic library. Such acts are forbidden by the college.

Whose seat gets taken? Community and nostalgia on public transport

Lara Foxon
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Whose seat gets taken? Community and nostalgia on public transport

We’re on the second-to-last train back from London. It’s a rammed carriage that hums with the noise of the tracks and snatches of conversation, voices jumping over the seats that people are split across. We’re lucky. Not only did we catch the train that we thought we’d miss, but we’re sitting next to each other. More than that, we don’t mind the bustle, the fact that it’s busy. In truth, I’m glad. My friend and I may have grown up together – we may have had that rite-of-passage first trip ‘alone’ to London, left school, moved to university in the city (her more than me …) – but it’s late. I’d rather more people were around than not. 

And still it comes. We’re probably somewhere before High Wycombe, there’s a long time yet until most people have got off. We’re talking about something inane, perhaps a little loudly, but I wouldn’t say we’re competing with the snippets from TikTok playing further down the carriage. All seems well, but –

“Actually…” the man across the aisle butts in. He wants to let us know that we’re wrong. He knows – though luckily he doesn’t also go on to detail how – that the thing we were talking about as happening in June, actually happens in October. We turn towards him, smile, nod, and probably say “oh”. Neither of us are that fussed over what we were talking about. But he goes on. We try to draw it to a close and eventually make quite a conscious shift back to how we were sitting before. In the window I can see him still leaning across the aisle, still watching.

He gets off at the next station. The woman across the table from us catches our eye. 

In a sense, I know that this man was trying to be helpful, trying to strike up a conversation. Sometimes our expectations for public transport seem a bit isolationist. Sometimes it seems like we idealise and expect a silence which ignores its essentially communal nature. Recently, such discussion has centred on targeting the ‘antisocial’ behaviour presented by phone speakers. Blaring TikToks, Youtube videos, music have been put on trial for the greatest crime of all: profaning the sanctity of the commute, disturbing the peace of the bounded individual. 

On the other hand, there’s a lament for what seems a lost art. Why have we stopped talking to strangers? Isn’t it nice to take a moment for connection, for spontaneity? A sense of nostalgia makes it easy to believe that we too have experienced and lost some great collective past, played out in conversations around bus stops and across worn seats. And it’s logical enough that we should want it ‘back’. Public transport could be at the heart of that, acting as a kind of thread to turn a nostalgic communality into reality. 

Part of me feels bad for feeling uncomfortable. I’d prefer to take the latter stance than the former. But, sometimes, it’s hard to square what you want to be true with what you experience. Especially when encounters often fall on a blurry line: one where you aren’t quite sure what you’re reading into, or what you’re naïvely trying to explain away. Often it’s hard to predict whether a boundary will be crossed, or it feels impossible to do anything about it once it has.

Much of this is a consequence of the spaces we find ourselves in. Public transport may – by definition – be public, but it is inevitably closed off and contained. It is this spatial vulnerability that can’t be forgotten in search for community. When most people are simply trying to get from Y to Z, just being on a train cannot automatically enrol you in some kind of social experiment.

In fact, we might rethink what kinds of nostalgia we employ, especially when talking about ‘reviving’ a community-orientated public sphere. Asking where community has gone may help to delegitimise neoliberal presumptions of individualism, but we should be careful what we can overlook by employing a ‘shared’ communal memory. Perhaps ‘in your day’ people milled around bus stops and chatted between carriages, but the uncomfortable encounter is far from a new phenomenon. ‘The irritating gentleman’ looms large in the artwork we see and the stories we hear, across generations or between childhood friends. If our best reach for community is notorious for coerced tolerance, we might do well to look elsewhere. 

Later, a mother and daughter pass us on their way off the train. We’ve given up on talking (who knows what we’d say without a male fact-checker anyway) and have fallen into a yawning game of Monopoly Deal. “We love that game,” the mother says, “our family plays it all the time.” We all laugh, make a slightly forced joke about being sore losers and laugh again. They carry on down the carriage. 

I don’t think that we should expect our experiences on public transport to simply revolve around ourselves. But just as individualism should not be blindly accepted, our interactions with others should be alert to the fact that simply sitting on a train does not convey unmitigated interest in unsolicited opinions, or openness to interrogation. We may share a carriage but we all have had different experiences, we all have different preferences for how much we would like to interact. Community comes not just from interaction but from mutuality, empathy, and care. 

Ultimately, if it’s nearly midnight and you find yourself leaning across to correct younger women, you could probably let an incorrect month slide.

Protect the right to protest

Morien Robertson
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Protect the right to protest

This summer’s protests have pushed university free speech policies to their breaking point. Scenes of police being deployed at scale on college campuses across the US have sparked fears of overreach. At the same time, universities need to balance students’ fundamental right to protest with their ability to fulfil their function as centres for learning and research. However, Oxford’s new Code of Practice on Freedom of Speech, which supersedes the Code of Practice on Meetings and Events, indicates a concerning willingness to curtail protest rights. The changes lengthen the notice period required for events from seven to 20 days and adds that events may be denied permission if speakers express ‘highly controversial’ views, language not featured in the previous code. Whilst the University has said that the change in language is only for clarification and that policies ‘remain unchanged and will be enforced’, freedom of speech protects the right to offend except in cases of genuine harm, and it is not clear that the new changes recognise this. Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) has criticised the University, arguing that it imperils the right to protest. Violent protest is unacceptable, but there’s a lot of room between dangerous protests and restrictions on speech, let alone gatherings. Protests simply are ‘highly controversial’; that is in many ways their raison d’etre.

In May, the University Council suggested amendments to Statue XI, which governs University disciplinary procedures, including the banning of a student from any property of the University for ‘up to twenty-one days’ on ‘reasonable grounds’ the person is ‘likely’ to ‘cause damage to property, or inconvenience or harm to other users’. Other vaguely-worded amendments increased the scope for restrictions and penalising measures. The University executive attempted to package the amendments together with necessary reforms on sexual misconduct, a dishonest step which was rejected by the wider congregation. After dissent, it withdrew the proposal.

The new rules, although better than the previous suggestions, demonstrate that, far from retreating, the University executive is set on clamping down. Beyond the content of the changes, what is frustrating is the lack of clear communication and transparency. By firstly trying to ram through changes by linking them to sexual misconduct policy and now taking an executive decision which circumvents the congregation, the Council is evading democratic assessment of the policies, which are profoundly important for all students. Open discussion and consultation may reveal the need for policy changes, but backdoor alterations to vitally important rules are unacceptable.

Matthew Firth: ‘Make Oxford great again.’

Oliver Hall
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Matthew Firth: ‘Make Oxford great again.’

Rules and process changes mean that this year’s Chancellor election has more candidates than ever before, with many seizing the chance to get some time in the spotlight. One of those candidates who may not have received the same level of attention in the past is Matthew Firth, a cleric who was branded himself as the ‘anti-woke’ choice for the job. This morning, he even finds himself in a New York Times headline but Firth denies this is a publicity stunt: in his view, he has a real case to make.

Firth is a vicar who most recently gained prominence as a whistleblower who claimed that asylum seekers were being baptised in order to improve their chances of a successful application. Senior Church of England figures and his own former diocese have strenuously denied those accusations. Since then, Firth has appeared on GB News and other outlets to make his case. 

At its heart Firth’s campaign is a reaction to ‘wokeness’, something that very few people are able to define and Firth himself says is often a term used to “gain attention”. His definition is that it is “a serious thing based on a collection of world views and ideologies which are based on the critical theories.” 

Those “critical theories” come up again and again with Firth, and he says they are “the dominant cultural moves which cause an erosion of free speech”. When I press him to identify an example of “critical theories” having that effect in higher education he repeatedly returns to the case of Professor Nigel Biggar. Biggar received backlash from some colleagues at the University of Oxford after publishing an article that was seen by some to make the case for British colonialism.

Freedom of speech is the other main strand of Firth’s argument despite the fact that it contrasts with some of his social media activity. On 17th October, he said in a post on X that he was “hardly going to take advice from someone with pronouns in their bio”. I push him on this but, although very willing to engage, he has little in way of an explanation as to why someone so keen on free speech won’t listen to someone based on whether they declare their preferred pronouns. 

Instead, he says that “Twitter is a space where people do engage in fairly spiky discussions” and goes on to explain in detail why he doesn’t believe that anyone should ever be encouraged to state their preferred pronouns. In his words, he doesn’t “think they are based on truth or very much factual sort of thing, because I think there are self-evident truths and I don’t think that sort of ties in with that sort of truth.”.

Firth’s campaign slogan is “Make Oxford Great Again”, echoing that which brought Donald Trump to power in 2016. I ask him what about Oxford isn’t great at the moment, especially as it has just recently retained its status as the best university in the world in the Times Higher Education rankings. His response is that, “it isn’t actually about that … make x great again has been used in all sorts of brands in order to attract people who might want to vote for something more aligned with free speech.”. Having attended Cambridge as an undergraduate, he is also a staunch supporter of them in the Boat Race, tweeting earlier this year: “Go Cambridge”, and “Naturally, Cambridge has just absolutely trounced O****d in the Boat Race”.

A large part of the Chancellor job is acting as a figurehead to make people feel welcome and comfortable at the University of Oxford, and so I was also keen to ask Firth about a post on X from 2023. Here, he said that “All British people will very soon have to get off the fence and decide whether they want these islands to be ruled by Christ, Marx, or Mohammed. Choose one and choose carefully.”. 

I put to him that “those tweets wouldn’t make anybody who wasn’t a Christian or a particular type of Christian feel comfortable, never mind welcome.” There was no apology from Firth, who stood by his comments. He reiterated that “Western civilisation springs from the roots of the Christian faith,” and that “we need to be recruiting the sort of students who would be comfortable with pushing back against those views.”. When I suggested again that he would surely be making a large number of prospective and current students feel like their beliefs and communities were less valid than his, he was categorical: “I do recognise other people’s beliefs … but I think my view is correct.” 

Back on more conventional ground, Firth, like other candidates, was keen to stress the importance of raising Oxford’s endowment. He also suggested that “what UK universities are lacking is bring under one roof both a collection of academics, funders, philanthropists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and students, in order to create wealth.” Ahead of a coming “AI revolution”, he was also keen to that academics should be more open to working with business and not see it as “a grubby thing”.

His view on protest is that it is “a fundamental right” but that “people have a right not to be dragged into other people’s protests if they don’t want to.”. He called for a better management of protests in general so that they could take place peacefully, without causing disruption.

In the past, Firth has also been vocally opposed to what he calls “climate alarmism”. Here, he wanted to set the record straight: “I’m a physicist”, he said, “climate change is happening, there is no doubt about that.” He also said that people should “work together to offset its more devastating effects”. When I ask about those people but in real danger by the effects of climate change, Firth pointed out that “actually the whole creation is under the loving oversight of a loving Father who will bring about a new creation in the end, so we don’t need to be alarmed or worried.”

Firth is under no illusion, he knows he is the outsider and enjoys playing on that fact. However, he does also genuinely believe that he will receive a large proportion of the vote. “My views are very mainstream, and they’re shared by huge amounts of people in the UK and globally,” he says. I do point out to him the most recent census found that the UK is no longer a majority Christian country, but Firth still offers a staunch defence. Next week’s election will provide an answer as to whether his views really are the dominant ones.

‘Glitz, glamour, pizzazz’: In conversation with The Great Gatsby

Luke Nixon
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‘Glitz, glamour, pizzazz’: In conversation with The Great Gatsby

This weekend, I sat down with Mina Moniri and Peter Todd, the co-writing/co-directing duo of a brand-spanking new adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Their theatrical celebration of “love and lust in the Jazz Age” is coming this winter season to The Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone, London. From an autumnal nook in St. Hilda’s College, the rain battering the windows like some prophetic applause, we chatted all things Gatsby, the writing and rehearsal process, and the hopes and dreams for the play. 

Alright, team. Let’s introduce ourselves. 

PETER: Sure. Okay. My name is Peter, I am the co-writer/co-director of The Great Gatsby, coming to the Cockpit in Marylebone from the 28th of November to the 14th of December – get your tickets, be there. I am an actor, writer, director – I’m currently studying for my PhD in Chemistry at Hertford College, and I just also finished a year-long Master’s course at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in Acting. 

MINA: I’m Mina – Mina Moniri. I’m also a PhD student reading Biochemistry and Neuroscience. I’m also the co-writer/co-director of Gatsby and for this iteration of the production, I am also its producer. I also work part-time as a stage manager. 

Awesome. Thank you. Why did you decide to adapt The Great Gatsby in the first place?

PETER: Well–


MINA: I’m trying to remember–

PETER: The original story is that we were looking to put on a classic and see if we could put our own little spin on it—come up with an interesting twist on something that everyone knows. I think it’s always interesting when really well-known pieces of literature are adapted for different media, and when there are different angles to explore things from. Today, more than ever, I think we question where things have come from and where they could go.

MINA: We didn’t want to do a classic for the sake of doing a classic. We wanted to make sure we were doing something where we had something new to say. When we were looking at things that we knew, novels that we liked, The Great Gatsby came up. There is a general queer reading of Gatsby anyway, I mean that’s not the way we’ve done it, but— Peter, do you want to explain?

PETER: Yeah, so, Nick. Nick is often perceived by audiences as being queer because of his infatuation with Gatsby, who in most iterations is a man. He also has this amazing interaction with Chester in the book which always gets forgotten about, for whatever reason, so we’ve included that. For our twist on the original, Gatsby is a woman. It not only queers the central love story between Gatsby and Daisy, but it also adds a lot of depth to other motifs running through the play; it does this really interesting warping of the story in that the green light, usually symbolic of the American Dream in most interpretations of the novel, now becomes a call for equality. This includes queer equality, racial justice and–

MINA: That’s the other thing. Besides making Gatsby a woman, we also decided to explore some of the other characters like Myrtle and George whose roles, although they aren’t huge in the book, we have expanded to start to question the weird, racist issues that do come up but have never really been questioned in any other adaptations. So, those are the two main things we have changed and the reason we wanted to put on the show. 

What is the most striking thing about this adaptation of the text?

MINA: This adaptation?

Yep. And striking as the way in. 

MINA: Ooh. Okay. 

PETER: I think the thing that really resonates with me is the sense of longing that is imbued in every single character, every single relationship, that you see on stage. The work we have done movement-wise to try and capture that essence will be really beautiful on stage. The text itself has lots of references to nature, very elemental things: earth, water, air. So when we’ve been putting together the show, and devising the movement language for the piece, we’ve worked a lot exploring the elements in terms of the qualities they have, in the gaze, in the body, the sort of movement that they possess. The motif we keep coming back to is longing like waves in the ocean, how longing ebbs and flows like the tide. 


MINA: It’s a very movement heavy show, so I think in terms of ‘striking’: people think of Gatsby as being very opulent, but for our adaptation the set is really minimal.We’ve focused a lot more on the movement language of the piece and I think that’s something that people will find quite striking. 

Arguably the gender-bending of the character of Gatsby is one of the largest departures from the original text. Apart from this changing the sexual orientation of the protagonist and implications of this, what has been the most exciting thing regarding the text from a new gendered angle?

MINA: For me, the answer lies in the power dynamics that now play out on stage. There are so many examples of pioneering women in this era—a proto-feminist era. I think having a woman in the social role that Gatsby has, seeing her be a beacon of what could happen in the future, is something really powerful to have on stage. 


PETER: It also makes a lot of Gatsby’s poetic language more loaded; there’s a lot of double-speak in her lines and her intelligence is really striking. Especially when you see her facing off with Tom, this big brute of a man, and she’s there, holding her own, not batting an eyelid.

Which Gatsby character do you most resonate with and why?

MINA: Resonate? I hate literally everyone in this play. 

PETER: They’re all sort of terrible in their own way. 

MINA: You shouldn’t resonate with anyone. 


PETER: But they’re all people that you recognise.

MINA: Wait, I think we should answer for each other. 

Pause. 

PETER: You are not going to like my answer. I’m going to say Nick. 

MINA: Really? Why?

PETER: I just think you have a detailed mindset. You’ve got a very logistical brain and– 

MINA: Why didn’t you think I was going to like it? Nick is fine. 

PETER: He’s annoying. 

MINA: Right. For you, I know you really like Myrtle, but I don’t think Myrtle’s you, though. 

PETER: Myrtle is my favourite character. 

MINA: But I would say Jordan. 

How was the writing process?

MINA: We basically split the book in half. Peter wrote the first half and I wrote the second. That’s not how the acts came about, but page number-wise that’s how we did it. And then we edited the hell out of it. 

PETER: It was a really collaborative process, because at the time we wrote the original script, we were under a lot of time pressure so we just had to get it done. But since then, it’s been a lot of reworking, refining, cutting – it’s now down to two hours including a fifteen minute interval. We’ve decimated it. We had to be brutal. 

MINA: I thought it was quite fun. It was stressful, I agree, but I really enjoyed it. It truly is a product of both of us. You can tell it really flows because we both had such a say in each part. 

PETER: What’s really fun are the scenes that we’ve added that don’t exist in the original. And based on the feedback we’ve got, lots of people forget that—

MINA: –that these weren’t in the original—

PETER: Yeah, completely. It’s really cool. It’s so exciting. 

What was the most important thing that you wanted to keep from the original text?

MINA: We wanted to keep so much but we couldn’t –

PETER: There are so many quotes that I wish we could keep because the book is just so beautifully written and it’s been really hard to choose the ones to let go of.

MINA: I’m trying to think of some quotes that we wanted to keep. Ooh, ‘her voice is full of money’, that’s one of my favourites.

PETER: A lot of my favourites come from the early-on Nick narration, like ‘I felt that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again’. That’s just such a universal experience. My other favourite is Gatsby’s narration of the first time she met and fell in love with Daisy: ‘like a tuning fork that had been struck upon a star’.

MINA: ‘Romping like the mind of God’ too. Ugh. 

Was there anything you were looking forward to departing from in the original?

PETER: What you can expect is the usual glitz, glamour, pzazz that comes from the Roaring Twenties. Some of the work we’ve done with music is really interesting—we’ve taken music from a wide range of sources, from pop, to eighties rock, to Debussy, and we’ve woven them together into an intricate, jazzy score. I think the thing I’m really excited about is for people to rediscover and fall in love with Gatsby all over again.

MINA: I’m not sure we have departed from anything too drastically. People will watch it and be able to say “Yeah, that’s The Great Gatsby”. It’s familiar, it just has some additions that we think will really enhance the story, and doesn’t take anything away. 

PETER: Just some extra layers woven in that will bring a little more magic. 

The Great Gatsby is running from 28th November from the 14th December at the Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone, produced by emerging theatre company Scar Theatre with a company primarily made up of University of Oxford students and recent graduates. Please find a link to tickets below:

https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/the_great_gatsby

This interview has been edited for clarity. 

Lady Elish Angiolini: “It’s about affection for the university and its students, academics, fellows, and administrative staff.”

Morien Robertson
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Lady Elish Angiolini: “It’s about affection for the university and its students, academics, fellows, and administrative staff.”

Lady Elish Angiolini is a distinguished lawyer, having been Lord Advocate of Scotland from 2006 to 2011, and currently occupying the position of Lord Clerk Register. She has been prominent in the news recently as the chair of the Sarah Everard inquiry. Lady Angiolini is also a Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University and the beloved Principal of St Hugh’s College. Cherwell spoke to her in her office in St Hugh’s.

Cherwell: You were the first woman to hold the position of Solicitor General, the first woman to be Lord Clerk Register, and you’ve worked to modernise the courts and led on practices dealing with female offending. What would it mean for you to become the first female Chancellor of Oxford University in the 800 years of the position?

Angiolini: I was also the Lord Advocate, as I say in a conceited, ghastly way. But no, it would be lovely to be the first woman in the sense that it’s the right time – 800 years, come on guys. But I don’t think I would be happy being appointed because I’m a woman, and that was the only reason for it. That would be belittling. It’s about leadership skills, it’s about affection for the university, and its component parts: students, academics, fellows, administrative staff, all the people that make it such a unique place. I don’t consider myself standing at the threshold of history – that would be presumptuous; I might get three votes at the end of it. But it would be lovely for me because I’m retiring from St Hugh’s in September, and I love Oxford University, the city, and St Hugh’s. And it’d be lovely to add something to the University.

Cherwell: You became Principal of St Hugh’s in 2012, having been head-hunted by the college. What were your first impressions of Oxford? Were there any major surprises?

Angiolini: The only time I had visited Oxford before was when I came to see a play in Stratford: Coriolanus with Derek Jacobi, and we had a day out in Oxford. I’d applied to university in Scotland, and was the first in my family to do so. The idea of coming to Oxford would have been like going to the moon. But I took a trip down to visit a friend at Jesus College, and the city was so beautiful and totally different from anything I’d experienced. I immediately thought I’d love to come here – not for a second did I think it would be in this lofty role as a Head of a College, but life took over. Being here has been a real treat – its history, its built beauty. I wouldn’t say it’s a fairytale idyll by any means – it has its challenges – but it was an unexpected delight and it continues to be that.

Cherwell: How have you found the university work compares to your previous roles? Does your legal work feel very separate from your work in the university, and how have you balanced the two? 

Angiolini: When I applied to the post, it was made clear to me that the post wasn’t part-time, but that the Governing Body was keen for me to continue some of my extra curricular work, including my Inquiry work. This was attractive to me, as I wanted to maintain to some extent my career in law. This has been facilitated by the Governing Body, who have been hugely supportive.  I am currently chairing part two of the inquiry arising from the circumstances of the murder of Sarah Everard. The role of Principal is not 9-5. It also involves hosting events and dinners, which some might not consider work, but it certainly is! I think I’m a much more pleasant human being when I’m busy! 

Cherwell: As Lord Advocate, amongst other positions, you’ve been a public figure, with the media scrutiny that comes as a result. Have you managed to separate your work life from your personal one?

Angiolini: No, not really. When I was Lord Advocate, it was an intense role, as you’d imagine. There were all these criminal aspects, but also the system of deaths-investigation. So there was an aspect of sudden events taking place. One example was the attempt to bomb Glasgow Airport. I was in a bookshop in Edinburgh and I had to run up to the Scottish government’s headquarters while it was pouring with rain, and when I got there the man at the door wouldn’t let me in, because I looked like a waif with my hair and clothes soaked through. 

Cherwell: Over a distinguished career you’ve directed bodies and led reviews. What do you think has been your impact on the operations of the judicial system in the UK?

Angiolini: I did it along with a lot of other people, so I can’t take credit for it all!  There was a real consensus at that stage that there was a need for change. The way that witnesses were treated in the 1980’s lacked emotional intelligence and basic courtesy.  We made sure there was much better communication and greater flexibility, for example allowing vulnerable people and children to give evidence remotely. We also worked to drive people away from jail, finding alternatives to prosecution. So it was a very creative period in terms of prosecution practice. I was able to transfer some of that to the University when I arrived. As with all universities, there were issues with sexual misconduct. We didn’t really have a centre of support in the University, so with a small group we developed the sexual advice service for Oxford. A lot of that came from my background; the understanding that people need a safe place to disclose or seek help.

Cherwell: What impact do you think you’ve had as Principal of St Hugh’s? Are there things you wish you’d achieved? Do you see yourself more as a chair or a director?

Angiolini: I think more of a chair. I’d describe myself as the first among equals. I’m blessed with a very positive group of dedicated people who are dedicated to the college in the Governing Body at St Hugh’s. It has largely been a very enjoyable experience dealing with them. But of course, there are periods where you have dark times. Some students studying here at different times have passed away.  It was absolutely heart-breaking and affects the whole atmosphere in College. Likewise, others are ill and have difficulties. Parents might be unwell or they might have financial difficulties. There are real human life tragedies which happen. It’s not all gaiety as portrayed in some of our great epic dramas about Oxford (with people frollicking under the sunshine). You need to be alive to the struggle some students face and try to make the College a safe haven for students. They need to have support tailored to their individual needs. Frankly, most students are not aware of the breadth and more challenging nature of what  we have to deal with sometimes.

Cherwell: The position of Chancellor is largely ceremonial and symbolic. What do you think you could accomplish in the role?

Angiolini: I’ve read in some newspapers that some candidates have published ambitions which look like manifestoes! I am not presenting myself  as an individual  with a manifesto about what I want to do with Oxford. The role is about representing the University, welcoming senior academics, and being there as a listener for the people who really are dealing with the future of the University and its mechanics – the Vice-Chancellor, the Council and the Conferences of Colleges etc. Having huge affection for the place is also really important. I have really got to know the place, the nuts and bolts. I feel that I can give advice if it’s sought, but the worst thing you can do is be interfering. You also need to help with fundraising, which is an ever-present need, so we can widen opportunities to those who cannot afford to come here. For example, it’s much more affordable for Scottish students to stay and study in Scotland. I’m not suggesting I want to pack the University full of Scottish students, though… 

Cherwell: Some of the other Chancellor candidates, such as Peter Mandelson and William Hague, have been involved in explicitly partisan roles, as was Chris Patten, the now-departing Chancellor. Do you think that this political dimension to the face of an institution is a negative?

Angiolini: I think being ‘political’ with a small ‘p’ is an advantage – the skills that politicians gain are very useful, the diplomatic aspects and so on. I’ve never been a member of a political party, but I’ve worked with lots of politicians as a Minister. In my capacity as Lord Advocate I served two different governments. Normally the Lord Advocate leaves  with the outgoing government, but I was kept  on by the incoming government, much to my surprise. I got a lot of respect from politicians as my advice was based on the law and wasn’t political.  

Cherwell: Much controversy has been caused recently in the wake of campus protests, particularly in America, but also here. To what extent should university leaders take a stance on political and social issues?

Angiolini: The University is here to facilitate debate, freedom of speech, and thought, and that will include politics as well. This is a hugely significant educational institution – at least on our own papers, possibly the best in the world. You cannot substitute your thoughts for those of the collective. We need to accommodate that in a democracy. It’s not just  what  is appealing to you  but that which is uncomfortable as well. It’s absolutely right that we accommodate debate and protest where it’s peaceful and not harmful. We’re going through a moment of great sadness in the world. We need to ensure that as a university that we are kind and ensure our students and staff  are safe. But we must also allow people the freedom to express that which may not be acceptable to another, provided that it is within the law – and the law is a generous one; there aren’t that many exemptions. This is something universities have had to deal with for many many decades. There have been real clefts in views but that’s how it should be in universities.

Cherwell: Many students received the news of Chris Patten’s resignation with the reaction: what’s the University Chancellor? Should Oxford students care about the role and why?

Angiolini: It’s a bit remote from the everyday concerns of students because it is a high level of representation. But I think that the ceremonial aspect is fantastic and historic. Not everyone likes that element of it. They think it’s all nonsense – it’s frowned on as vanity. But as a Pro-Vice-Chancellor I’ve carried out the graduation ceremonies and you see the reaction of the families to the ceremony. As their child comes forward with the trumpets playing, you can see the amazing reactions of their families. Oxford has been doing this for centuries, and it connects us to thousands of graduates who have gone before us. 

Cherwell: Oxford is often perceived as a bastion of tradition and archaisms. Do you think that this is a fair presentation and or has Oxford changed and modernised with the times?

Angiolini: Oxford has wonderful old traditions which are preserved and valued and are great fun – and I think that’s often how you need to look at them. You don’t need to take them fully seriously, but some of them are wonderful. It also is a very forward looking University. It is an  outstanding international university in terms of its research and its academic endeavours. An academic in this College received an amazing international award at the weekend for her work, and this is happening all the time all over the University. So it’s ultra-modern in terms of its research. And not just in laboratories. If you look at its arts: the dramas which take place, the fantastic live performances, literature, poetry etc  It is not a staid place that takes itself too seriously at all times. It has some fabulous parties as well!  As reluctant as I am to admit to anything embarrassing, I love disco music. When the students are having bops, it’s very hard for me to resist the temptation to go along. And there’s May Day and all these other great traditional events. They seem esoteric to many before they get here, but when they do, they love them. And they aren’t compulsory – you can always sit in the library! 

Cherwell: What are your fondest moments of being in Oxford? And any favourite spots?

Angiolini: Well it’s not a surprise to say I love St Hugh’s – we have incredible gardens here and I have been along with my family very happy here for the last 12 years. There are lots of other beautiful colleges which I love popping into. My favourite places outside the University are North Parade – I love going to the market at the weekend, the shops and pubs as well as the convivial atmosphere. I also love Jericho – the cinema, walking up the streets, the terraced houses and thinking of the history of the city. These are the kinds of places I’m putting in my memory box. It’s such a wonderful place to be. 

Review: The Safe Keep by Yael Van der Wouden

Florence Hall
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Review: The Safe Keep by Yael Van der Wouden

As suggested by the title, this book has an intense and sustained focus on things and objects. Set in the Netherlands during the 1960s, a decade still coming to terms with the lasting effects of the Second World War, fragments of crockery, and inventories of cutlery and tableware is how main character Isabel reconnects with her family past, as she lives alone in the inherited family home. The Safe Keep by Yael Van Der Wouden is a brooding and eerie story of connection, but one that I felt fell short when it comes to style and character creation. Van der Wouden’s book has also recently been shortlisted for The Booker Prize – much to my surprise.

The ‘thingness’ of The Safe Keep was a genuinely enjoyable aspect of this novel, and, despite its flaws, this is definitely a piece of writing that could interact well with Thing Theory. There is no doubt that Isabel suffers from loneliness, regardless of how much she might either deny this, or believe that she is happy in her loneliness. Her solution to this, it seems, is to meticulously organise, record and clean the house’s inventory of plates and silver cutlery. The plates, decorated with leaping hares is a clear and artistic image that recurs throughout the book, and left a lasting impression after reading. The motion of Isabel passing her hands over these prized objects and comparing them to her handwritten lists demonstrates one of the cornerstones of her character – that she is meant to be observed, rather than liked. Isabel isn’t necessarily a likable character, or one that readers naturally warm to, but this is a bold move on Van Der Wouden’s part that does pay off. In not necessarily liking Isabel, we are free to understand her, even if this understanding does boil down to something rather simple.

Once finishing this book, one may look back in hindsight at the entire plot, and realise that not really that much actually happens. This, of course, is not necessarily a negative thing – not much actually happens in Mrs Dalloway, but Woolf’s literary genius still shines through by means of her skillful prose. In the novel’s early pages, Isabel is introduced to her brother’s newest girlfriend, Eva, at a restaurant, a meeting that is intended to demonstrate Eva’s clumsiness in social situations, and Isabel’s coldness. Van Der Wouden does indeed accomplish this, but not with great subtlety. Only sentences after Eva is introduced, she knocks over a vase of flowers in trying to shake hands with Isabel, drinks slightly too much wine, and struggles to keep up with conversation. It is moments like this, that wouldn’t necessarily feel out of place in an American teen rom-com that makes the developing relationship between Isabel and Eva seem inorganic yet predictable. In, again, a slightly unrealistic plot point, Eva ends up coming to stay with Isabel indefinitely, as Isabel’s brother is away travelling for work, leaving the two women alone in the house that still holds so many undisturbed memories of Isabel’s parents and her childhood.

Not long after staying with Isabel, elements of Eva’s prized inventory start to go missing. This, as well as the two women being the antithesis of one another, creates a hostile tension between the two that soon develops into something romantic and sexual. The relationship that develops between Eva and Isabel isn’t itself surprising, but I believe that Van Der Wouden went too far in trying to establish the women’s differences, as I was left feeling that there was something acutely wrong with this particular pairing – they appear to have very little in common. Despite this, I enjoyed seeing Isabel flung into this relationship that delt so intertwined with her attempting to regain control over her world that was starting to be dismantled by Eva’s intrusion – the explanation for which is revealed towards the end of the novel.

Ticketmaster hurts student concert culture

Sara Lee
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Ticketmaster hurts student concert culture

Competitive, difficult, and opaque. All words associated with the Oxbridge admissions process. More recently, however, they have been used by disappointed Oasis and Coldplay fans in relation to Ticketmaster. It’s devoted fans with less to spend (namely, students) who suffered most.

After the recent release of tickets for Oasis and Coldplay tours, the company has been accused of ‘advertising misleadingly’. Many have blamed the confusion on the website’s dynamic pricing model, where the price of a ticket varies to reflect changing market conditions, shooting up exponentially when met with great demand. This can be particularly detrimental to devoted fans, a large number of whom are students. The result is significant financial strain, resale market impact, and uncertainty surrounding the elusive nature of these tickets.

With this in mind, it is easy to feel hopeless at the prospect of joining the Ticketmaster queue system. However, there might be hope on the horizon for eager fans, as provisional legislation could aid demographics with less disposable income, such as students, to have their shot at bagging a ticket. The Competitive Markets Authority (CMA) has launched an investigation into Ticketmaster operations over Oasis concert sale. The organisation will evaluate whether the sale of those tickets have breached consumer protection law, which states that ticket sales sites must be transparent in their deals with consumers and must relay clear and accurate information about the price they pay for a ticket. As part of this, they check if Ticketmaster has engaged in ‘unfair commercial practices’, particularly looking into the transparency of their dynamic pricing model and the impact of time and pressure when paying for these tickets. 

Whilst dynamic pricing is not automatically unlawful, its inherent changeability means that its operations are prone to fall into grey areas. In this case, the CMA is concerned with the potential lack of transparency when marketing these tickets, questioning if the information buyers were given about prices before checkout aligned with the prices they actually paid. A glance at  X (formerly Twitter) reveals the frustration many fans felt during the process, with a sense of being ‘unfairly’ treated being a common theme. Some complain that one price was shown at the time of selecting a ticket but were confronted with doubled prices at checkout. 

Another emphasis of the investigation seems to be the pressure put on fans to finalise their purchase within a short period of time. Heightened moments of pressure thwart customers’ ability to make coherent and rounded judgements, and when coupled with what are high prices for most of the population, people are thus more prone to make rash decisions that have heavy financial implications. Ticketmaster has used a timed element to control consumers’ perception of scarcity and demand, which potentially impacts their purchasing decisions in the company’s favour. It is a system that feels on the verge of exploitative. 

However, the double standards surrounding dynamic pricing must also be considered. Plenty of other consumer services use dynamic pricing, such as hotels and airlines, and yet aren’t scrutinised in the same way. Dynamic pricing is a natural by-product of market-based capitalism, where demand and supply are bound to have an inverse relationship. It just so happens that we are experiencing potential misuses of it. Whilst Ticketmaster’s practices do seem like a breach of ‘clear and accurate’ information relayed to consumers, it is not yet evident whether Ticketmaster has actually broken consumer protection law. 

Perhaps it would be helpful to think about why concert tickets are met with more disdain than their, equally dynamically priced, counterparts. In both the Oasis and Coldplay incidents, the central frustration seems to be centred around high, and hidden costs due to concentrated demand for a non-essential commodity (whereas a hotel or plane ticket is more likely to be a ‘necessary’ or sometimes ‘non-luxury’ purchase due to business). Fans are thus more likely to stress over the chances of securing a ticket for such an in-demand concert, but due to their desperation for an opportunity to see their band live, they are willing to pay a premium for tickets. Therefore, the problem isn’t inherently within dynamic pricing, but in Ticketmaster’s lack of transparency. One way to resolve this would be to declare the rate in which prices will rise based on consumer interest. By displaying that ‘this might be £70 now, but will go up in x number of hours after x number of tickets are left’, some fans are left still having to endure a premium, but they will at least know what they are getting into, enabling them to make an informed choice as to whether or not to remain in the queue. This is surely preferable to being ambushed by an extortionate price tag at checkout, after committing hours to the wait. 

Some have also advocated for a set number of tickets that are left aside to be sold as ‘means-tested’ ones, where capital to support this could be raised through charities. Though bands have no duty to be a social service, it would help to broaden their prospective audiences – which can only be a draw. Student discounts are also a potential solution, with food chains, travelling services, and fashion brands offering yearly discounts. Some of these products on discount are non-necessities, too. The problem of bad actors and misuse arises, but this will always be unavoidable to a certain extent. 

Whilst a lot of Oasis fans will be ‘looking back in anger’ due to their lack of tickets for the upcoming concert, the future is not all doom and gloom. Changes are afoot to increase access to these concerts, in whatever form they may take.

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