Sunday 8th June 2025
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Clinical Blues wrap up Bucs hockey double

Thomas Browne and Matthew Roller
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Clinical Blues wrap up Bucs hockey double

Women’s Blues 2-0 Cambridge

In the first part of Wednesday’s double header against Cambridge, the Women’s Blues stepped out onto the turf to see if they could keep their streak against the Tabs going after their 4-0 victory in last year’s Varsity Match. From the off, Oxford had the upper hand and were bringing the game to Cambridge.

Despite some difficulties with the sprinkler system pre-match, Oxford were playing the ball around quickly, totally in control. This dominance finally came to fruition with an early goal from Georgie Walton. The ball broke forward and her shot at the near post squirmed under the Cambridge keeper and managed to evade the Cambridge defender’s fumbled attempt at a goal line clearance, trickling over the line to make it 1-0.

Thereafter, Oxford continued to control the game, despite a few green cards being dished out for some cynical fouls – it was a match against Cambridge after all, and after the first goal the raucous home supporters were baying for Tab blood.

The Dark Blues peppered the Cambridge goal with shots, producing some impressive reflex saves from the beleaguered Cambridge goalkeeper. The visitors did have one half-chance towards the end of the half, when a sloppy defensive mistake left a visiting player one-on-one with Oxford keeper Rachael Dellar. But Dellar was up to the task, diving on the ball and clawing it away to maintain the home side’s clean sheet.

The half ended with a scrappy passage of play, and when the teams returned for the second half it was clear that tired legs were playing a part as the quality of the match dropped slightly.

Oxford maintained their dominance and soon forced a brilliant reflex save from the Light Blues’ keeper, followed by a goal-line clearance from the ensuing chance.

In the final portion of the game, Oxford really put the screws on Cambridge, camped in the final third of the pitch, laying siege to the Cambridge goal with a barrage of attempts. It wasn’t long until Dalton found space through the middle, dribbled past a couple bewildered visitors and coolly slid the ball across goal for a tap in by Rachael Harrison at the far post – an excellently worked team-goal. The match finished 2-0 and the commanding display by Oxford certainly bodes well for 2018’s Varsity Match at Southgate Hockey Club.

Men’s Blues 2-1 Cambridge

After a convincing 6-1 win in last week’s Bucs game against Canterbury Christ Church, the Men’s Blues went into Wednesday’s game against Cambridge with a 100% league record. And from the offset, they were clearly brimming with confidence: although there were few clear cut chances in the early stages, Thomas Claughton’s mazy run down the right nearly created a goal out of nothing. Nobody got on the end of his cross, but Oxford were the stronger of the teams.

Midway through the first half, the pressure paid. A defensive mix-up from Cambridge left the ball free in the area, and 2016/17 captain Ryan Kavanagh was on hand to make it one-nil to the hosts. Not long after, Noah Francis’ drag-flick was well-saved by the Light Blues’ keeper, but Claughton was on hand to slam in the rebound to double the lead. Oxford were cruising, and Francis led a series of penetrating attacks through the middle. Andrew Oxburgh’s driving run led to a chance that was nearly bundled in at the back post, and despite Cambridge hitting the post from a short corner, the Dark Blues went into half-time having completely dominated.

The second half was a drab affair, as Oxford starved the visitors of any real opportunities. Josh Keeling should have scored after a driving run from Nick Leach, and Alex Copestake failed to turn in a ball from Jolyon Dannatt, but neither side looked like scoring.

With two minutes on the clock, Cambridge finally broke through a firm home defence to score, but it was a case of too little too late: the Dark Blues held on to complete a 2-1 win, giving them a three-point cushion at the top of the league.

Poland’s passionate fungal love affair

Jamie Onslow
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Poland’s passionate fungal love affair

For most people at Oxford, third year means academic drudgery ending in exams so stressful that many literally crumble under the pressure, like digestive biscuits. It is not unheard of for particularly stressed finalists caught in the rain to dissolve completely and be washed away in Oxford’s sewer system. However, for modern language students like me, third year means something very different. For while my fellow students were returning to Oxford with heavy hearts, I was jetting off from London Gatwick on the adventure of a lifetime. And while other modern linguists touched down in such exotic climes as South America, Italy and France, I was carried to Poland on an aircraft bedecked in the orange and white livery of England’s premium carrier. Poland is a country about which little is known in Britain. Even though over a million of its countrymen and women live in our midst, a recent survey I conducted found that most Brits thought that Poland was a fictional country invented by Tony Blair in the early 2000s. To the uninitiated, Poland can seem a mysterious and opaque place, and yet for those desiring a better understanding of the country, there is no better place to start than the hallowed tradition of mushroom picking.

While in Britain we spend our free time indoors, munching down biscuits and bathing in gravy, the Poles like nothing better than to spend weeks in the great outdoors, scouring the undergrowth for fresh, juicy mushrooms to satisfy their Slavic cravings. Poland’s love affair with the mushroom goes back to prehistoric times. The Polish equivalent of the Prometheus myth tells how a demigod stole a basket of porcini mushrooms from the heavens in order to improve Polish national cuisine. Displaying their fine grasp of irony, the gods punished him with a fungal groin infection so severe that it would daily lay waste to the affected area, only for the demigod’s various appendages to grow back overnight. To this day, Polish nationalists are reluctant to seek treatment for fungal skin infections, proudly showing their athlete’s foot and ringworm, as if boasting of their body’s quintessentially Polish ability to support all sorts of fungal life.

My first brush with this Polish national obsession was not at all what one might expect. Late one evening as I walked back to my dormitory through Krakow’s cold, dark streets, I took a wrong turn and ended up in a rough part of town. Within minutes, I had attracted the attention of a group of hooded youths. I was soon surrounded, and my assailants demanded that I hand over my valuables. I duly produced my phone and wallet, only to be met with blank stares and disinterest. After an awkward few minutes, I established that it was not my money, but mushrooms, that these disenfranchised young Poles were after. I was allowed to leave only once I had produced a sad-looking mushroom from my rucksack, which I had been hoping to enjoy for my dinner. I would later learn that these occurrences are common in poverty-stricken inner cities in Poland, which in recent years have been struck by a mushroom epidemic so severe that young Poles will commit all sorts of depravities just to get their hands on a few chanterelles.

For most Polish people, however, mushroom gathering is enjoyed within the boundaries of the legal system. If you were to wander through the woods and valleys of the Polish countryside, you would not go far before encountering groups of Poles on their hands and knees, their noses thrust deep into the loam. It is not a hobby completely without danger, for the conditions that make Polish soil so perfect for mushroom growth can occasionally lead to horrifying mishaps.

Polish mushrooms are unlike the mushrooms of any other nation. Here, the mushrooms flourish due to the wet weather, the rich soil, and a political system that has consistently guaranteed each and every mushroom access to first-class education and health services. Yet in some areas of Poland, the earth is so fertile that mushrooms have been known to burst out of the ground at immense speeds and with incredible violence. The otherwise idyllic woods are scattered with the body parts of unsuspecting Poles, torn asunder in their quest for mushrooms. This danger has led to much of the country’s wooded areas being cordoned off, as one would a minefield – yet these are minefields so unpredictable that even Princess Diana would think twice before setting foot in them.

The humble mushroom is as ingrained into the Polish national psyche as fast food and mass shootings in the States. It not only provides your average Pole with all his daily nutritional and entertainment needs, it has also shaped the country’s history and culture. Over the last few centuries, Poland has been repeatedly invaded and partitioned by neighbouring powers who would stop short of nothing to get their hands on Poland’s bountiful fungus harvests. When deciding what shape to make the cloud generated by the explosion of an atomic bomb, the American scientists picked the mushroom design as a tribute to the Polish nation. Other unsuccessful design submissions included the Michelin man, and a raised middle finger, but they were rejected on the grounds that one shouldn’t add insult to injury.

Magdalen to appoint new trans rep

Nick Brown
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Magdalen to appoint new trans rep

A motion to establish a new position of transgender representative on the Magdalen College JCR committee was passed unanimously at a meeting on Sunday evening.

The motion, proposed by Matthew Elliot, stated: “Transgender students face a large number of unique and personal welfare needs and issues which often have little guidance or support from the JCR.” It provides for an amendment to the JCR constitution to add the trans rep to the committee.

The duties of the new position include ensuring equality of opportunity and providing welfare support to all undergraduate students who identify as transgender, and lobbying for changes to college policies on transitioning students.

The debate was brief and passed with little controversy: there were no points against the motion and with no abstentions or votes against. Magdalen’s JCR currently has an LGBTQ Trustee, Billy Nuttal, and Officer, Chiara McDermott.

Nuttall, who seconded the motion, told Cherwell: “I am very happy that the JCR supports members of the trans community in our college.”

By passing the motion Magdalen college joins Wadham, the only other JCR to currently have such a position. Katy Haigh, Vice-President for Women at Oxford SU, said: “It is great to see that common rooms are expanding their representative positions to better reflect the demographics and the needs of their students.”

Magdalen student Ben Hopkinson, who attended the general meeting where the motion was passed, told Cherwell: “This motion proves that the JCR is committed to being welcoming and supportive to all members of Magdalen.”

Another student, Amelia Horn said: “Matthew Elliot made crucial points on how the welfare needs of lesbian, gay, and bi students differ from those of trans students and so it is important to separate the role within the JCR.”

According to the its equality policy, Magdalen College “welcomes diversity among its staff, students, alumni, and visitors, recognising the particular contributions to the achievement of the College’s mission which can be made by individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences”.

In 2014, the college’s LGBTQ rep, Elsa Field, resigned from her position after an article written for the St John’s Gender Equality Festival zine, which was described as “incredibly transphobic” by senior University figures. Elections for the position are expected to be held later this term.

Tarot adds witchcraft and mystery to feminist fashion

Viveka Herzum
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Tarot adds witchcraft and mystery to feminist fashion

For many, fashion is a game of self-expression and of power – power over ourselves, power over others’ perceptions, and power over social norms. Recently, tarot and playing cards have acted as both aesthetic and conceptual inspiration for designers who wish to draw on their associations with power dynamics and with a more modern interpretation of femininity, witchcraft, and political agency.

Just like fashion, card games are all about power shifts. Their language is deeply ingrained in our idioms; keeping your cards close to your chest, putting your cards on the table, or, like the Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2018 runway, being a queen of hearts. Their recent Queen of Hearts collection was a show all about love and feminine power. It was a way of paying homage to the brand’s aesthetic and cultural history while celebrating the classic, dynamic D&G girl; she is strong, sensual, and, most importantly, in control. As it was for Dolce & Gabbana, the use of tarot imagery in Maria Grazia Chiuri’s Dior Resort 2018 collection was a choice rooted in history and in the creator’s own beliefs. The collection, shown in the mystic Santa Monica mountains, is both a nod to his fascination with tarot and a statement on the future of the brand. A recent Vogue article by Nicole Phelps explains how the designer used specific tarot imagery to communicate the significance of the project; the death card, associated with renewal and transformation, and the Tower card, indicative of change, were reflective of a new beginning since the end of Chiuri’s three decade long collaboration with Pierpaolo Piccioli.

The imagery on the Dior runway belonged to the Motherpeace Tarot, designed in the late ‘70s to introduce more inclusive tarot representations, and was used in collaboration with its creators, Karen Vogel and Vicki Noble. The deck, drawing on the female goddesses of indigenous peoples around the world, was innovative in its focus on matriarchal figures and on a more inclusive perception of tarot imagery. Dior’s use of it was a clear signal that times are changing.

Other designers, such as Clio Peppiatt, Alexander McQueen, and Gucci, with their evening gowns embellished with hearts pierced by daggers and recurring “FUTURE” slogans of Spring 2017, have presented collections influenced by tarot and witchcraft. And lest they leave their runway of queens without counterparts, the D&G’s Spring 2018 Men’s collection featured suits printed with images of playing cards and modified tarot prints.
Many attribute this growing fascination with card games and modern witchcraft to an increase in young, politically active women discovering these cultures online. Through its associations with witchcraft, mystery and sexual liberation, tarot has come to symbolise an awe and fear of feminine power. Modern witchcraft, and its representation in fashion, is a statement, a way for young women to reassert their political and personal agency in a Trumpian climate of hyper-masculinity.

A perfectly preserved corner of London speaks to modern Britain

Susie Finlay
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A perfectly preserved corner of London speaks to modern Britain

Folgate Street is a narrow alley, tucked away in the heart of Spitalfields in London. Cobbled and flanked on both sides by teetering rows of terraced Georgian houses, it seems a perfectly preserved slice of the historic capital, as though pickled in some kind of invisible cultural formaldehyde.

That is, until you tilt your head upwards to gaze at the cool, glassy skyscrapers which cluster above, shadowing the little road with an intimidating confidence. Such is the inherent contradiction of this part of East London. It is an area deeply rooted in the past, home to crumbling brickwork and winding, gloomy alleys first inhabited by Huguenot silk weavers in the 17th Century. But the area is simultaneously the beating heart of modern Britain. After all, Old Street Roundabout, a mere five minute stroll from Folgate Street, is the UK’s unofficial answer to Silicon Valley.

Forty years ago however, Spitalfields had not yet been transformed by waves of iPad toting twentysomethings. On the contrary, as a result of bomb damage and decades of declining industry, this patch of London was more disheveled than ever before. However, it is precisely this dilapidation which prompted Dennis Severs to move into 18 Folgate Street in 1979. Severs grew up in Escondido, a small town in Southern California. Drenched in warm year-round West Coast sunlight, its wide boulevards and squat one-storey bungalows were about as far from Folgate Street as it was possible to get. But Severs, who would come home from school every day to watch British period dramas on TV, felt he had been born not just in the wrong country, but in the wrong era. He sought to turn his back on the present day. Folgate Street, in all its atmospheric disarray seemed the perfect stage on which to set the clock back.

Inside 18 Folgate Street, Severs set about perfecting his fantasy. He ripped out the electricity, plumbing and central heating, and redecorated the house, forcing his small corner of the world back into the past. In order to raise the funds necessary to maintain his unusual lifestyle, he decided to open the house to the public. It was Severs’ intention that as the visitor steps over the threshold of 18 Folgate Street, they should feel that they have passed not through a mere door, but through the very surface of a painting.

He dubbed this unique form of art ‘stilllife drama’. David Hockney described it as ‘one of the world’s greatest experiences’. Each room seems a canvas. A bowl of fuzzy apricots piled into a chipped china bowl in the kitchen is reminiscent of a Vermeer still life. The smoky quality of the light filtered through dusty windows in the dining room recalls Rembrandt. A pile of dirty linen casually heaped in a corner of the upstairs bedroom seems worthy of an oil painting in its own right. In one room, a Hogarth painting of a bawdy drinking scene is perfectly reflected by the room in which it hangs. Even an overturned glass of port splashed on the stained tablecloth echoes its two dimensional equivalent in the frame above. However, unlike the Old Masters, Severs’ canvases are alive: 18 Folgate Street is not merely a visual experience, but a multi-sensory one. The pungent smell of urine hovers around a chamber pot beside the bed. The faint sound of footsteps on the staircases above mingles with horse’s hooves on cobbles outside. A half-eaten Turkish Delight lies discarded next to a cup of coffee. The implication is that the house is still occupied. Notes scattered by Severs and family portraits hung around the house suggest that the inhabitants are a family of Huguenot silk weavers named Jervis.

Though they are only figments of Severs’ unusual imagination, the family seems undeniably present as you drift through the rooms. Here is where the motto of the house – ‘you either see it or you don’t’ – comes into play. “Still life drama” is a fine balancing act between the scene pre-prepared for the visitors, and the work the visitors must do themselves as they call on their imagination and suspend disbelief in order to fully participate in the living history of 18 Folgate Street.

Tours are conducted in silence, emphasising the responsibility of the visitor in enhancing their own experience. There is something eerie about the implication that you are visiting a house inhabited by ghosts, but there is equally an intimacy to the sense that the visitor has happened across these mundane domestic scenes, just at the moment that the inhabitants have left the room themselves.

The apparent constancies of family life throughout the centuries are also strangely tender: threads of hair tangled in a brush, an unmade bed, discarded children’s toys scattered across the floor. Dennis Severs’ house has been accused of being ahistorical. Indeed, the house is chaotic: below a Victorian bedroom, a Georgian dining room rubs shoulders with an Edwardian drawing room. There is a startling absence of factual information of any kind. But the result is that the experience at 18 Folgate Street is more emotive than a trip to a museum, and more immersive than a visit to an art exhibition. For a brief moment, Severs permits us to step through boundaries of the picture frame into the past.

Strong musical talent and an excellent script

Jacob Greenhouse
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Strong musical talent and an excellent script

Entering the Keble O’Reilly Theatre for the debut performance of Cyrano de Bergerac, I was greeted by a well-lit busy stage. I have often found that performances have difficulty filling the O’Reilly’s stage, but Cyrano’s large cast and clever direction meant that no part of it was left unused. The costume and make up were also convincingly done, far better than I have seen in other student productions, giving the impression that we were actually in 17th Century Paris.

While the play may be entitled Cyrano, the entire cast plays a strong role in keeping the fast-paced musical running smoothly. This was certainly the largest cast I have seen for any student production in Oxford (I counted 18) and the writers made sure that each member plays a vital role. From the very start of the play, the cast are immersed within the audience, running up and down stairs, whilst sword fighting with what look like real swords. The fight between Cyrano (James Bruce) and Valvert (Jody Clark) in the very first scene raised expectations for the rest of the play, and the audience were not to be left disappointed.

What makes Cyrano stand out from other productions is the combination of strong musical talent with an excellent script. The music and script were written by two students (Sam Norman and Aaron King) but had I not known this beforehand, I would have guessed Cyrano to be an early Lloyd Weber. The main motif entitled ‘I love you’ is repeated at the most crucial moments of the play, leaving it engraved into my memory – so much so that my housemate and I have taken to singing the duet whenever we cross paths.

A special mention must go to the more minor songs in the play. ‘Oh will you come with me to Gascony’ was not just a fantastic melody, but was a great contrast to the fast pace of the play. The song reminded me of ‘Tomorrow belongs to me,’ from Cabaret. Both sing of a more optimistic homeland and have wonderful flowing melodies. Similarly, ‘Swallows’ felt like it had been plucked straight out of the ‘Sound of Music,’ showing just how convincing the composition was. 

 

However, I cannot credit the success of Cyrano solely to the music: it takes a committed cast and director to transform script into performance. The ability of the entire cast to improvise when cues were missed, and to band together for the big chorus pieces, must be commended. What really stood out from the very start was the comic ability of specific actors. The power couple of David Garrick as Ragneau the Poet/Baker and Lucy Talbot as his wife were the stand out duo of the show. Their ability to lighten the mood of the entire performance left the audience applauding every time one of them stepped on stage, and won them the largest final applause of any of the actors. Tackling perhaps the most difficult of characters to play, with both a demanding acting and singing role, Greta Thompson made commendably easy work of playing Roxanne.

Overall, the modern transformation of an old time classic did not disappoint. The classically styled music worked well with the ambiance of the performance, with melodies that will be stuck in my head for weeks to come. What was achieved in just four weeks of rehearsal is a credit to the Director (Rosie Richards) who must have worked tirelessly in order for the performance to come together. West End productions of this scale put in months of work for a standard to which Cyrano came remarkably close, and being able to pull off this production while balancing the Oxford student lifestyle is commendable in itself. What’s more, the original composition of the musical breathed new life into such a well-known plot.

A wonderful performance combining good acting, singing and comedy. 

TV memes for deadline-drowning teens

Becky Cook
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TV memes for deadline-drowning teens

For the most part, memes have the lifespan of a housefly. Despite pre-dating the internet as a concept, memes have come to rule our virtual reality, and their casual browsing occupies a hefty chunk of our essay procrastination. While a lot of them are spawned from the news, current affairs or dead gorillas, many look to the world of film and TV for memeworthy matter. The outlandish and expressive animation of Spongebob Squarepants, for example, has created a range of resilient memes, from Mr Krabs spinning in a whirl of doom, to Spongebob’s forefather Primitive Sponge, who has come to represent various primal fears. Then there are the enduring memes of Futurama Fry and his perpetual indecision or Condescending Wonka, featuring eminently recognisable images from both the small and silver screen.

These familiar stills accompanied by a witty caption have become the inside joke of the modern day, and many heavily rely on the likes of popular TV shows and film. This renewal of the familiar is superb because it allows audiences to squeeze even more laughter and emotional significance from shows regardless of whether they were axed decades ago or are still on our screens today. Dormant fanbases, such as the Friends followers, have been wholly revived and ensure the charm and magic never wanes, even when the show does. Their status as inside jokes relies of the exclusivity of what their humour is referencing; in order to fully understand our resident Facebook page ‘Oxford Uni Peep Show Quotes’, you really should have seen Peep Show.

This reliance on the communal experience of a TV show differs from the ‘you had to be there’ nature of an inside joke, because there is suddenly a clear way of moving from someone on the outside looking in to someone in on the joke. ‘You had to be there’ becomes ‘you have to see this’ and the nonplussed become fellow revellers. Memes like the ‘Etcetera’ and ‘Patricia’ memes birthed by M. Night Shymalan’s film Split made more people watch the film, not just because it was being talked about, but because it was being virally circulated in funny memes that people wanted to understand. Similarly, a huge component of the unparalleled popularity of Love Island this year was the meme pages it bred. When you were online, the show was virtually inescapable; everyone was talking about it or tagging people in memes about it. Little did Chris Hughes know that a shot of him looking morose in bed was going to be so heavily circulated that summer.

The latent power of a meme to influence the popularity of a TV show or a film has been discovered. Our fixation on social media and desire to understand the meme makes us want to seek out the media being referenced in each internet sensation. Fervent fanbases have adopted memes as a way to strengthen and reinforce their love for their favourite TV show, as well as foster a sense of inclusion and affinity with other fans. This has spawned memes focusing on increasingly obscure reference points, which in turn narrows the circle of enthusiasts and solidifies their loyalty.

Studios have begun to recognise the power of meme culture. The viral marketing campaign in the approach to the release of Straight Outta Compton greatly altered the film’s box office success. The #StraightOutta meme-generator let fans alter the film’s logo. This canny form of free marketing won a Shorty Award as 9 million memes were generated and the film raked in $60 million more than anticipated upon opening. However, as expected, the internet always has a dark side. Dora the Explorer’s unabashed innocence seems to leave people wanting to enforce perversion onto it, while Arthur the Aardvark’s frustrated clenched fist created explicit memes that left PBS somewhat appalled.

Yet, memes seem to bind people together and how can something that forges connections and sparks fervent passion for shared interests be a bad thing? Humour and the internet have proven powerful enough to unite existing fans and infuse new life into sleeping art. They are our cultural epidemic, upholding the film and TV we love most.

‘Bacchae’ review – A focus on gender that isn’t reflected in the casting

Louis Morris
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‘Bacchae’ review – A focus on gender that isn’t reflected in the casting

The Oxford Greek Play is an august tradition, providing a special opportunity every three years to see a performance of a Classical tragedy in the original language. Despite its many strengths, however, this year’s performance of Euripides’ Bacchae – the story of how the god of revelry returns to Thebes to wreak bloody revenge on his mother’s family – leaves the spectator wishing that its creators had been a bit less traditional in their staging of such a potentially powerful play.

In his director’s notes, Sean Kelly acknowledges that choosing the theme of gender as the main focus of this production presented him with a number of delicate problems concerning casting and staging. Unfortunately, the slightly apologetic tone he takes at this point seems justified by the results of some his choices.

The decision to have Dionysos played simultaneously by three actors was a bold one which felt in keeping with the character’s multifaceted nature – part man, part god, and part beast – and Derek Mitchell, Harry Lukakis and Marcus Knight- Adams worked well together to form a capricious and frightening triumvirate. However, by failing to give the members of the trio any distinguishing features or to identify them with particular aspects of the protagonist’s self, the director left the purpose of this device somewhat unclear and under-developed.

In addition, given that Kelly specifically writes that “Dionysos is not confined to a gender binary”, having all three of the deity’s incarnations played by male coded actors also seems to be a missed opportunity.

Indeed, the general reluctance to cross-cast any major male roles felt oddly conservative for a play so rich in themes of feminine power and gender fluidity (one character, Tiresias, is famous in mythology for having swapped sexes). No female actor spoke a non-chorus line until the final scenes of the play, and even half the chorus of maenad women were played by men.

Given that Dionysos is the god of mad excess and the play revolves around the inner struggle between savagery and civilisation, another thing that prevented it from achieving its full potential was that the cast too often held themselves back. The choreography had plainly been arranged with considerable care and imagination by Isobel Hambleton, and was ably executed by the chorus. However, its stylised precision sometimes felt at odds with the ‘bacchic frenzy’ that the maenads sing about.

Some more rough-around-the-edges physicality would have been welcome – one of the most raw and chaotic scenes, in which the maenads exult over Dionysos breaking free from his prison, was also one of the show’s most effective.

Although King Pentheus represents the counterpoint to the unconstrained debauchery of the revellers, Spencer Klavan’s portrayal of this character could have also used a little extra forcefulness. His Pentheus came across as peevish and pernickety rather than disciplined and dictatorial. A more macho performance in the earlier scenes would have given the character’s subsequent reversal of fortune – when he is emasculated by Dionys0s’ trickery, then infantilised and placed at the mercy of his mother – even greater impact.

That said, there are still many areas in which the production succeeds. The cast are to be commended for the considerable feat of mastering an entire play in a dead language, and, in general, the ancient Greek was delivered with clarity and poetic power. Bill Freeman as First Messenger and Emilia Clark as Agave were particularly noteworthy for their fluent, naturalistic delivery. The scenery was simple but effective, with a giant cage-like cube serving as a prison, portico, and dressing-room as required.

Some shrewd decisions were also made to work round certain conventions of ancient Athenian drama which often prove onerous to modern audiences. Notably, the ponderous tradition of replacing all action scenes with a messenger’s monologue describing them was circumvented with the help of a well-shot film, which was projected onstage to accompany narration of the show’s climax in which Pentheus is hunted down and dismembered by his own family (I would say spoiler alert, but the play has been out for 2400 years, so you’ve had time to learn the twist ending).

In sum, this is a production not lacking in good ideas and technical accomplishment, but a reluctance to go for broke and embrace the bacchic spirit prevented it from fully living up to its promise.

Blues train with Windies captain

Matthew Roller
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Blues train with Windies captain

Oxford’s Blues cricketers had a surprise addition to their winter training last week, as West Indies T20 captain Carlos Brathwaite joined the squad for a handful of sessions.

The Bajan, who shot to prominence after hitting four consecutive sixes off Ben Stokes to win the 2016 World T20, was in the city to visit his fiancée, who works at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Brathwaite’s agent called Blues coach Graham Charlesworth, in a bid to give him an opportunity to train ahead of his stint with the Khulna Titans in the Bangladesh Premier League. He netted at the indoor school at Iffley Road on several occasions, and Blues players had the opportunity both to bat with and bowl at the hard-hitting all-rounder.

The 29-year-old has gone over a month since playing competitive cricket, after being an unused squad member in the West Indies’ recently-concluded ODI series in England. In the one-off T20 international in mid-September, he took 3/20 in 3.3 overs to seal an unlikely 21-run win for the visitors.

Blues captain Daniel Escott described the six foot four Brathwaite as “a very modest guy who was keen to help and advise”.

“He has a huge amount of expertise to share,” Escott told Cherwell, “so it was really insightful. All the guys who spent time with him really enjoyed it, and we hope he’ll come back again soon. He hits the ball harder than anyone I’ve ever played with before, and he put a hole through the wall of the cricket school in his first session.”

Brathwaite himself enjoyed his time training in Oxford, and told Cherwell: “For university level, the cricketers are of a good standard and are very keen to learn which is an important trait to have at that stage.

“I really enjoyed my time in the UK,” he continued. “It is probably one of my favourite places to visit. It helps that my fiancée lives in England and recently moved to Oxford. We are loving the city and looking forward to spending a lot more time in the UK and by extension Oxford supporting the guys.”

The West Indian has largely focused on T20 cricket in the past eighteen months, ever since earning a $620,000 contract with the Delhi Daredevils. Since then, he has also appeared for the Sydney Thunder and the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, and was named West Indies captain in that format after Darren Sammy’s controversial sacking in August 2016.

Brathwaite flew to Bangladesh on Tuesday after a brief return to Barbados ahead of this year’s edition of the BPL. He is likely to make his Khulna Titans debut in the side’s opening fixture, against the Dhaka Dynamites on 5 November. The Titans squad also contains
former South Africa players Rilee Roussouw and Kyle Abbott, Pakistanis Shadab Khan, Junaid Khan and Sarfraz Ahmed, and uncapped Englishmen Benny Howell and Jofra Archer.

“I am in a good space mentally,” he said ahead of the competition. “Form it is neither here nor there, but it was good to get some time away from the game after being involved in the IPL, CPL and then the England T20 game.

“I had three or four weeks where I got in some quality skill work with Charlesworth at the University and also got to do some fitness at home. My mind is at ease and I am looking forward to doing the best I can for my BPL franchise.”

Student activism countering Oxford’s “social apartheid”

Mia Millman and Amelia Horn
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Student activism countering Oxford’s “social apartheid”

According to David Lammy, Oxford needs to stop “hiding under the bushels” and “instinctively blaming schools and educational inequality for the problem that they have”. But the extent of student activism aimed at reducing inequality suggests that Oxford students at least are not shying away from the problem.

Students and societies have spoken out in response to criticisms made against the University last week. Speaking to Cherwell, Lammy emphasised the “important role” of students in forcing change.

Last week’s report made national headlines for its exposure of racial inequalities at Oxbridge. Following a series of Freedom of Information requests, data was released revealing that ten out of 32 colleges failed to admit any black British A-level students in 2015. The data also showed that Oriel did not admit a single black British A-levels student from 2009-2015. In light of these findings, Lammy accused the University of “social apartheid”.

When Cherwell asked Lammy about how to change the University, he said: “Students play a really, really important role.”

He went on to state that colleges that have “have consistently been very progressive in how they have gone about trying to get a diverse intake” are often those where “work has been led by student officers really obsessed with the issue of getting access to these young people”.

Several JCR representatives, as well as Oxford’s African and Caribbean Society (ACS), the Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality, and Common Ground have spoken out following the publication of Lammy’s report.

While last week’s report provides a damning criticism of the University, it did not acknowledge the access programmes and initiatives being championed by student activists to counter these inequalities. Earlier this week in a statement, ACS said: “Attempting to reduce such a complex issue to a series of political soundbites only serves to obscure the depth of the problem and can often do harm to the progress being made in the area of changing perceptions and breaking down barriers to the students at the very heart of this discussion…

“Oxford is a microcosm of the deep structural issues embedded in the British educational system”. They emphasised that the data fails to show “how many young black students are actively discouraged from applying to Oxford by their teachers, despite achieving the grades, because ‘Oxford isn’t for them’”.

In order to boost application rates from the Afro-Caribbean community, ACS “developed an independent access framework” to help young black students. They have three main access initiatives – an Annual Access Conference (AAC), the Visions Programme workshops, and a shadowing scheme.

Speaking to Cherwell, JCR BME representative Isabella Rooney agreed that student-led equality and diversity organisations are not given enough attention. In response to Lammy’s publication, she said: “While these statistics do convey that the reality of the diversity in Oxford needs urgent work, it also puts prospective students off applying.”

Among other initiatives put in place by students is Common Ground – an organisation which aims to analyse and tackle present day inequalities through investigating Oxford’s colonial past. Last term, they held a symposium that featured over thirty events.

Speaking to Cherwell about their progress so far and plans for the future, they said: “Now we have almost 1,500 followers on our Facebook page, and want to continue the discussion interrogating Oxford’s racist, classist, and colonial past. Not only continuing the discussion, but working with the University to make structural changes. ”

Neha Shah, co-chair for Oxford SU’s Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality (Crae) also responded to Lammy’s research into diversity at Oxford. Shah said there is an “entrenched systematic bias” which “persists at all levels of the university, especially with regard to racial and ethnic diversity”.

Shah also condemned the University’s reluctance to fully publish the ethnicity data, which Lammy referred to as ‘defensive’ and ‘evasive’, according to The Guardian. CRAE also criticised the University’s response that they couldn’t release the data on the grounds of the Data Protection Act.

Shah said that this “tells us all we need to know about the number of ethnic minority students at Oxford”.

Hertford BME representative Aisha Nado told Cherwell: “More can be done by Oxford in terms of progress and access.” Echoing the sentiment expressed by many other students, she added that changes at Oxford need “to be backed up by a change to a system where socio-economic factors determine where you end up in life”.

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