graceboagmatthews

graceboagmatthews

  • Joined: October 22, 2023
  • Articles: 16

REVIEW: Rachel Parris: Poise

Reading Time: 2 minutesI didn’t know what to expect from Rachel Parris; I looked her up before the show and, embarrassingly, the only thing I recognised was her husband, the guy from ‘Sorry I’ve Got No Head’. So when Parris asked us, five minutes into the show, who had heard of ‘The Mash Report’, I was almost alone in my feeble ‘whoop’ from the third row. I would say the audience was almost exclusively in the 40-65 age range, and decidedly liberal. Due to my own ignorance to Parris’ impressive back catalogue of political comedy, it took a few minutes for me to gauge the tone of the show. Parris, however, gauged us immediately; an Oxford graduate herself, she knew how to work the room, and how to subtly humble it. Safe to say, I was quickly charmed.

REVIEW: Manon Lescaut

Reading Time: 2 minutesI think I can comfortably assume that the English Touring Opera’s production of Manson Lescaut at the Oxford Playhouse is vastly different from its first performances in Turin, 1893. Director and librettist Jude Christian’s fascinating biography of recent work had me on tenterhooks for the main event, and her revival of this Puccini classic did not fail to excite the senses and turn the classical world on its head. 

REVIEW: Me and My Girl

Reading Time: 2 minutesThis week, the Oxford Playhouse was home to the wonderful Musical Youth Company of Oxford (MYCO) with their production of ‘Me and My Girl’, a playful musical following Bill (Daniel Hayns) and Sally (Hetty Hughes), a pair of young Cockneys from Lambeth. Their relationship faces a challenge as the Harefords, an aristocratic family, name Bill their only legitimate heir. Bill doesn’t quite fit in, his current behaviour won’t get him his inheritance and the family certainly won’t accept Sal.