REVIEW: Please Right Back
Reading Time: 2 minutesInternationally acclaimed theatre company 1927 situated audiences in their wacky, transformative world from the moment of entering the auditorium.
Tag oxford
REVIEW: Grease
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe new UK tour of Grease the Musical is being performed at the New Theatre Oxford from the 24th – 28th of September 2024.
FEATURE: Please Right Back comes to the Oxford Playhouse
Reading Time: 7 minutesThis week, Oxford Playhouse welcome back internationally celebrated performance company 1927 for their newest production Please right back.
REVIEW: Portals and Parallels: Oxford’s Hidden Worlds
Reading Time: 2 minutesPortals and Parallels exposes the duality between Oxford’s privileged surface and the often overlooked areas within it in an informative and entirely unique manner.
REVIEW: MotherHood
Reading Time: 3 minutesAs I took my seat in Oxford’s Burton Taylor Studio, I was instantly struck by how many people my age had come to see MotherHood. It's not often that a new one-woman play in a small theatre attracts the 15- 20 year old demographic, though MotherHood was sold out for a second night running, following public demand for more. The second the play began, it was obvious why. Against a projected backdrop of Oxford’s streets, verbatim recordings played the voices of teen boys, sharing their experience growing up ‘in endz’. Instantly I was taken aback by the familiarity of these testimonies; if you’d had told me these were my old classmates speaking I would have believed you.
REVIEW: Pigeons in Transit
Reading Time: 3 minutesWriter and performer Hannah Fredsgaard-Jones’ one woman show demonstrates just this, depicting the universal struggle between denial, fear and hope through ingenious use of storytelling and creativity. Dressed in bubblegum blue doc martens and a bright orange gilet- she is a picture of the modern woman. Her apartment is furnished with a large, hot pink inflatable plastic sofa, and a coffee table displaying an aspirational selection of books- ‘How To Fail’; ‘Mending Life’ and ‘How To Read A Tree’ to name a few. However, as she paces around her flat in an agitated manner before using the book stack as a stand for her iphone, it seems the curiosity these titles suggest has been abandoned in the face of despair.
REVIEW: She Vanishes in the Air
Reading Time: 2 minutesShe Vanishes in the Air is set up as an open rehearsal; the audience are greeted by the actors who direct them to seats and ensure they scan the barcode that sits on their seat and enter their full name into the voting system. Already, there was an atmosphere of uncertainty. Still, I went ahead and filled out the form. There was an introduction, a Brechtian questioning of the audience and a couple of humourous interactions between the cast. The Old Fire Station’s stage was almost bare, with a row of three chairs in a bench centre stage. The cast stayed on stage for the entirety of the single-act play, and a musician (Mark Taylor) in the rehearsal room, stage left, skilfully providing the live drums and sound effects throughout.
REVIEW: Deluge
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhat’s left when someone leaves? This was the overarching question in Andrea Maciel and Gabriela Flarys’ production Deluge, an experimental piece of multimedia theatre examining the universally confusing experience of loss. Opening with a curdling scream and Flarys dressed in red-stained garms, it was evident that this show would combine alarm and humour in equal measure.
REVIEW: Have You Met Stan?
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe black box studio at the Burton Taylor Theatre was an intimate and atmospheric backdrop to this brand-new musical, making its debut at the Oxford’s Offbeat Festival. Soundtracked by a fantastic live band (Georgia Ayew on drums, Jennie Beard on bass and writer-composer Bart Thiede on keys), the show follows the relationship between Séan from Ireland (Liam McGrath) and Stan from Poland (Cam Gray), as they navigate their way through the complexities of EU migration, religious upbringing and LGBTQI+ identities.
REVIEW: An Evening Without Kate Bush
Reading Time: 2 minutesA single, tiny red light floats at the front of the Oxford Playhouse stage in silence. Slowly but surely, movements begin and the music swells; the gloriously Bush-like voice of Sarah-Louise Young fills the room. I’ve never seen Kate Bush live but I can imagine this number was pretty close. Through a gauze, Young twisted and turned and guided the small light to illuminate her body. Finally, in a huge feathered headdress and leotard (obviously a ‘Fish Person’ uniform), Young revealed herself and as the song came to a close, addressed us, creepily, “She’s not here”. The laughter was almost uninterrupted from that point onwards.