If you were ever to forget why the English and French have a natural enmity then William Shakespeare’s Henry V is perfect for a short, sharp reminder. The play takes us back to 1415 when the two nations were at war, culminating in the English trouncing the French during the Battle of Agincourt.
The rural idyll of Blenheim Palace is the perfect setting for As You Like It. The witty romantic comedy is being performed in the open air by the Oxford School of Drama. It is hard to imagine a better ‘Forest of Arden’ , with flowers and vines as a backdrop, birds twittering and the last rays of sun falling on to an audience seated on bales of hay.
Uncivil Partnership is comedy with a satirical edge about love, social stereotypes and lesbian weddings. Marion and Kate are getting married. Marion is an aristocrat, 54th in line to the throne, who comes across to most people who meet her as incredibly snobby and unlikeable. Kate’s parents run a pub. Kate doesn’t have a trust fund and works in telemarketing. Their wedding is being organised with meticulous detail by Marion and promises to be a rigid affair containing classical music, one of Kate’s pet-hates.
Mischa is a half white/half black boy who struggles to fit in. Despite his mother’s love, his intelligence and ability, he dies aged 19 during a police chase. With the help of Mischa’s family Chickenshed have turned his true story into an incredibly powerful dazzling piece of physical and musical theatre.
Shakespeare’s brutal yet hauntingly poetic tale of betrayal, insanity and darkness is being retold by the Oxford Triptych Theatre Company. The play, perhaps one of the bleakest tragedies of all time, tells of how the ageing and increasingly mad Lear is betrayed by the two daughters Goneril and Regan, in their bid for power. Lear rejects Cordelia, the daughter who truly loves him, though he is later reconciled.
A soulful and dynamic production of perhaps the most famous story in history is being put on by the Musical Youth Theatre of Oxford. And could there be a better time than Easter for the musical about the demise of Jesus Christ, which was first transported to the stage by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in 1971?
The title of this play is so intriguing I felt compelled to see it. The action starts with a familiar domestic scene. A woman singing and half dancing to her favourite song while clearing up in the kitchen. It’s Christmas and the woman Katie, played by Katie Mansfield, is nervously awaiting her father who she hasn’t seen since she was a child. Her boyfriend Sam (played by her husband in real life Sam Mansfield) is competing with her to play his silly Christmas Wombles song and generally getting on her nerves, with comic effect.
A heart-wrenchingly powerful performance of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is being given this week by the Oxford Theatre Guild. The play tells the true story of how young girls living in the puritanical society of America in 1692 are caught dancing in a forest and accused of witchcraft. Hysterical with fear, they accuse others of being devils in order to shift the blame away from themselves.
