Oxford University Dramatic Society exam questions and answers 1. Was it worth celebrating this anniversary?

Yes, many lucky people have benefited from performing or directing with OUDS and because Oxford is Oxford . . .

2. Was the show star-studded?

Diana Quick presented, Imogen Stubbs (on a rather dimly-lit stage) reprised a Chekhov role she first played 30 years ago and TV star Rebecca Front shone briefly in the play written overnight by Patrick Marber. My best guess is that there were other famous invitees who couldn’t make it.

3. Did Quick see her linking script before coming on stage?

Maybe, but not much earlier. An audience does not like to see a fine actress peer at pages and read out words of leaden weight clearly written by someone who needed to tick boxes.

4. How good was that instant Marber play?

Fun: he told me he wasn’t going to venture anywhere far from a comfort zone and he didn’t: thus we had Front as a slightly frazzled OUDS President helping her committee panic over a typical student situation. There was subtlety in the writing at the end.

5. What to remember, then?

Performances by students, actually. There was some seriously good acting in an extract from The Odyssey in the first half and from Romeo and Juliet in Part Two (both from recent OUDS productions).

6. Was there one single highlight?

Undoubtedly yes. A student double-act calling themselves Frisky and Mannish sang and played out of their hilarious skins. Pop cabaret of top quality.

7. Marks out of ten?

Seven. But ten out of ten for the Peter Glenville Foundation, which sponsored the evening: Glenville was a member of OUDS in the 1930s before becoming a director and producer.

Good luck, OUDS, for another century and a quarter.