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Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2013
What do you do when you discover your godfather was a Nazi, perhaps a war criminal? In Mary Fulbrook’s case, you write a book about it.
Fulbrook, whose mother was a refugee from ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 21 March, 2013
Oxfringe Festival 2012
The other day, I was in the supermarket, on the bus, under a bridge, having sex, when this humorous anecdote really, honestly, genuinely occurred. Or occurred to me. Delete as applicable. That’s ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 6 June, 2012
Don Giovanni
The British delight in celebrating old glories - perhaps because, in these dark & uncertain days, past triumphs are the only thing we can really rely upon. The same impulse that leads ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 4 June, 2012
Dance Around The Gallows
The hemp fandango. The Tyburn jig. The sisal two-step. These charming expressions describe the dance-like jerking of a hanged man’s legs as the dying brain sends a last, desperate signal down the ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 5 December, 2011
Rory & Tim will Never Sell Out
Before I begin the review proper, I would like to complain about false advertising: the show I attended was definitely sold out. Furthermore, although clearly advertised as being a two-man show, an ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 21 October, 2011
An Inspector Calls
"An inspector calls". The words have a ring of old-world gentility, conjuring up cosy Edwardian dining rooms and set texts in musty classrooms. A play that was once defiantly, almost violently revolutionary ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 11 October, 2011
Jubilate!
I’m always a little wary of one-person shows. At their best, they let a solo performer shine, demonstrating the breadth of their talent in an intimate, personal setting. At worst, you’re trapped ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 23 June, 2011
Burns' Night
The 25th of January is the birthday of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, author of Auld Lang Syne, the man who said “The best laid plans of mice and men…” and gave ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 24 January, 2011
Sweeney Todd
As I cycled down the chill North Oxford streets, a freezing fog descended about my bicycle. All sound and light seemed to come from a great distance, and the glow of the ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 10 December, 2010
WNO Autumn Season 2010
As the curtain rose, it looked like the New Theatre had forgotten to install its backdrops, leaving the grimy innards of backstage shockingly visible. To expose tender opera-lovers to the botox that ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 3 December, 2010
The Pillowman
Once upon a time, in a totalitarian dictatorship not so very far away from here, there lived a writer of children’s stories. Sitting in a police cell, blindfolded and afraid, he awaits ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 2 December, 2010
Edinburgh Fringe 2010
The Invisible Atom, Hill Street Theatre, 9pmThis is a confusing, complex play, expanding in scope from the physics of subatomic particles to a critique of global capitalism just as the central character's ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 24 August, 2010
Edinburgh Fringe 2010
Six actors. Two shows. One venue. More sketches than I can count.The Penny Dreadfuls and Pappy's (or the sketch group formerly known as Pappy's Fun Club, if you've seen them in years ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 19 August, 2010
Edinburgh Fringe 2010
Daily Info @ The Fringe...Seated in a dank vault* and being verbally assaulted by a Kentish nail technician-cum-astronaut was not what I expected from the notoriously fluffy Josie Long. Better known for ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 18 August, 2010
John Illsley Interview
So, you’re having a swanky birthday party, with a live band, and a tipsy friend gets up on stage and starts playing in the background. What do you do?Well, when you’re singer-songwriter ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 9 August, 2010
Edinburgh Fringe 2010
Oh, it's that Most Wonderful Time of the Year again, when every aspiring thesp, comic, street performer and associated vagrant treks north to the fair city of Edinburgh. The rest of the ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 2 August, 2010
The Cape of Good Hope
I have to confess I was a little suspicious of the new management of the Cape- solely because they call us “Dialy Info” on their otherwise-excellent website. Fortunately, I am a professional ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 22 July, 2010
Salome
I entered the Playhouse to see a bare stage, lit by ranks of floodlights. Dirty, dangerous-looking men, half-clad in camouflage gear and carrying AK-47s, strut about like posturing child soldiers in an ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 2 June, 2010
Oxford Pride 2010
Topping and Butch are right: All of Lily Allen’s songs are about her not-so-repressed hatred of men. Prince Phillip thinks he’s being funny when he’s just fucking rude. And Starburst really should ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 2 June, 2010
Dracula
As I entered the (appropriately gloomy) confines of the OFS, an usher handed me a slip of paper warning me of strong language and scenes of an explicit nature throughout the production. ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 12 May, 2010
Artweeks 2010
Oxford excels at unexpected triumphs; who would have thought that one eccentric aristocrat’s book collection would become one of the largest libraries in the world? Who would have thought that a bet ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 10 May, 2010
Visiting Oxford - Things to See and Do
In order to thoroughly experience Oxford, you have to embrace both sides of the city: Town and Gown. The University tends (unsurprisingly) to dominate guidebooks, but you’re missing out if you just ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 3 May, 2010
Hedda Gabler
It’s not often that Oxford gets a touch of Bond-girl glamour in its theatre, but with Rosamund Pike, Robert Glenister and Tim McInnerny sharing a stage, you could tell that Hedda Gabler ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 29 March, 2010
St. Patrick's Day
When?
Saint Patrick's day is the 17th March.
What?
St. Patrick's Day is the feast day for St. Patrick, a national holiday for Ireland, an opportunity to celebrate Irish culture for expatriates, and an excuse ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 15 March, 2010
Torpids
WHAT IS TORPIDS?Torpids is one of the two “bumping” rowing races held in Oxford each year (the other being Summer Eights; see our guide to that race). Bumping is a Darwinian struggle ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 1 March, 2010
IMPerium
If you've ever been to one of the Imp's performances before, you'll know the usual drill: a handful of shouted suggestions from the audience inspires a series of improvised sketches; these become ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 25 February, 2010
Crave
Sarah Kane is an interesting and troubling figure; a young playwright of real promise, as famous for the startling brutality of her themes and language as for her depression, mental illness and ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 19 February, 2010
Thai Orchid
Stepping inside Thai Orchid is a disorientating and exhilarating experience. The dark windows (mostly blocked by pieces of Oriental statuary) isolate you from dreary St. Clements and the interior transports you to ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 15 February, 2010
Maxwell's
Please don’t read this review. In fact, I’d advise you to navigate away from this page straight away. Why not read our suggestions for things to do in a day out in ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 15 February, 2010
Valentine Announcements 2010
Dear Mushushu, buckets & buckets of cold tea. ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 12 February, 2010
My Fair Lady
Reviewing a musical as well known as My Fair Lady, it's terribly tempting just to fall back on the cheap gags and nostalgia. It's even more tempting for a director to do ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 25 November, 2009
WNO's Autumn Season 2009
The Welsh National Opera’s all-star production of La Traviata opened on a bleak note: sobbing strings follow the gaunt figure of the lovelorn Alfredo across the stage, red petals dropping from his ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 4 November, 2009
Nights at the Circus
Fevvers is the Cockney Venus, a winged beauty left on the doorstep of a brothel, prepared to take the 20th century by storm as the star turn of Colonel Kearney’s circus. Jack ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 28 October, 2009
Byron And Shelley
Twilight has a lot to answer for. Whatever you think of its literary merits, bloodsuckers have taken a firm hold on our collective imagination. When a serious-faced figure in Georgian costume standing ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 22 October, 2009
Radcliffe Arms
The Radcliffe Arms is now under new management. We look forward to reading future reviews. ...
Alwyn Collinson (DI Staff) - 10 October, 2009
