Reviews by Miranda Rose
The Alchemist
Miranda Rose
This is tremendous fun. Creation Theatre has cooked up an Alchemist that must be as bouncy and silly and straight-up funny as any production since its premiere over 400 years ago (in Oxford, ...
7 months ago
The Alchemist
Cabaret
Miranda Rose
I am thrilled about the revival of this production. I saw the previous one four times in the space of about a month - it was that good. All the production choices are the ones I would have made in my ...
4 years ago
Cabaret
Oxford Storytelling Festival
Miranda Rose
To be drawn into the worlds created by an accomplished teller of
tales is, for me, to experience something between a play, a stand-up
comedy gig, a magic show and anthropological research. The ...
6 years ago
Oxford Storytelling Festival
La La Land [12A]
Miranda Rose
It's a nice concept, though hardly an original one: fantasy musical numbers are intercut with "real life" in order to show the inner workings of the characters. It's also a Hollywood Golden Age ...
7 years ago
La La Land [12A]
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them [12A]
Miranda Rose
Zoo-keeping and wizardry have a lot in common actually. Practitioners of each art tend to be passionately committed, full of esoteric information and a little bit odd. Newt Scamander (Eddie ...
7 years ago
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them [12A]
Microsculpture: The Insect Portraits of Levon Biss
Miranda Rose
Even if you're not big on creepy-crawlies, you shouldn't miss this mini-show, which punches well above its weight in terms of aesthetic punch per square metre. Using technology which allows every ...
8 years ago
Microsculpture: The Insect Portraits of Levon Biss
Blithe Spirit
Miranda Rose
Ghosts, murder and troubled marriage are the themes of this undeservedly neglected Coward comedy - which makes it an excellent complement to Hamlet, with which English Rep are alternating it for the ...
9 years ago
Blithe Spirit
Dylan Moran
Miranda Rose
Dylan Moran is hilarious; I plan to go again when he next visits Oxford. His verbal pyrotechnics are still fluid, his baffled rage still vigorous, his dishevelled stage persona still shaggily ...
9 years ago
Dylan Moran
Cabaret
Miranda Rose
Enjoyed Chicago? Add sex, Nazis and a devastating emotional wallop and you have Cabaret. The same team wrote the music for both (John Kander and Fred Ebb), and the wittily-worded tunes have a way of ...
10 years ago
Cabaret
Demijohn - The Liquid Deli
Miranda Rose
Demijohn is a delightfully decadent addition to Oxford's drinking scene. Upon the success of branches in Edinburgh, Glasgow and York, foodie founders Angus and Frances Ferguson are extending ...
11 years ago
Demijohn - The Liquid Deli
NT Live: Othello [12A]
Miranda Rose
I saw this stunning production at the National Theatre and am really glad to have another chance to wallow in it at the Phoenix. It's a traumatic play in a heart-sinkingly brutal production: not ...
11 years ago
NT Live: Othello [12A]
Henry VI
Miranda Rose
A dark, claustrophobic production, crawling with intrigue and bad blood. The first of the three plays on offer this week (you can see all of them in sequence at the Playhouse on Saturday afternoon) ...
11 years ago
Henry VI
Henry V
Miranda Rose
Catch this while you can; it's hilarious. Comedy has always been Creation's forte, and this sparklingly silly production really makes the history come alive. I was amazed to find that ...
11 years ago
Henry V
Foodies Festival 2013
Miranda Rose
You might be forgiven for thinking at first glance that the Foodies festival is a Drinkies festival - miles of tents filled with exciting kinds of booze, from Ginger Ninja cocktails to Veuve ...
11 years ago
Foodies Festival 2013
History of Science Museum
Miranda Rose
One of the most amazing objects in the museum is a huge picture of the moon, on the stairs as you head to the upper floor. One might well walk straight past it: in an age where one can get free video ...
11 years ago
History of Science Museum
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Miranda Rose
These guys are a lot of fun. They have the fire and enthusiasm of a wacky amateur group and the slick proficiency of very tough professionals. The two Festival Player companies are formed newly each ...
11 years ago
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Covered Market
Miranda Rose
Useful Stuff
There is a real live actual cobblers (Timpsons) and a real live actual framers (Covered Arts), as well as a small proper florist (The Garden) which sells different varieties of potatoes ...
11 years ago
Covered Market
Midnight Cowboy [18]
Miranda Rose
What Withnail and I is to Britain and Priscilla Queen of the Desert is to Australia, Midnight Cowboy is to America. If you liked either of the former you should like this. Possibly ...
11 years ago
Midnight Cowboy [18]
The Great Gatsby [12A]
Miranda Rose
If you read the lines "always try to see the best in people" and "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had" as identical ...
11 years ago
The Great Gatsby [12A]
WOOD Festival
Miranda Rose
Once again, Wood Festival proves that small is beautiful. It's a bit like the West Coast of New Zealand: lovely scenery, full of nice hippies, and everyone you meet there wants to come back next ...
11 years ago
WOOD Festival
Lady Impey's Bird Paintings
Miranda Rose
There are about twenty paintings here all told, mostly by Shaikh Zain ud-Din, one of three painters commissioned by Lady Impey to catalogue her aviary during her stay in India in the late 18th ...
11 years ago
Lady Impey's Bird Paintings
Xu Bing: Landscape Landscript
Miranda Rose
This is a terrific exhibition and really worth going to see. Take your brain and a willingness to explore. And if you read Mandarin you'll have the advantage of me, but the great point of Xu ...
11 years ago
Xu Bing: Landscape Landscript
Michael Wellby Bequest
Miranda Rose
You have to get close to the objects in the Michael Wellby bequest to perceive the astonishing wealth of detail crammed into every glittering square inch. This captivating ship, for example, made out ...
11 years ago
Michael Wellby Bequest
Port Meadow
Miranda Rose
Oxford University's new postgrad accommodation looms with a grim obstinacy along the railway side of the meadow. Local residents and Oxford-wide meadow-lovers are quite unhappy at the impact on ...
11 years ago
Port Meadow
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Miranda Rose
I love this museum. As a child in Oxford it was one of the best places to be taken to ("the dinosaur museum!"), and the iconic iguanodon skeleton still greets visitors as they enter past ...
12 years ago
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Against Time: Flawless And English National Ballet
Miranda Rose
Hilarious. The motto of the team behind Against Time is clearly "Don't Let the Audience Know What's Hit 'em". The idea makes so much sense. The ethereal, glittering females ...
12 years ago
Against Time: Flawless And English National Ballet
Overfishing
Miranda Rose
The Common Fisheries Policy governing the fishing laws in Europe is about to be overhauled. This happens once every 10 years. You can join the Facebook/email campaign on Greenpeace to try to ...
12 years ago
Overfishing
Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker!
Miranda Rose
What could be worse than going to a ballet performed by children? Going to a ballet performed by adults pretending to be children. The palpitations induced by realising that all the cast photos in ...
12 years ago
Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker!
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2012
Miranda Rose
Anne Tyler has, I think, more of a right than John Cheever to the title of the Chekhov of the American suburbs. She has subjected domestic America to a microscopic exploration in 19 novels over ...
12 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2012
Star Quality
Miranda Rose
Noel Coward's last play, first produced posthumously in 1982, is a farewell with a careless flourish. He salutes a lifetime spent in the theatre with a sparkling torrent of catty epigrams, set ...
12 years ago
Star Quality
Overfishing
Miranda Rose
If you avoid beef on environmental principles, it may be of interest that prawn farming has 10 times the carbon footprint of cattle farming.
Find out more at Science Now.
MSC-certified prawns are ...
12 years ago
Overfishing
Turl Street Kitchen
Miranda Rose
It was a maxim of my father's that you can tell a good restaurant by the speed with which you are offered your initial drink. Turl Street Kitchen gets full marks in this area: even on a packed ...
12 years ago
Turl Street Kitchen
Headington Hill Park
Miranda Rose
Headington Hill Park exists where the London and Marston Roads diverge at the end of St Clements (Daily Info Map: F5).
In the spring, this is a splendid spot to find carpets of crocuses and ...
13 years ago
Headington Hill Park
Overfishing
Miranda Rose
Oh great. Exactly what the tottering ecology of our oceans needs: they've found copper and gold on the Pacific seabed. The most important finds are rare earth metals (coyly described in the report as ...
13 years ago
Overfishing
Overfishing
Miranda Rose
Update Mar 2011:It looks like Hugh's Fish Fight (as well as a rising tide of other public awareness campaigns) is finally getting some results! The EU is finally considering banning bycatch discards.
13 years ago
Overfishing
Overfishing
Miranda Rose
A new TV series is starting all about the fishing crisis! Hugh's Fish Fight, with celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall starts Tuesday, January 11 at 9pm on Channel 4. You can "attend" the event ...
13 years ago
Overfishing
The Man From UNCLE (2012)
Miranda Rose
George Clooney as Napoleon Solo? George CloOOney????!!! My God. He’ll ham it up till there’s nothing left. The whole point of Robert Vaughan’s achievement with Napoleon Solo was a ...
13 years ago
The Man From UNCLE (2012)
The Perch Inn
Miranda Rose
It’s good to see the Perch thriving again, three years after being gutted by fire for the second time in its recent history. The current owners have transformed it from a mediocre and decaying pub ...
14 years ago
The Perch Inn
Compassionate Dictatorship
Miranda Rose
They say great jazz is like sex for the brain. Tonight there was no awkward edge-of-dance-floor jiggling, just nodding to the pull of a particularly well-communicated rhythm and the odd burst of ...
14 years ago
Compassionate Dictatorship
Loch Fyne
Miranda Rose
This should all have been so different. From the moment you walk in the door, the Oxford branch of Loch Fyne seems warm, inviting, busy; the staff at the door efficient, affable and anxious to ...
14 years ago
Loch Fyne
Orangutans and how to help them
Miranda Rose
Think for a moment of orangutans.
They are perambulating shaggy carpets of orange hair. They can eat hanging nonchalantly upside down. They use tools and appear to have loving relationships. They ...
14 years ago
Orangutans and how to help them
WOOD Festival
Miranda Rose
I think I've just had the most perfect festival experience of my life: Wood rocks. The small scale, the family-friendly atmosphere and the environmentalist/hippy ethos make it simply a lovely place ...
14 years ago
WOOD Festival
The Lost World of Old Europe
Miranda Rose
I wasn't expecting such beautiful things, or such a range of bizarre items. My favourites were probably a pair of very Henry Moore figurines, made 7000-6600 years ago in Cernavoda: a man ("The ...
14 years ago
The Lost World of Old Europe
The Trout Inn
Miranda Rose
We visited the Trout on Sunday at about 6pm and had a really nice time. It was already pretty full, and the waiting staff were young and fairly clueless, but the food was tasty and the setting ...
14 years ago
The Trout Inn
Palimpsests
Miranda Rose
Palimpsests is a three-piece mini-show by Oxford-bred artist Lara Saxby-Soria. Broadly speaking, the title means "traces", and all the pieces reflect the artist's interest in the way our progression ...
14 years ago
Palimpsests
The Ministry of Fear
Miranda Rose
Gosh, well. I liked it so much I'm taking some friends to see it again at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre in Guildford. I guess I'll just have to hope that the tastes of the people I'm going ...
14 years ago
The Ministry of Fear
The Ministry of Fear
Miranda Rose
This was brilliant. Theatre Alibi have staged Graham Greene's WW2 London thriller without losing any of the book's tension between tragedy and farce. There are only six actors, playing between them ...
14 years ago
The Ministry of Fear
Susan Moxley - Celebrating Women
Miranda Rose
I have to admit, I'm not much of a fan of Wimmins Things. Feminist archaeology, Earth Motherhood, Germaine Greer and celebrations of the infuriatingly-designed female body leave me cold.So perhaps I ...
14 years ago
Susan Moxley - Celebrating Women
Moya
Miranda Rose
Moya is my favourite Oxford restaurant. The surroundings are civilised and relaxing; the food is delicious and intelligently planned; the presentation is lovely and while the staff are friendly and ...
14 years ago
Moya
Ruddigore
Miranda Rose
This is a colourful riot from start to finish. Ruddigore is one of the best of the operas, a happy spoof of the Victorian gothic genre, complete with Bad Baronets, a donnishly belligerent gallery of ...
14 years ago
Ruddigore
Visiting Oxford - Things to See and Do
Miranda Rose
Walk through New College Lane to look at the gargoyles, then,
if fine: buy a basketful of goodies (from Maison Blanc or Gatineau, Manos or the Co Op plus or minus alcohol from Oddbins), and punt ...
14 years ago
Visiting Oxford - Things to See and Do
Giselle (and Men Y Men)
Miranda Rose
The ENB present a revival of Mary Skeaping's delightfully romantic and glittering staging of Giselle. This is traditional ballet, complete with sparkly dresses, Christmas cake cottages and bulging ...
14 years ago
Giselle (and Men Y Men)
Manon
Miranda Rose
Friedemann Vogel and Daria Klimentova were utterly stunning. Such chemistry. Such skill. And the exciting yet graceful choreography enabled them to create something utterly beautiful - less stilted ...
14 years ago
Manon
Ashmolean Museum
Miranda Rose
It's very exciting to be allowed back into the Ashmolean at last. For nearly a year the building has been heavily veiled in builder's fabrics and cluttered with cranes. Was it worth it? Have they ...
14 years ago
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Transformed
Miranda Rose
It's very exciting to be allowed back into the Ashmolean at last. For nearly a year the building has been heavily veiled in builder's fabrics and cluttered with cranes. Was it worth it? Have they ...
14 years ago
The Ashmolean Transformed
Angel & Greyhound
Miranda Rose
The food here is rather decent. Large, wholesome and reasonably priced. The lamb burger (£5.95) goes very well with its aromatic minty sauce. The steak in the steak sandwich (£7.50 with chips) is ...
15 years ago
Angel & Greyhound
Overfishing
Miranda Rose
The most positive fishing news for a long time: President Johnson Toribiong of Palau has declared the entire Exclusive Economic Zone of their 200-odd Pacific island republic a shark sanctuary. Read ...
15 years ago
Overfishing
Notorious [U]
Miranda Rose
Yeah, OK, having rewatched it, "tosh" withdrawn. It's far darker, more emotionally traumatic and more brilliant than I remembered.
15 years ago
Notorious [U]
Notorious [U]
Miranda Rose
Sit back, relax and let the charisma wash over you. Ingrid Bergman, the troubled, alcoholic daughter of an exposed Nazi spy, is contacted by American agent Cary Grant. Will she redeem herself in the ...
15 years ago
Notorious [U]
RSC Productions in Stratford and London, from 2009 and earlier
Miranda Rose
Blood and destruction shall be so in use And dreadful objects so familiar, That mothers shall but smile when they beholdTheir infants quartered with the hands of war. That more or less sums up ...
15 years ago
RSC Productions in Stratford and London, from 2009 and earlier
Overfishing
Miranda Rose
Over a third of wild fish stocks have collapsed and only 2-3% of the world's big sea fish are left. The state of the oceans is, if anything, worse than the state of the rainforests. And ...
15 years ago
Overfishing
Doctor Faustus
Miranda Rose
Deep in the appropriately subterranean venue of the O'Reilly theatre, Marlowe's text is brought to life with enthusiasm, commitment and no little skill. German scholar Dr Faustus, pacing in his ...
15 years ago
Doctor Faustus
Jack Gibbons
Miranda Rose
If you haven't heard Jack Gibbons play Gershwin, you really should*. He's amazing. Three reasons: firstly, the electrifying vivacity and bluesy richness of the music, from famous show-stoppers ...
15 years ago
Jack Gibbons
H.M.S. Pinafore
Miranda Rose
It is a concert performance in a church, but the OU G&S Society put so much of the essential spirit into it, that it's well worth seeing despite the restrictions of the narrow space and foggy ...
15 years ago
H.M.S. Pinafore
WNO's Autumn Season 2008
Miranda Rose
This was so marvellously spot-on it's hard to know where to start. It's a classic farce involving young lovers trying to fox an old guardian, abetted by the town's resourceful barber, and is the ...
15 years ago
WNO's Autumn Season 2008
WNO's Autumn Season 2008
Miranda Rose
Verdi’s operatic version of the Shakespearean tragedy Othello is a real masterpiece. The WNO have brought it to life in a vibrant new production. Their visit to Oxford marks the end of a long tour ...
15 years ago
WNO's Autumn Season 2008
Mario's
Miranda Rose
A fixture on the Cowley Road for as long as anyone can remember, Mario’s may have lost a Mario from its original name, but has lost none of its cheerful atmosphere. The interior hasn’t changed ...
15 years ago
Mario's
Jazz in June: Sunday Jazz at the Regal
Miranda Rose
This was a stunning gig. Our party consisted of a pro jazz musician, an amateur classical pianist, and two music-loving normals (of whom I was one) and we were all blown away by it, though possibly ...
16 years ago
Jazz in June: Sunday Jazz at the Regal
Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water For Chocolate)
Miranda Rose
This is a story all about sex, death, families and food on a late 19th century Mexican ranch. Tita, the youngest of three daughters, is destined to remain a spinster looking after her widowed mother ...
16 years ago
Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water For Chocolate)
Cherwell Boathouse
Miranda Rose
This was really rather stunning. A new chef and a lot of dedication have turned this into my new favourite Oxford restaurant. We added a person to our booking an hour before we arrived, turned up a ...
16 years ago
Cherwell Boathouse
RSC Productions in Stratford and London, from 2009 and earlier
Miranda Rose
This is a slick and atmospheric staging of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with seamless and coherent direction, delightful acting and loads of inventive physical theatre. Shakespeare's best-known ...
16 years ago
RSC Productions in Stratford and London, from 2009 and earlier
WOOD Festival
Miranda Rose
This was a seriously nice event. The indefatigable Bennett family, not content with their Truck shenanigans, showed 600-odd people - mainly over 25s and under 5s - a really good time. I think a lot ...
16 years ago
WOOD Festival
Dancesport Varsity Match 2008
Miranda Rose
Where else can you see an Oxford Blue in sequins and high heels? The 35th annual Oxford vs. Cambridge Varsity Dancesport Match is on this Saturday, and promises to be particularly intense. So far ...
16 years ago
Dancesport Varsity Match 2008
I'm Not There [15]
Miranda Rose
This is a startlingly good film. Quirky and serenely surreal, it's an impressionistic poem rather than any kind of straight story. I think this is an ideal treatment for the biopic of such a ...
16 years ago
I'm Not There [15]
RSC Productions in Stratford and London, from 2009 and earlier
Miranda Rose
Richard IIThe Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon, till Thursday 13th March 2008Richard II is a story of treason, real and fabricated, of rebellion, and of the deposing of a weak monarch: the vain ...
16 years ago
RSC Productions in Stratford and London, from 2009 and earlier
Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix [12A]
Miranda Rose
Very much an action film. 768 pages boiled down to a mere 138 minutes of stuff happening. Each character is afforded just barely enough screen time for you to be able to work out who they are from ...
17 years ago
Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix [12A]
Olives Deli
Miranda Rose
We were collecting lunch for five. For the most part we avoided tins and jars and went for the fresh and visible deli style stuff. Half-baguette type rolls for five, wheat free loaf for one, and all ...
17 years ago
Olives Deli
The Unexpected Guest
Miranda Rose
The Agatha Christie Theatre Company is on a mission to "capture the time in which [the plays] were written...without unexcitingly preserving them in aspic". It's a difficult balance, and one they ...
17 years ago
The Unexpected Guest
Tosca
Miranda Rose
Ellen Kent states that of all the many operas she has produced: "Tosca is a particular favourite of mine - mainly because of the melodrama. The fact that the heroine is an opera singer provides ...
17 years ago
Tosca
A Prairie Home Companion [PG]
Miranda Rose
Americans have been getting a bad press for some time now. A Prairie Home Companion will remind you why some of them are worth having.
Garrison Keillor's radio show - old style country-and-western ...
17 years ago
A Prairie Home Companion [PG]
Vashti Bunyan
Miranda Rose
Vashti Bunyan is the quietest singer I've ever heard. After 30 years as a reclusive housewife in the remotest countryside, she uses the stage with an unexpected ease and naturalness - but her voice ...
17 years ago
Vashti Bunyan
LB's
Miranda Rose
One of Daily Info's favourite take-aways. On entering LB's you face a choice between dozens of different kinds of Lebanese delicacies. It's like a sweet shop for grown ups. We particularly like the ...
17 years ago
LB's
Sheldonian Theatre
Miranda Rose
A extremely impressive venue with breathtakingly uncomfortable seats, the Sheldonian is most suitable for musical performances that are about the sound rather than the visuals and, for preference, ...
18 years ago
Sheldonian Theatre
The Gondoliers
Miranda Rose
The Gondoliers is one of the most frivolous pieces in the G & S catalogue. There’s no danger, social exposure or unrequited passion, and the satire that there is, on class and republicanism (the ...
18 years ago
The Gondoliers
King Lear
Miranda Rose
King Lear is a magnificent play. It’s got everything: murder, love, greed, humour, maiming, madness, deceit, remorse and a good solid helping of death all round. Creation have cleverly highlighted ...
18 years ago
King Lear
Ellen Kent's La Bohème
Miranda Rose
This was a gorgeous and colourful production in the classic style. It was possibly the best staging of La Bohème that I’ve seen, with elegant and effective sets, pretty and appropriate costumes, ...
18 years ago
Ellen Kent's La Bohème
Curlew River
Miranda Rose
This is a strange blend of Japanese Noh theatre, modern opera and Christian morality. Three masked black-robed protagonists (the Ferryman, the Traveller and the Madwoman) are engaged in a journey ...
18 years ago
Curlew River
Curlew River
Miranda Rose
This is a strange blend of Japanese Noh theatre, modern opera and Christian morality. Three masked black-robed protagonists (the Ferryman, the Traveller and the Madwoman) are engaged in a journey ...
18 years ago
Curlew River
Lunchtime Gallery Talks at the Ashmolean
Miranda Rose
The Lunchtime Talks at the Ashmolean are given by staff and affiliates of the museum with licence to gallop off on their particular hobby horse for 40 minutes with a world-class collection of ...
18 years ago
Lunchtime Gallery Talks at the Ashmolean
Don Giovanni
Miranda Rose
This production was advertised as having a “goth tint”, and I went with a certain feeling of trepidation, prepared for an evening of rollicking student-budget bad taste. I was delightfully ...
18 years ago
Don Giovanni
The Sleeping Beauty
Miranda Rose
Currently showing at the New Theatre, English National Ballet’s production of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty is something of a mixed treat. Dramatic, glittering, with sumptuous costumes and ...
18 years ago
The Sleeping Beauty
Twiz Twangle, The Dots and Stops, The Gs
Miranda Rose
I have only ever heard one musical performance (barring primary schools) worse than Twiz Twangle, and that was at an open mic night in the backwoods of New Zealand. Twiz Twangle is awful. He’s an ...
18 years ago
Twiz Twangle, The Dots and Stops, The Gs
Don Carlos
Miranda Rose
It is not only in modern times that four and a half hours of opera was deemed too long. Verdi’s masterpiece was cut even for its first performance in 1867 in order to allow the audience to catch ...
18 years ago
Don Carlos
Holywell Cemetery
Miranda Rose
A peaceful, if somewhat brooding, spot for a lunchtime sandwich. Shy wildlife, including deer, have an inner-city refuge here. Famous occupants of the graves include authors Charles Williams, Kenneth ...
8 years ago
Holywell Cemetery
Pan Pan Oxford
Miranda Rose
On the site of the Pink Giraffe there has arisen a pan-Asian street-food restaurant which bodes well to become a fashionable success. A darkened and deliberately informal interior, bench seating, and ...
7 years ago
Pan Pan Oxford
Bring on the Bollywood
Miranda Rose
This is more than a glitzy, glittery, exuberant musical comedy. It is certainly that, and I am still bobbing up and down humming the title number. But it is also a channel of communication between ...
7 years ago
Bring on the Bollywood
Rumpelstiltskin
Miranda Rose
Raucous, rowdy and rambunctious, balletLORENT's Rumpelstiltskin explodes over the stage in cascades of straw and sequins. It's not your average family show in that it really is for the entire family: ...
6 years ago
Rumpelstiltskin
