Reviews by Lucy Jollow
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Lucy Jollow
I absolutely loved Olga Tokarczuk’s novel Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - so expectations for Complicité’s stage version were complicated. This was one of those ‘please let it be ...
a year ago
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Lady Maisery
Lucy Jollow
Tender is just the right word for this talented trio’s latest album: it is both nurturing and raw, a sensitive response to the times we are living in. So it felt oddly fitting to be experiencing it ...
a year ago
Lady Maisery
OCM presents San Salvador
Lucy Jollow
When I saw San Salvador in the Daily Info music listings I couldn’t quite believe it would be the same band I had had the pleasure of watching in a forest clearing in central France, four long ...
2 years ago
OCM presents San Salvador
Oxford Literary Festival 2022
Lucy Jollow
Race Against The Virus: The Oxford Vaccine Team - Professor Sir John Bell, Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert, Professor Catherine Green, Professor Sir Andrew Pollard & Professor Teresa Lambe.
Oxford ...
2 years ago
Oxford Literary Festival 2022
Oxford Literary Festival 2022
Lucy Jollow
Review of 'Oxford’s Literary Ghosts and Magpie Lane'
Oxford Literary Festival, Saturday 26th March 2022, Oxford Martin School
Being an author in Oxford might not sound like a particularly tough ...
2 years ago
Oxford Literary Festival 2022
Come In, Oxford!
Lucy Jollow
Katy Owen’s new play Come In, Oxford is a vital piece of local storytelling, with deeper themes at its heart. Created during a residency at the Museum of Oxford, in response to 2019’s Queering ...
2 years ago
Come In, Oxford!
The Witch of Edmonton
Lucy Jollow
Digital theatre has evolved rapidly over the last two years – initially as a response to the pandemic, but also because it has provided theatre companies with access to wider audiences and huge ...
2 years ago
The Witch of Edmonton
Nicholas Nickleby
Lucy Jollow
It’s no secret that 2020-2021 were extremely challenging years for the theatre world, so it’s wonderful to see Oxford Theatre Guild returning to the Playhouse after a two year Covid-enforced ...
2 years ago
Nicholas Nickleby
Jesse Darling: No Medals No Ribbons
Lucy Jollow
Jesse Darling: No Medals, No Ribbons is a hot mess of an exhibition – fragile, chaotic, sometimes beautiful, sometimes uncomfortable. Opening, with awkwardly uncanny timing, just as the world is ...
2 years ago
Jesse Darling: No Medals No Ribbons
The Dresser
Lucy Jollow
As much as I hate to use the word ‘cosy’ about any story set during the Second World War (it was an enormous war, folks, not an Etsy moodboard), there’s something rather reassuringly homely ...
2 years ago
The Dresser
9 to 5: The Musical
Lucy Jollow
Watching the film version of 9 to 5 as a teenager, back in the 90s, I remember thinking ‘well, that’s the 80s – the olden days – things are different now…’. That view changed shortly ...
2 years ago
9 to 5: The Musical
The Charlatans, Martin Carr, What Future
Lucy Jollow
On my way to The Charlatans’ Oxford O2 Academy gig I had the mildly terrifying realisation that I have been watching them play live for 26 years. This tour is a celebration of their 31st ...
2 years ago
The Charlatans, Martin Carr, What Future
Blue/Orange
Lucy Jollow
Describing Blue/Orange as a thought-provoking play about mental health feels a bit of an undersell. Mental health has a strange place in the arts. On one hand, it fascinates and horrifies – ...
2 years ago
Blue/Orange
Welsh National Opera: Madam Butterfly
Lucy Jollow
The Welsh National Opera’s previous version of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly premiered in 1978 and ran for more than 40 years, so introducing a new version was not without risks – but last ...
2 years ago
Welsh National Opera: Madam Butterfly
Matthew Bourne's The Midnight Bell
Lucy Jollow
At the sight of Matthew’s Bourne’s name in the Oxford Playhouse programme expectations were already high – he and his New Adventures dance company have built up an incredibly strong repertoire ...
2 years ago
Matthew Bourne's The Midnight Bell
Anish Kapoor: Painting
Lucy Jollow
We’ve seen a lot of ‘pandemic art’ over the last two years, from NHS workers’ portraits to Channel 4’s Grayson’s Art Club. It’s given us hope, entertainment, a chance to say thank you, ...
3 years ago
Anish Kapoor: Painting
Museum of Oxford
Lucy Jollow
The newly reopened and significantly refurbished Museum of Oxford, at the Town Hall on St Aldate’s, has risen to the challenge of providing a museum for all of Oxford, and created a fun and ...
3 years ago
Museum of Oxford
The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff
Lucy Jollow
“Something must be done”.
Last night’s performance of The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff by The Young’Uns at Oxford Playhouse was one of those experiences that goes beyond simply being an ...
3 years ago
The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff
Groan Ups
Lucy Jollow
Loud, hyper and very funny – no, not a six year old who has binged on Haribo, but the best way to sum up last night’s performance of Groan Ups at the Oxford Playhouse. Mischief Theatre’s latest ...
3 years ago
Groan Ups
Boris the Musical 3: The Johnson Supremacy
Lucy Jollow
When Blowfish Theatre first developed Boris the Musical, back in 2016, they thought it would barely last a summer. Five years on, the saga continues - and the old adage about truth being stranger ...
3 years ago
Boris the Musical 3: The Johnson Supremacy
Waterperry Opera Festival 2021
Lucy Jollow
As someone who came to enjoy opera as a result of the ENO’s performance at Glastonbury Festival, rather than a childhood steeped in classical music, I’ve always enjoyed seeing innovative ...
3 years ago
Waterperry Opera Festival 2021
Priscilla Queen Of The Desert - The Musical
Lucy Jollow
All hail Priscilla! While the eponymous bus might be Queen of the Desert, all the incredible divas in this musical performance deserve to rule our nightlife – for they when they command their ...
3 years ago
Priscilla Queen Of The Desert - The Musical
Waterperry Opera Festival 2021
Lucy Jollow
Photo: Marc Brenner
Picture the scene: it’s a beautiful, sunlit Saturday evening, and we are sitting in front of the grand, wisteria-clad Waterperry House, waiting for the start of an opera ...
3 years ago
Waterperry Opera Festival 2021
Waterperry Opera Festival 2021
Lucy Jollow
Photo: Marc Brenner
Billed as a ‘much beloved symphonic fairytale’, this performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf combined a wonderfully whimsical setting, beautiful ...
3 years ago
Waterperry Opera Festival 2021
Treasure Island
Lucy Jollow
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island is one of those stories you know, even if you think you don’t. Plucky youngster, tempted by adventure and talk of treasure, gets tangled up in pirate ...
3 years ago
Treasure Island
The Wind in the Willows
Lucy Jollow
Sometimes, it’s very wise to be very silly. Creation Theatre have a reputation for pushing boundaries and giving audiences a fresh take on what theatre is all about, and in this adaptation of ...
3 years ago
The Wind in the Willows
The Cherry Orchard
Lucy Jollow
Reviewing Oxford Theatre Guild’s performance of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, it would be easy to simply focus on the engaging, committed actors, or the beautiful outdoor setting. Both ...
3 years ago
The Cherry Orchard
