Kit 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 Spires exhibition, it explores Oxford’s queer history – and, importantly, prompts discussions about other, unheard, stories and questions about queer spaces in general.
The story unfolds as lockdown forces Jo to return home – back to the four walls of their old teenage bedroom. Inside this space they are free from any need to self-edit, and through the stories of others in Oxford’s queer community they find themselves connected to a rich history, written into the fabric of the city but easily overlooked as building use changes and social patterns shift.
These stories are all the more powerful for being true. Owen used exhibition materials and interviewed friends, resulting in the strong sense that you really are hearing the voices of queer Oxford. There’s also a wonderful use of audience participation – with occasional lines to read, props to hold, and the use of space all helping to convey the sense that the story does not start and end with this play, it is made up of so many other stories and experiences, and the audience’s are part of that.
Without giving the whole thing away, it’s safe to say you will walk through Oxford’s streets with a different mental map after seeing this play. It’s also an important reminder that pubs, clubs, restaurants and parks are really quite transient in nature – and once things change it’s easy for the next generation to have no idea what that particular space once offered or represented.
The play ends by putting it to us, the audience, that queer spaces - and the queering of spaces – is not something to take for granted or leave unquestioned. It left me wanting to make sure other stories are documented, and thinking about the ways people interact with this city. Owen’s real triumph, in a way, is taking the inspiration she found in the original Queering Spires exhibition and turning it into a project with continuing creative momentum. Spaces are powerful – and this show understands that.
