Reviews by Emma Pearson
Daily Info on its 50th Birthday
Emma Pearson
Monday September 28th, 1964.
Goldfinger had been released in the UK, the Beatles were touring America, and Lee Harvey Oswald was cover of Time magazine. In Oxford, the School of Technology (now ...
10 years ago
Daily Info on its 50th Birthday
Animals in Roman Life and Art by J.M.C. Toynbee
Emma Pearson
From captured panthers and battle elephants to pet cats and stuffed dormice, animals were a key ingredient in the vibrant, imaginative and spectacle-hungry atmosphere of Ancient Rome. Horses and ...
11 years ago
Animals in Roman Life and Art by J.M.C. Toynbee
The Rocky Horror Show
Emma Pearson
Oh The Horror!... Rocky Horror is a mischievous, mad and timeless party, from the moment the pink mood lighting starts shimmering to the last flourish of an oversized feather boa - and Christopher ...
11 years ago
The Rocky Horror Show
Magical Books: From the Middle Ages to Middle-Earth
Emma Pearson
If you are the sort of person who begins a fantasy novel by poring over the map at the front, then the Bodleian Library’s summer exhibition is for you. Magical Books: from the Middle Ages to ...
11 years ago
Magical Books: From the Middle Ages to Middle-Earth
Oxfordshire Artweeks 2013
Emma Pearson
The Workshop Studios are a hidden gem on St Mary's Road, OX4. Visit for Jan Crombie's haunting tribal themed portraits.
12 years ago
Oxfordshire Artweeks 2013
Women and Post-2014 Afghanistan: What is the West's responsibility?
Emma Pearson
This was a really interesting panel discussion. Dr Suraya Dalil, Minister of Public Health in Afghanistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, former British Ambassador to Afghanistan, and Frances Guy, the UN ...
12 years ago
Women and Post-2014 Afghanistan: What is the West's responsibility?
The Comedy Of Errors
Emma Pearson
Two sets of identical twins wearing identical clothes, a family tragically separated then improbably reunited, and a good healthy dose of slapstick: A Comedy Of Errors has all the ...
12 years ago
The Comedy Of Errors
Titus Andronicus
Emma Pearson
When the famous general Titus Andronicus returns triumphant from his victory against the Goths, a far more intimate but no less bloody battle awaits him at home. The back-and-forth revenge plots of ...
12 years ago
Titus Andronicus
I, Malvolio
Emma Pearson
Most modern productions of Twelfth Night indulge in the pathos filled possibilities offered by Malvolio’s end, and the character’s final line - ‘I’ll be revenged - upon the whole pack of ...
13 years ago
I, Malvolio
Shezan
Emma Pearson
It’s quite easy not to immediately notice Shezan as you walk down the High Street, since it’s tucked away on the first floor. This, however, is one of its charms. It is very pleasant to ...
13 years ago
Shezan
RSC Productions in Stratford 2011
Emma Pearson
Seldom do humour and horror keep such close company as in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. On the one hand, a beautiful heiress must be won by suitors choosing between three riddling ...
13 years ago
RSC Productions in Stratford 2011
Richard Alston Dance Company
Emma Pearson
Richard Alston’s choreography is towards the balletic end of contemporary dance, managing to combine classical precision and poise with gymnastic feats and the emphasis on atmosphere often ...
13 years ago
Richard Alston Dance Company
Artweeks 2011
Emma Pearson
With so much on offer in Artweeks it’s difficult to choose what to see. However the advantage of there being artwork on display in absolutely every region is that it is quite possible to visit ...
13 years ago
Artweeks 2011
Heracles to Alexander the Great
Emma Pearson
As you walk down the corridor towards the Ashmolean’s first major archaeological exhibition since its refurbishment, banners adorn the walls, evoking the world of Alexander the Great and giving a ...
14 years ago
Heracles to Alexander the Great
The Red Lion (Gloucester St)
Emma Pearson
Last night I was invited to the spangly new Red Lion to experience its recent transformation (since last Friday!) into a gastro-pub.The environment was pleasant with well considered decor. Wooden ...
14 years ago
The Red Lion (Gloucester St)
Al-mizan
Emma Pearson
The idea put forward by this exhibition, hidden away in the basement of the Museum of the History of Science, is that balance (al Mizan) was at the heart of both the intellectual and ...
14 years ago
Al-mizan
Sleeping Beauty
Emma Pearson
The Sleeping Beauty follows Swan Lake as the second of two ballets brought to us by the Russian State Ballet of Siberia this week. This was my first experience of live ballet and, while the ...
14 years ago
Sleeping Beauty
Peter Pan On Ice
Emma Pearson
The name may sound like a cocktail on the specials list in happy hour, but Peter Pan on Ice, an adaptation of J M Barrie’s classic tale brought to us by the Russian Ice Stars, with an original ...
14 years ago
Peter Pan On Ice
Travesties
Emma Pearson
Travesties starts as it means to go on. As the lights go up we see a library scene, but one even more eccentric than the Bodleian on a bad day. The year is 1917, and we are in Zurich watching Tzara ...
14 years ago
Travesties
Murder In The Cathedral by TS Eliot
Emma Pearson
The incense, the organ, the shadowy cathedral domes, the winged skull leering from the column opposite – this play was always going to score full marks on atmosphere. Before the cathedral ...
14 years ago
Murder In The Cathedral by TS Eliot