Reviews by Amy Hopkins
Cosmopolis [15]
Amy Hopkins
Spotting the accidental reflection of a cameraman on the front of a car in the opening scene didn’t bode well for Cosmopolis. And by the time the final credits rolled, the film had done little ...
12 years ago
Cosmopolis [15]
Guys & Dolls
Amy Hopkins
Sitting on picnic blankets in the picturesque gardens of Queen’s College, we couldn’t be further from the illicit dens of the 1930’s New York underworld. But, from the moment the ...
12 years ago
Guys & Dolls
The Diary of Anne Frank
Amy Hopkins
When I write, I shake off all my cares. But, here’s a big question: will I ever be able to write something great?
This question, which I have often asked myself, becomes unbearably poignant ...
13 years ago
The Diary of Anne Frank
Lord Of The Flies
Amy Hopkins
Oxford Castle Unlocked has teamed up with a brand new theatre company to stage Nigel Williams’ brilliant adaptation of Golding’s dog-eat-dog classic, Lord of the Flies. This is the ...
13 years ago
Lord Of The Flies
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2012
Amy Hopkins
Jon McGregor visited Corpus Christi College to read from his collection of short stories, This Isn’t the Sort of Thing That Happens to Someone Like You, but he looked like – and ...
13 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2012
Monkey Poet
Amy Hopkins
On Saturday night Oxford played host to the actor-come-poet-come-comedian, Matt Panesh, aka the Monkey Poet.
With his ripped jeans and scruffy hair, Panesh looks like a no-nonsense kind of guy, and ...
13 years ago
Monkey Poet
The Vagina Monologues
Amy Hopkins
Eve Ensler’s famous play – based on interviews with hundreds of women about their vaginas - has become a worldwide phenomenon. Since the play opened in 1996, everyone from film ...
13 years ago
The Vagina Monologues
Totally Tom
Amy Hopkins
An enthusiastic audience at the Northwall Arts Centre was treated to a high-energy sketch how by Tom Palmer and Tom Stourton – aka Totally Tom - the up-and-coming comedy duo who brought us the ...
13 years ago
Totally Tom
Kafka's Dick
Amy Hopkins
The premise of Alan Bennett’s wittily conceived Kafka’s Dick is that Franz Kafka comes back to life in the mid-1980s and discovers that, despite his dying wish that his work be burned, his best ...
13 years ago
Kafka's Dick
Abnormally Funny People
Amy Hopkins
As the title of the show suggests, neither profoundly deaf Steve Day, or Laurence Clark, who has cerebral palsy, shied away from their disabilities in their comedy sets at St John’s last night. Not ...
13 years ago
Abnormally Funny People
The Play's The Thing
Amy Hopkins
How to begin? The curtain rises on The Play’s the Thing to reveal two playwrights puzzling over just this. This age-old artistic dilemma sets the scene beautifully for P.G. Wodehouse’s ...
13 years ago
The Play's The Thing
This Is Oxford
Amy Hopkins
Eight Cuts Gallery’s cabaret at Blackwell's bookshop was altogether more straight-faced than the playful open mikes of Cowley Road, and showcased some exciting new talent. The event was staged in ...
13 years ago
This Is Oxford
The Terrible Infants
Amy Hopkins
Catapulting vaudevillian puppet theatre into the twenty first century, Les Enfants Terrible use physical theatre to present a series of deliciously cautionary tales - warning kids against the perils ...
13 years ago
The Terrible Infants
Puppetry of the Penis
Amy Hopkins
While the puppeteers warmed up the main act, the audience was treated to a generous helping of stand-up by ballsy Canadian comedienne, Dana Alexander. Dana waxed philosophical about her ample ...
13 years ago
Puppetry of the Penis
The Skin I Live In [15]
Amy Hopkins
With elements of The Human Centipede and Old Boy, Pedro Almodovar's latest offering, The Skin I Live In, is part gruesome horror, part psychological thriller – rich and strange in equal measure. ...
13 years ago
The Skin I Live In [15]
MCS' Got Talent
Amy Hopkins
When you go to see a talent show at one of the country’s most exclusive schools, you imagine the standard is going to be high and the pupils at Magdalen College School didn’t disappoint. The show ...
13 years ago
MCS' Got Talent
Paul Chowdhry
Amy Hopkins
Before Paul Chowdhry appeared on stage, the audience was subjected to a rambling home movie that showed the comedian larking about at McDonalds, followed by a fanfare of loud hip hop music, the sort ...
13 years ago
Paul Chowdhry
Doctors O' Destiny
Amy Hopkins
When contending with a 6pm slot and obscure venue, not many new comedy acts could hope to attract a large crowd. The full house at Copa last night is testament to the appeal and success of the ...
13 years ago
Doctors O' Destiny
Wisecracks and Wordplay
Amy Hopkins
Wisecracks and Wordplay was a literary themed pub-quiz-game-show hybrid, hosted by a local independent publisher, as part of the OxFringe Festival. Unfortunately, fate seemed to have conspired ...
13 years ago
Wisecracks and Wordplay
Simon Evans - Fringe Magnet
Amy Hopkins
Dryer than a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and posher than a flute of Champagne, Simon Evans is a late bloomer of the UK stand-up scene and a master of the sardonic put-down. Evans matches his aloof stage ...
14 years ago
Simon Evans - Fringe Magnet
The Mikado
Amy Hopkins
Oxford Operatic Society’s innovative revival of The Mikado sets Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic operetta in the modern day Japanese business world. Gilbert and Sullivan wrote The Mikado to mock ...
14 years ago
The Mikado
Tales From King James
Amy Hopkins
This May, Oxford’s Creation Theatre Company celebrates the 400th anniversary of the first publication of the King James Bible with an innovative new production, Tales from King James. In their ...
14 years ago
Tales From King James
National Theatre Connections
Amy Hopkins
This week Oxford Playhouse teamed up with National Theatre Connections to celebrate the talent of local youth theatre groups. Two promising local troupes - Oxford Actors Company and Stage Fright ...
14 years ago
National Theatre Connections
A Dish Of Tea With Dr Johnson
Amy Hopkins
In their compelling new production, London-based theatre company Out of Joint invite the audience to return to the fascinating world of poet, essayist and compiler of the first English dictionary, Dr ...
14 years ago
A Dish Of Tea With Dr Johnson
After Gilgamesh
Amy Hopkins
After Gilgamesh is an unusual new play by Jenny Lewis that maps the ancient story of Gilgamesh - the God-King of Uruk who lived around 2700 BC - onto the modern story of an Iraq war soldier who ...
14 years ago
After Gilgamesh
Zippo's Circus: Horsepower
Amy Hopkins
This year, Zippo's Circus celebrates its return to Oxford’s South Park by unveiling a brand new show. Horsepower is an adrenaline-filled spectacular that attempts to blast traditional circus ...
14 years ago
Zippo's Circus: Horsepower
The Tempest
Amy Hopkins
Cheek by Jowl have returned to Oxford Playhouse in the form of their sister company, Moscow's Chekhov International Festival, to give Shakespeare’s The Tempest a bold Russian makeover. Cheek by ...
14 years ago
The Tempest
Oxford Fashion Week 2011
Amy Hopkins
Marking the first of the week’s five runway events, the spectacular Concept Show last night hailed the start of Oxford Fashion Week 2011.The Regal's grand art-deco interior provided a fitting ...
14 years ago
Oxford Fashion Week 2011
Blessing Force & TRUCK's Warehouse Party
Amy Hopkins
This weekend east Oxford played host to a unique warehouse party, as artists and musicians of the Blessing Force community staged a two-day takeover of the Old Bookbinders on Green Street. ...
14 years ago
Blessing Force & TRUCK's Warehouse Party
Valentine's Day 2011
Amy Hopkins
N, Those big blue pants do nothing for you.But your seaweed hair is gorgeous and I'm addicted to it. One good, one bad.
14 years ago
Valentine's Day 2011
Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act
Amy Hopkins
Oxford University student company Nous Theatre is this week stretching its wings with a production of Athol Fugard’s provocative play Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act. Fugard’s ...
14 years ago
Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act
Impro Panto
Amy Hopkins
In their promotional material, Oxford Comedy Deathmatch promise to deliver “your favourite pantomimes improvised right before your very eyes.” Indeed, when the nine members of OCD bounded onto ...
14 years ago
Impro Panto
Jesus Christ Superstar
Amy Hopkins
The story of the final days of Jesus Christ is one of the best known in the world, so Oxford’s Operatic Society should be applauded for successfully breathing new life into a time-worn tale. ...
14 years ago
Jesus Christ Superstar
Written In Oxford
Amy Hopkins
On Wednesday evening the Friends’ Meeting House on St Giles Street played host to a series of short plays penned by writers at the Oxford Playhouse and performed script-in-hand, as a prelude to ...
14 years ago
Written In Oxford
Calendar Girls
Amy Hopkins
Tim Firth’s gutsy and heart-warming comedy is based on the inspiring true story of a group of ordinary WI women who did something very brave in the name of charity. A charming embrace of the ...
14 years ago
Calendar Girls
