Reviews by S. Shah
Music at Oxford: Roopa Panesar and Friends
S. Shah
Autumn 2024 has so far been a great season for Indian classical music in the UK. Having recently schlepped over to London for the fabulous Darbar festival, I couldn’t contain my excitement at a new ...
a month ago
Music at Oxford: Roopa Panesar and Friends
In Praise of Hands
S. Shah
All images © Naoko Matsubara. Ashmolean Museum
I thought I knew hands by studying them at medical school. Dissected, to start with: skin and fascia revealing muscle and bone. Next, photographed: a ...
4 years ago
In Praise of Hands
Shakespeare at Blenheim 2019
S. Shah
Richard III, Thu 18th July 2019
Everyone loves to hate a bad guy. And it’s a special kind of wickedness, one thinks, which would lead a king to murder his own young nephews in order to stay on ...
5 years ago
Shakespeare at Blenheim 2019
Henning Wehn: Get On With It
S. Shah
It’s the accent, I’m sure, that makes Henning Wehn, the self-named German Comedy Ambassador, so laugh-out-loud funny. You may have heard it on the TV shows Have I Got News For You or Would I Lie ...
6 years ago
Henning Wehn: Get On With It
Rip It Up
S. Shah
If you were in the audience, then you’re likely to have been a fan of Strictly, or of Harry Judd, Louis Smith and Aston Merrygold; I know the folks sitting behind me were! I must admit, then, ...
6 years ago
Rip It Up
The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk
S. Shah
'My knowing you has already seeped backwards as well as forwards in time so my whole life is pervaded with the colour of loving you.'
Colours, planes and perspectives were the offerings tonight. ...
7 years ago
The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk
Oxford Literary Festival 2018
S. Shah
Is it possible to type a review of the acclaimed Radio 4 panel game Just A Minute in sixty seconds without hesitation repetition or deviation and also make it funny I do not know but I’ll give it a ...
7 years ago
Oxford Literary Festival 2018
In Between [15]
S. Shah
Chain smoking, getting high, and line cutting their way through life, criminal defence lawyer Laila and DJ Salma are joined in their Yemenite Quarter apartment by recently engaged computer science ...
7 years ago
In Between [15]
The Leading Ladies
S. Shah
How did I not know that Waterperry Gardens in Wheatley had an outdoor amphitheatre? For those who are curious, it’s behind the cement store. This weekend it was home to a festival organised by the ...
7 years ago
The Leading Ladies
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
S. Shah
"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before"
These words from Leonard Bernstein could hardly be more apt, at a time when ...
8 years ago
Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
George Monbiot & Ewan McLennan
S. Shah
The theme is loneliness. The vehicle: a Guardian columnist and a folk musician. The sound bite, "we stand together or we fall apart." If you like the sound of this, read on.
I'm not sure exactly ...
8 years ago
George Monbiot & Ewan McLennan
City Stories
S. Shah
"Sua cui que voluptas" reads the plaque on the chair in front me in the newly refurbished Oxford Playhouse, with its technicolour seating and carpets the colour of a Russian blue cat. Every man has ...
8 years ago
City Stories
Shakespeare's Tonic
S. Shah
"[T]o engage and enthuse people about science by offering accessible, creative and relevant activities to the broadest possible range of people". This is the mission statement, if you like, of The ...
8 years ago
Shakespeare's Tonic
The Dead Secrets: Hickory Dickory Murder
S. Shah
Magdalen College School, Wed 22 June 2016
Murder is not easy. Well, not the improvised detective comedy sort, anyway. That is what I learned from tonight's not-play, not-show, but soiree, ...
9 years ago
The Dead Secrets: Hickory Dickory Murder
The Brand New Testament [15]
S. Shah
Given what's happened in Brussels recently, you wouldn't think God lived there. Unless, of course, you subscribe to the view that God is not omnibenevolent, but is in fact a chain-smoking, ...
9 years ago
The Brand New Testament [15]
Oxford Literary Festival 2016
S. Shah
Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must be StoppedGarry Kasparov introduced by John ThornhillSunday 3rd April 2016 Russia's been on my radar lately, what with the ...
9 years ago
Oxford Literary Festival 2016
Carmen
S. Shah
Nowadays, smoking has thankfully gone out of fashion, but in the 1870s a gypsy cigarrera enthralled audiences as the eponymous protagonist of Bizet's opera Carmen, a tale of love, seduction and, ...
9 years ago
Carmen
King Lear
S. Shah
If you're an elderly king who, in your desire to continue doing fun kingly stuff without the associated hassle, decides to hand over the greatest share of your kingdom to whichever of your three ...
9 years ago
King Lear
No Such Thing As A Fish
S. Shah
Review from Friday 6th November, 2015 at the North Wall Arts Centre
If I'd known there's a job where you can 'sit around and tell each other facts' I would most certainly have applied, in the hope ...
9 years ago
No Such Thing As A Fish
Day of the Dead
S. Shah
In Mexico, the Dia de Muertos is a public holiday, but if you are in Oxford and want to honour the departed souls of your loved ones, you’ll have to do it after work. And where better than the Pitt ...
9 years ago
Day of the Dead
Swinging at the Cotton Club, Oxford Playhouse, Tuesday 8th September
S. Shah
No, it is not an ‘alternative’ night out for members of the local sewing group. It's 1920s New York, at 644 Lenox & W. 142nd; it is the Cotton Club, the legendary whites-only heart of ...
9 years ago
Swinging at the Cotton Club, Oxford Playhouse, Tuesday 8th September
The Mousetrap 2015
S. Shah
Warning: Agatha Christie’s classic murder mystery, on tour at the Playhouse this week, comes with audience obligations. The secret of whodunnit must remain locked in our hearts. Given that The ...
9 years ago
The Mousetrap 2015
ENO Live: Pirates of Penzance [12A]
S. Shah
Did you know that the English National Opera (ENO), National Theatre and others show live and 'encore' screenings of their productions in cinemas across the country? It's a convenient alternative to ...
9 years ago
ENO Live: Pirates of Penzance [12A]
Alice in Wonderland
S. Shah
The myth of Alice has been elevated to such great heights that you'd think it had swallowed a potion labelled 'Drink Me'. Whatever the reality - of dates, times, authorial intent - the children's ...
9 years ago
Alice in Wonderland
A Bird is not a Stone: Palestinian poetry translated by Scottish poets
S. Shah
A Bird is Not a Stone calls itself the UK’s first major “bi-lingual, made-in-Scotland anthology of contemporary Palestinian poetry in English, Scots, Scots-English, Gaelic and Shetlandic”.OK. ...
10 years ago
A Bird is not a Stone: Palestinian poetry translated by Scottish poets
Joan Armatrading
S. Shah
When an erstwhile lauded artist decides to perform live, years beyond their documented peak, there’s a risk of disappointment. On this occasion, though, no bubbles were burst; Joan Armatrading ages ...
10 years ago
Joan Armatrading
Royal Shakespeare Company, Summer 2015
S. Shah
School’s out, summer’s a whisper away, and a torrent of Shakespeare is about to unleash itself on Oxford. But travel just an hour north or south and you get to some other, really rather famous, ...
10 years ago
Royal Shakespeare Company, Summer 2015
Shooting With Light
S. Shah
A montage of sympathetic storytelling, shape-shifting choreography and stunning design tells the forgotten true story of Gerda Taro, the first female war photographer ever to die on the front line. ...
10 years ago
Shooting With Light
Oxford Literary Festival 2015
S. Shah
Prosciutto! Ciabatta! Cappuccino! Pesto! Tortellini! It’s not often you hear such words ricocheting off the ceilings of one of the most revered buildings in Oxford, but then today was no ordinary ...
10 years ago
Oxford Literary Festival 2015
Peyman Heydarian
S. Shah
Nowruz (literally 'New Day') marks the first day of the Persian New Year, and is a holy day for people of different faiths. It also marks the Spring equinox, and tonight's concert happened to ...
10 years ago
Peyman Heydarian
The Wind in the Willows
S. Shah
I never knew that Kenneth Grahame was buried in Oxford until I chanced upon his tombstone in Holywell cemetery a few weeks ago. I also never knew he went to St Edward’s school. How fitting, then, ...
10 years ago
The Wind in the Willows
350th Anniversary of the Sheldonian - celebratory concert
S. Shah
The Sheldonian theatre is not just a place to get your degree. It is also a venue for concerts, lectures and other events. To celebrate three-and-a-half centuries of musical memories created in this ...
10 years ago
350th Anniversary of the Sheldonian - celebratory concert
Indian Music Concert
S. Shah
It’s not often you get to hear a musician who plays an instrument they’ve made themselves. So when I learned that Indian classical music maestro Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt was coming to town, ...
10 years ago
Indian Music Concert
Claire Martin and the Montpellier Cello Quartet
S. Shah
Jazz doesn't usually conjure up an image of cellos in churches. But tonight, this is exactly what was on offer at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, a hot venue for cool stuff in Oxford. ...
10 years ago
Claire Martin and the Montpellier Cello Quartet
Black Coffee
S. Shah
Black coffee is generally good for your health. Unless, of course, you happen to be a character in an Agatha Christie plot, in which case it's likely to bump you off quicker that you can say ...
10 years ago
Black Coffee
Avenue Q
S. Shah
Quirky, queer and quintessentially American, this Broadway and West End smash hit puppet musical is now on tour and showing at the New Theatre, Oxford, until Saturday 16th. If I could rate it Sesame ...
10 years ago
Avenue Q
FT Weekend: Oxford Literary Festival
S. Shah
Turkishness, Twitter and the art of the novel: an entertaining and informative conversation between Nobel prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk and Jason Cowley, editor of the New Statesman.
Even ...
11 years ago
FT Weekend: Oxford Literary Festival
FT Weekend: Oxford Literary Festival
S. Shah
It’s hard to know what to write about Q&A sessions with Booker Prize winners. Do you write about the book, or the interview? I imagine it’s hard for them, too, to talk about their ...
11 years ago
FT Weekend: Oxford Literary Festival
Evita
S. Shah
Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical vision of the story of Eva Peron and her Argentina, in the capable hands of director Bill Kenwright, lifts itself out of its West End home to the New ...
11 years ago
Evita
Soweto Gospel Choir
S. Shah
Oh Happy Day! Joyful, harmonious, and a feast for the soul, the Soweto Gospel Choir performed this evening at the New Theatre, Oxford. Consisting of the best singers from churches in and around ...
11 years ago
Soweto Gospel Choir
Short Stories Aloud
S. Shah
Short stories! Authors! Actors! Cake!
That’s what it says on the flyer and it’s no lie. Tonight’s menu: a ‘literary evening’ of short stories by four authors (Tania ...
11 years ago
Short Stories Aloud
Out of the Blue
S. Shah
I’d like to think that it was my review of the preview (see below) that led to such a turnout at the New Theatre for this latest performance by Oxford’s best loved (shucks, they even have ...
13 years ago
Out of the Blue
Out of the Blue
S. Shah
When I first arrived in Oxford, a couple of friends persuaded me to go and hear them sing in their newly-formed all male a cappella group, Out Of The Blue (OOTB). So I went along, mainly for a bit of ...
13 years ago
Out of the Blue
Translunar Paradise
S. Shah
An exquisite journey of ‘life, death, and enduring love’ in mime and music, from multi-award-winning international ensemble Theatre Ad Infinitum.
“WHAT shall I do with this ...
13 years ago
Translunar Paradise
A Love Like Salt
S. Shah
“A word that has been spoken is like a stone that has been thrown – it cannot be taken back”.
How true. What else has such power to delight or destroy, illuminate or ...
13 years ago
A Love Like Salt
Christmas At Christ Church
S. Shah
An ‘annual celebration of words and music from across the ages’ is how Christmas at Christ Church describes itself. Something of an institution in Oxford, it offers an evening of music from its ...
13 years ago
Christmas At Christ Church
One Day [12A]
S. Shah
This afternoon, I was wondering whether I had (as a friend recently suggested) an over-cautious attitude to cycling, along with a slightly nerdy awareness of the Highway Code. Watching all the trendy ...
13 years ago
One Day [12A]
Amateur Transplants
S. Shah
I’ve never quite managed to believe the theory of the Six Degrees of Separation. Yet I would swear that every other medic I know seems to be somehow connected with the Amateur Transplants A.K.A. ...
14 years ago
Amateur Transplants
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2011
S. Shah
At the launch of the Festival’s new Africa programme, HRH Princess Anne talked about the work of her African charities. Ben Okri gave a poised and eloquent introduction to the talk, calling for us ...
14 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2011
Arabian Nights
S. Shah
Once upon a time, there was an independent storytelling ensemble, who travelled throughout the land telling folktales and fables. One day they arrived in a City of Dreaming Spires and delivered their ...
15 years ago
Arabian Nights
Wit
S. Shah
“Now is not the time for verbal swordplay, for unlikely flights of imagination and wildly shifting perspectives, for metaphysical conceit, for wit. . . . Now is the time for simplicity. Now is the ...
16 years ago
Wit
Murder On The Nile
S. Shah
It was in the bathroom of my grandfather’s house, at the tender age of six, that I read my first Agatha Christie novel. And so began a love affair – some might say addiction - that was to last ...
18 years ago
Murder On The Nile
The Deranged Marriage
S. Shah
Rishi and Sona have just met and now they are getting married. Although the decision was theirs, little do they realise that their actions have set in motion a formidable wedding machine, fuelled by ...
19 years ago
The Deranged Marriage
