Reviews by Matt Bright
The Besnard Lakes, Wednesday's Wolves, Sam Martin
Matt Bright
Despite brief mainstream acclaim for third album ...are the Roaring Night, the Besnard Lakes remain a hidden treasure of a band - somehow managing to create music with pomp, but without pomposity. ...
8 years ago
The Besnard Lakes, Wednesday's Wolves, Sam Martin
The Encounter
Matt Bright
You'll go and see this - if you're lucky, it was already sold out on its first night - and you'll tell your friends with great enthusiasm about the uniqueness of the staging. The way the headphones ...
9 years ago
The Encounter
OSJ Ashmolean Proms
Matt Bright
Non-traditional concert spaces can present all sorts of problems, and the high-ceilinged, alcove-ridden entrance hall of the Ashmolean doesn't look very acoustically hopeful. What you'd need to avoid ...
9 years ago
OSJ Ashmolean Proms
Bach Cantatas 139, 163, 52 & Brandenburg Concerto No. 1
Matt Bright
If the excellence and precision of the playing didn't let you know exactly how much work, both theoretical and practical, had gone into the construction of this afternoon concert then the deep and ...
9 years ago
Bach Cantatas 139, 163, 52 & Brandenburg Concerto No. 1
White Noise Sound, The Flights of Helios, The Manacles of Acid
Matt Bright
What with their slow, lugubrious soundscapes and the plaintive tenor of their lead singer, tonight’s local support band Flights of Helios were, perhaps, not the choice of band to end a hard week on ...
9 years ago
White Noise Sound, The Flights of Helios, The Manacles of Acid
Thy Word Is A Lantern
Matt Bright
Closing off their summer festival of early music, Charivari Agréable gave us the fourth performance of their set of English devotional works for four voices - a chronological amble through about 150 ...
9 years ago
Thy Word Is A Lantern
An Evening Of Improvised Electronic Music
Matt Bright
This trio of digital and analogue electronics accompanied by French horn worked as an illustration of how instruments from three different traditions of modern music could work together, but also of ...
9 years ago
An Evening Of Improvised Electronic Music
Ex-Easter Island Head, Lee Riley
Matt Bright
There’s nothing quite like Ex-Easter Island Head. Everyone says this and they’re usually wrong, but this Liverpool trio does require a bit of explanation for the uninitiated. There are some ...
10 years ago
Ex-Easter Island Head, Lee Riley
Sly & The Family Drone, Young Conservative, Telegrapher
Matt Bright
Telegrapher, a bass-and-drum two piece, gave us a little hint of what we were in for tonight. Operating in the territory between the oppressive drone of Sunn O))) and the noodly fretwork and ...
10 years ago
Sly & The Family Drone, Young Conservative, Telegrapher
From The New World
Matt Bright
The programme indicates that City of Oxford Orchestra conductor Stephen Bell has an enormously busy schedule, but you get the sense that this is how he likes it. He’s an extraordinary grandstander, ...
10 years ago
From The New World
Nosferatu with improvised accompaniment by David Bednall
Matt Bright
Organist and composer David Bednall’s improvised score for Nosferatu is part of a long tradition. Nosferatu is one of the first ‘cult’ films. Its near death at the litigious hands of the Stoker ...
10 years ago
Nosferatu with improvised accompaniment by David Bednall
Fitzwilliam Quartet
Matt Bright
Technically accomplished but somewhat detached, the Fitzwilliam quartet were probably at their best in this concert when navigating the forbidding wastes of Shostakovich’s 15th Quartet. ...
11 years ago
Fitzwilliam Quartet
Oxford Baroque: Musikalische Exequien
Matt Bright
There can be something rather arid about what we now call ‘Early Music’, with its performative purism and sense of being an archaeological enterprise as much as an artistic one. Oxford ...
11 years ago
Oxford Baroque: Musikalische Exequien
Twelfth Night
Matt Bright
This is something new. I say this because you might find it hard to believe. Is there anything more commonplace these days than a theatre company that claims to have radicalised Shakespeare? And yet ...
11 years ago
Twelfth Night
Paul Foot: Words
Matt Bright
One of the things that tends to get written about Paul Foot quite a lot is that there’s nobody quite like him, and to a certain extent this is true - he’s a kind of limit case who’s ...
11 years ago
Paul Foot: Words
Macbeth
Matt Bright
Summer Shakespeare at the castle kicks off with a bit of a fumble from Tomahawk theatre’s zippy, spartan and, unfortunately, workmanlike Macbeth.
There has been some imagination and ...
11 years ago
Macbeth
Angels In America
Matt Bright
This is brilliant, and made all the sweeter by its sense of having achieved an almost ridiculous ambition. With their impressive CVs and celebrity patronage, Fools & Kings are at the semi-pro end ...
12 years ago
Angels In America
Purely Academic
Matt Bright
Bringing research findings to a wider audience through unusual media is a fine goal. Particularly when that research highlights one of the glaring flaws of academic science – its total lack of ...
12 years ago
Purely Academic
L'Olimpiade
Matt Bright
When a lost opera is revived for the stage, and particularly when this is for reasons of topicality as much as musical interest, it sometimes turns out that there were good reasons for its original ...
12 years ago
L'Olimpiade
Grimm And Grimmer
Matt Bright
If you’re wavering between Christmas shows at the moment, the Pegasus' option is less obvious than the gaudy pantomimes on offer at larger venues, but might be a little more rewarding. Forget the ...
13 years ago
Grimm And Grimmer
The Master and Margarita
Matt Bright
If you’ve read the book then your first thought is probably going to be ‘how on earth are they going to do...’ and then any one of a whole list of the book’s more extravagant scenes. This is ...
14 years ago
The Master and Margarita
The Road [15]
Matt Bright
Is it faithful to the book? Yes, and surprisingly so. Despite the misleading trailers full of stock footage of earthquakes and tsunamis, there's no extraneous attempt to explain the catastrophe that ...
15 years ago
The Road [15]
Mirage
Matt Bright
First warning: the O'Reilly theatre is very hard to find, hence I missed the short opening piece Ritual. Second warning: this is work in progress. The programme chunters on about how showing us the ...
15 years ago
Mirage
Bright Star [PG]
Matt Bright
This is a brilliant film - a deeply affecting, unsentimental romance for the ages. What's odd is that, technically speaking, it contains all the elements that make the 'coughing artist' movie so open ...
15 years ago
Bright Star [PG]
Mesrine: Killer Instinct [15]
Matt Bright
In the late 19th century European policing was in the thrall of the theories of Cesare Lombroso, an Italian medic who firmly believed that criminals could be spotted by their facial traits. ...
15 years ago
Mesrine: Killer Instinct [15]
Moon [15]
Matt Bright
Cerebral, low budget science fiction. Now there's a phrase to conjure with, and one that up until recently seemed like an contradiction in terms. But the long shadow of George Lucas is fading - ...
15 years ago
Moon [15]
Is Everyone Okay?
Matt Bright
No, everyone is not OK. Everyone is heading into their thirties. Everyone is working in hateful, confusing jobs that they're too scared to leave. Everyone is drinking, getting high and having sex ...
15 years ago
Is Everyone Okay?
Paperweight
Matt Bright
Anthony (Sébastien Lawson) is a shabby fantasist at the end of his tether. Harry (Tom Frankland) is a nervous, lonely dweeb with a Huey Lewis fixation. They work in the ‘Resources’ department of ...
15 years ago
Paperweight
Spectacular
Matt Bright
About two thirds of the way through the play, Death – or rather, the paunchy actor called Robin in the shabby, faded skeleton costume – admits defeat. ‘I don’t know what it’s about any ...
16 years ago
Spectacular
Watchmen [18]
Matt Bright
Are you a fan of Watchmen? Are you mildly interested in seeing how key scenes from the book translate to the big screen? Good, because that’s all you’re getting. You’ll get it in spades, mind. ...
16 years ago
Watchmen [18]
Into The Little Hill & Down By The Greenwood Side
Matt Bright
It shouldn’t be forgotten that folk, in whatever form it takes, originated among the poorest and most threatened strata of society. Indeed, that’s almost what defines it – I’ve heard hip-hop ...
16 years ago
Into The Little Hill & Down By The Greenwood Side
4.48 Psychosis
Matt Bright
You can’t just ‘put on’ Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis any more than you can just ‘muck about’ with a loaded shotgun. The psychological and physical intensity it requires of its cast borders ...
16 years ago
4.48 Psychosis
Balletboyz
Matt Bright
Every artform has its equivalent to plain white rice – cheap, necessary to bulk out the meal and a bore to consume on its own. For every fine painting, there’s a thousand splashy abstracts on the ...
16 years ago
Balletboyz
Elizabeth and Raleigh
Matt Bright
There’s nothing wrong with a dish made out of leftovers, but you probably wouldn’t serve it at a dinner party. No matter how carefully tarted-up it is, regardless of how technically delicious it ...
16 years ago
Elizabeth and Raleigh
Playhouse Plays Out 2008
Matt Bright
You’ll want to know, I imagine, how they do the bear. They play it for laughs – which is probably the only sensible response to one of the more left-field stage directions of English drama. The ...
16 years ago
Playhouse Plays Out 2008
Falstaff
Matt Bright
Falstaff, adapted from Robert Nye’s lovely, cleverly conceived and frankly criminally neglected novel, tries to retrofit the incidents from the various plays in which the character appears to the ...
16 years ago
Falstaff
Early Music by Candlelight Summer Festival 2008
Matt Bright
Another evening of fun with Charivari Agreable. Fun? Yes indeed – a group perhaps better known for a rather austere approach to early music have provided a program designed for maximum enjoyment. ...
16 years ago
Early Music by Candlelight Summer Festival 2008
Infinite Lives
Matt Bright
It’s unfortunate that, in some circles, to describe a piece of art as ‘sweet’ is an insult. It suggests something coy, shallow and childish. Infinite Lives is one of the sweetest pieces of ...
16 years ago
Infinite Lives
The Reading Room
Matt Bright
While never less than compelling to watch, and equipped with a quite tremendous soundtrack, ‘Reading Room’ was slightly tainted by an over-reliance on the power of celebrity and an ...
16 years ago
The Reading Room
Much Ado About Nothing
Matt Bright
Oxford’s open air Shakespeare season started a while ago, but it never really seems to really swing into action until Creation have unveiled their first offering of the summer. At their best, they ...
16 years ago
Much Ado About Nothing
The Tempest
Matt Bright
It was the drool on Sam Kennedy’s chin that summed it all up. It takes real physical and dramatic commitment to be able to run around with a streak of cold, glutinous phlegm hanging from your face ...
16 years ago
The Tempest
Daniel Kitson: The Impotent Fury of the Privileged
Matt Bright
Fear, apathy, cowardice, the terrible weight imposed upon us by the raw fact of human cruelty – yes, it’s comedy night at the Oxford Playhouse. Daniel Kitson’s new show aimed - among many, ...
17 years ago
Daniel Kitson: The Impotent Fury of the Privileged
Charlie Dark's African Beats
Matt Bright
It may seem odd to begin by reviewing the audience rather than the piece, but it was depressing to see how few people had turned out. Granted, this might have been down to shocking administrative ...
17 years ago
Charlie Dark's African Beats
Quills
Matt Bright
A word, then, about Max Hoehn’s performance as the notorious Marquis de Sade. This was an extraordinary bit of theatre – unlike many student performers, Hoehn had given real thought to the ...
17 years ago
Quills
Dancin' Oxford Festival 2008
Matt Bright
CANdoCO Dance Company, Oxford Playhouse, Wed Feb. 13th 2008.Double bill: The Stepfather & And Who Shall Go To The Ball, from disabled and non-disabled contemporary dancers.
Yoking together two ...
17 years ago
Dancin' Oxford Festival 2008
Zoom In / Zoom Out
Matt Bright
The relatively modest size of Deirdre Ruane’s exhibition of the results of her return to painting in 2007 gave it a rather intimate feel. It did, however show a definite narrative in terms of her ...
17 years ago
Zoom In / Zoom Out
Bach - Christmas Oratorio
Matt Bright
Just because something is traditional doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be conservative. Oxford Spezzati’s seasonal offering of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio could well have been suffering from a ...
17 years ago
Bach - Christmas Oratorio
Jumble It Up
Matt Bright
Jumble It Up: Best of BeforeWednesday 5th December 2007 To be honest, I would have been looking forward to this had they chosen any two of the five performers who came in July. It’s a rare ...
17 years ago
Jumble It Up
Aladdin
Matt Bright
The tremendous energy that’s clearly been put into Peter Duncan’s second pantomime production for the Oxford Playhouse, Aladdin – artistically and technically – is its greatest strength and ...
17 years ago
Aladdin
The Burial At Thebes
Matt Bright
The words are great – but then, you knew that already. Seamus Heaney’s expert translation knows when to bring out the poetry of everyday speech and when to let the more grandiose, traditional ...
17 years ago
The Burial At Thebes
Brendon Burns
Matt Bright
I blame Bill Hicks. And while it might seem unfair to stick him in the first sentence of any stand-up comedy review, I’m happy to say that overall Brendon Burns more than bears the comparison. ...
17 years ago
Brendon Burns
Journey's End
Matt Bright
Parts of this play have aged better than other parts. It’s slower than modern dramas can get away with. Its attitude to war and those who fight it would have seemed shockingly candid at the time, ...
17 years ago
Journey's End
Charivari Agreable Summer Festival 2007
Matt Bright
Jefferson’s Passion: Correspondence & Composers from Jefferson’s Library15th July, repeated 22nd July, 5th August 2007 The concert I’m going to review is, hopefully, not the concert ...
17 years ago
Charivari Agreable Summer Festival 2007
Charivari Agreable Summer Festival 2007
Matt Bright
The Queen’s Revels6th July, repeated 13th & 24th July, 15th August 2007Lit by candles, playing in a space that was slightly too large for what they seemed to have in mind, Charivari Agreable ...
17 years ago
Charivari Agreable Summer Festival 2007
Jumble It Up
Matt Bright
Jumble It Up: First DatesFriday 29th June 2007It’s an exciting idea in itself: five snippets of theatre that are, by their own admission, not quite formed, are presented on stage. Afterwards the ...
17 years ago
Jumble It Up
Expresso Bongo
Matt Bright
For a performing arts school to put on the long-forgotten original stage version of an old Cliff Richard movie was pretty brave. For them to perform most of the songs in said musical without any ...
17 years ago
Expresso Bongo
Head Over Heels
Matt Bright
This is brilliant. You should really go and see this. I’m telling you this because your first instinct will be to run a mile. You’ll see that it’s listed as being for ‘older people’, ...
17 years ago
Head Over Heels
The Free Beer Show - 2007 Season
Matt Bright
Jim Jeffries, Mon 11th June It’s always a worry when comedians are marketed purely on their offensiveness. It shouldn’t impress me that they’ve got some religious publication in uproar (it ...
17 years ago
The Free Beer Show - 2007 Season
Up The Republic!
Matt Bright
A knockabout comedy set during a time of serious political upheaval is a fantastically edgy idea, and hopefully some day one will be written. In the meantime, here’s Up the Republic! Playing the ...
17 years ago
Up The Republic!
The Cocktail Party
Matt Bright
They got the shoes wrong. The props department had managed to secure the cast reasonably convincing party-wear and two rather handsome pieces of leather furniture but the shoes, to borrow a phrase ...
17 years ago
The Cocktail Party
Don Giovanni
Matt Bright
When trying to update an acknowledged classic to bring it closer to a modern audience, there are two ways to go. You can make a deep analysis of the work to dig out its timeless cultural touchstones, ...
18 years ago
Don Giovanni
The Wonderful World of Dissocia
Matt Bright
The word underlined at the centre of my notepad is ‘fearless’. This is a play that breaks a hundred unwritten rules of tone, pace and dramatic narrative without blinking. It’s a piece of ...
18 years ago
The Wonderful World of Dissocia
The Free Beer Show - 2007 Season
Matt Bright
Russell KaneMonday 23rd April 2007Even with a Perrier Award nomination behind him and a forgiving crowd of drunken, post-exam undergraduates in front of him, Russell Kane faced an uphill struggle. ...
18 years ago
The Free Beer Show - 2007 Season
The Simple Process of Alchemy
Matt Bright
The good news is that in The Simple Process Of Alchemy, writer and director Chris Lambert has given us ninety minutes of knowing surrealism, boisterous physical comedy, torrential literary parodies ...
18 years ago
The Simple Process of Alchemy
Vigils by Robert Morgan
Matt Bright
The Crimean War. A group of traumatised soldiers billetted in a dilapidated farmhouse. A nearby nunnery presents a tempting target for illicit sexual release, something their Sergeant fears ...
18 years ago
Vigils by Robert Morgan
