Reviews by Nina Brown
Le Quattro Volte [U]
Nina Brown
Literally, ‘The Four Times’: in the words of Italian director Michelangelo Frammartino, ‘Man is made of mineral, because he has a skeleton; he’s a plant, because he has blood flowing in his ...
13 years ago
Le Quattro Volte [U]
The Jungle Book
Nina Brown
The Birmingham Stage Company’s adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s beloved book is a fun, colourful and, in places, very accomplished production. Directed by the founder of the company, actor and ...
14 years ago
The Jungle Book
The Chequers (central Oxford)
Nina Brown
The Chequers is a great spot. It’s hidden location down an alleyway served it well all those years ago when the eccentric Landlord had on show his exotic (and surely illegal) collection of ...
14 years ago
The Chequers (central Oxford)
Archipelago [15]
Nina Brown
Archipelago is unnervingly real. The reality of everyday life, with all its awkward pauses, underlying tensions and things unsaid, is bravely confronted in this very British Arthouse creation by ...
14 years ago
Archipelago [15]
Paranormal Oxford
Nina Brown
Ross Andrews writes about two things, a city and a concept, which are perhaps a couple of the most intriguing ideas alive: the city of Oxford and the Paranormal. Both being mysterious, awe-inspiring ...
14 years ago
Paranormal Oxford
Jerusalem String Quartet
Nina Brown
I want to start with something vaguely superficial but relevant (you will see why in a minute) and say that the Jerusalem String Quartet’s website is awesome and well worth a visit. The four ...
14 years ago
Jerusalem String Quartet
Punk Rock
Nina Brown
I was really looking forward to ‘Punk Rock’, a play by Simon Stephens directed by Sarah Frankcom until recently at the Lyric, Hammersmith and now at The Playhouse, Oxford. I had heard that it was ...
14 years ago
Punk Rock
Rome, Open City [15]
Nina Brown
Roberto Rossellini (what a name) co-produced Rome, Open City with fellow filmmaker Federico Fellini and screenwriter Sergio Amidei in August 1944, two months after the Allies had forced the German ...
14 years ago
Rome, Open City [15]
King of the Birds
Nina Brown
Compère and poetry slam maestro Alan Buckley opened this epic show by talking about the ‘tribe’ of supporters that had come to celebrate the life and work of the late Kate Garrett. The ...
14 years ago
King of the Birds
The Red Desert [15] a.k.a Il Deserto Rosso
Nina Brown
A dour, bleak, grey, melancholic, anxiety-inducing romp of a film. Red Desert (Il Deserto Rosso) the 1964 feature from Michelangelo Antonioni is a film that is really quite hard to describe. It is ...
14 years ago
The Red Desert [15] a.k.a Il Deserto Rosso
Le Trio Joubran
Nina Brown
Not one, not two, but three. Three unbelievably talented brothers. Three phenomenal musicians from Palestine. Wissam Joubran, the middle brother, graduated from the world famous Antonio Stradivari ...
14 years ago
Le Trio Joubran
Private Lives
Nina Brown
‘You cad!’, ‘you slatten!’, ‘fishwife!’, ‘cotton-wool Englishman!’, ‘rampaging gasbag!’, what fitting, witty words Coward uses to describe his characters. Oh how dreamy it would ...
14 years ago
Private Lives
Heartbreaker [15]
Nina Brown
Pascal Chaumeil directs an awesome cast in this funny, absurdist story about Alex Lippi, an arch-seducer who goes on covert missions with his team, his sister Mélanie, played by the amusing Julie ...
14 years ago
Heartbreaker [15]
RSC Productions in Stratford and London 2010
Nina Brown
Mike Poulton, the adaptor of Malory’s Morte d’Arthur for the RSC, says in his introduction in the programme that he didn’t want to ‘embark on another Ring Cycle’ and thus had to heavily cut ...
14 years ago
RSC Productions in Stratford and London 2010
Rashomon [12A]
Nina Brown
The Phoenix is renowned for showing original features and Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Rashomon’, released in 1950, is no exception. This third film from the acclaimed Japanese director won the Golden ...
14 years ago
Rashomon [12A]
In Eyjafjallajökull’s Shadow: Jubilate! Chamber Choir
Nina Brown
The ominous title of this concert, using the name of that notoriously unpronounceable Icelandic giant, in no way prepared me for the joyous hour of music that Jubilate had in store. The choral folk ...
14 years ago
In Eyjafjallajökull’s Shadow: Jubilate! Chamber Choir
The Blue Room
Nina Brown
Stock characters, stock situations, an unnamed, generic city: David Hare’s The Blue Room is like a stock-take of humanity, regimented and cold. Humanity in this play is reduced to its raw ...
14 years ago
The Blue Room
Ruskin Shorts
Nina Brown
It comes but once a year and ought to be a highlight in any film enthusiast’s diary: the Ruskin Shorts film night at the Oxford Playhouse. It is a cinematic feast of emerging artistic talent ...
14 years ago
Ruskin Shorts
