Reviews by Jen Pawsey
The Axiom of Choice.
Jen Pawsey
Axiom of Choice is a delightfully odd piece of ensemble theatre. It’s part biography of Andrew Weil (but incomplete), part maths apologia, and part physical dance theatre spanning continents. ...
2 months ago
The Axiom of Choice.
The Lightbulb Princess
Jen Pawsey
There’s a bit of a gap between what a 4-year old wants from Christmas (in our case marshmallows done up in tinsel) and what I as her parent want her to want from Christmas, ideally to understand ...
a year ago
The Lightbulb Princess
Peter Rabbit's Musical Adventure
Jen Pawsey
Peter Rabbit comes in many forms these days and we were delighted that this rendition was very true to the original. It’s a short show, perfect for under 5s, though between our party we spanned ...
a year ago
Peter Rabbit's Musical Adventure
Yippee Ki Yay
Jen Pawsey
After a summer spent following the glowing reviews of this show at Edinburgh, I had the pleasure of seeing it in December (perfect timing, obvs) in the atmospheric OFS Studio space. My Mother-in-law ...
2 years ago
Yippee Ki Yay
Ottoline
Jen Pawsey
Every solar system needs a star to revolve around. But when the Bloomsbury Group descended on Garsington Manor they were all stars, and so the hostess has been eclipsed in memory. And this is a great ...
4 years ago
Ottoline
Samson Kambalu: New Liberia
Jen Pawsey
I’ve been imagining the planning meeting at MAO to discuss the first big exhibition when the world reopened this year…
SERIOUS CURATOR: After the political events of this year, and particularly ...
4 years ago
Samson Kambalu: New Liberia
Rambert Live Broadcasts: Rooms
Jen Pawsey
Rooms is an accomplished piece of contemporary dance theatre, stylish and wittily presented. The premise is straightforward, as is the set, consisting of three rooms side by side, with ...
4 years ago
Rambert Live Broadcasts: Rooms
Quick on the Draw
Jen Pawsey
If my family ever got shipwrecked and washed up on a desert island, I would really hope Emma Boor was with us. Out of the passing flotsam and jetsam she’d be able to conjure up a raft, but it would ...
5 years ago
Quick on the Draw
Richard Alston Dance Company Farewell Tour
Jen Pawsey
There was an air of muted celebration in the packed theatre. You might not have known this is Richard Alston Dance Company's final tour, except that every curtain call was a little bit longer: we ...
5 years ago
Richard Alston Dance Company Farewell Tour
Kiki Smith: I am a Wanderer
Jen Pawsey
Yet again Modern Art Oxford proves it's the perfect-sized space: big enough to have plenty to see but not so big as to be overwhelming. This is crucial when it's an artist whose work you don't know, ...
5 years ago
Kiki Smith: I am a Wanderer
Tree Top Restaurant
Jen Pawsey
Oxford abounds with toddler celebrities - no not those cute instastars who are themselves under 5, but excellent adult performers with a vast following of very young fans. The rock star is Nick Cope, ...
6 years ago
Tree Top Restaurant
Alby the Penguin Saves Christmas
Jen Pawsey
Bah Humbug types should steer clear of this charming and extremely festive production, as it will make you feel Christmassy. Three generations of us enjoyed the show, which centres on Alby, an albino ...
6 years ago
Alby the Penguin Saves Christmas
Ballet Black
Jen Pawsey
Normally I'm an assiduous programme-reader, and I research as much about a performance as I can before I go. So it was a novel experience to approach this totally blind, knowing only it was a double ...
6 years ago
Ballet Black
Incoming/Exodus
Jen Pawsey
It was a hot night in the BT, and the small but international audience were poised on the brink of a new sort of theatre experience. Uncertain what we had signed up to, we were about to get to know ...
7 years ago
Incoming/Exodus
A Slice Through the World: Contemporary Artists’ Drawings
Jen Pawsey
Modern Art Oxford's latest exhibition asks where drawing is, in the new digital world we all live in. Is there still a place for pencil and paper, and is that what drawing is these days? Has drawing ...
7 years ago
A Slice Through the World: Contemporary Artists’ Drawings
Criminal: An Improvised Murder Mystery
Jen Pawsey
The BT was packed for Criminal, a comedy show/podcast in which a detective and three suspects have to improvise a murder investigation. And, judging by the number of people who'd seen the show ...
7 years ago
Criminal: An Improvised Murder Mystery
Allow It
Jen Pawsey
If you want good training for dealing with hecklers at your comedy show, surely being a school teacher is ideal. Farrow has taught RE and Philosophy in East London, in a school in Special Measures ...
7 years ago
Allow It
Underpinning - Textile Art Exhibition
Jen Pawsey
Six textile artists have taken the word 'Underpinning' and interpreted it in different ways, for this latest visiting exhibition hosted by West Ox Arts, in their beautiful gallery in Bampton. I love ...
7 years ago
Underpinning - Textile Art Exhibition
The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich
Jen Pawsey
I love a play where the subtitle gives away the whole plot. It's the era of playmaking where all the characters are named with their characteristics (apparently known as aptonyms). And it is to this ...
7 years ago
The Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich
Pop-Up Restaurants in Oxford
Jen Pawsey
It is, of course, in the nature of pop-ups to come and go. The best ventures may morph into more permanent set-ups with venues of their own (like Tacobandits), or the chefs may get bewitched by ...
7 years ago
Pop-Up Restaurants in Oxford
The Family in Disorder: Truth or Dare - Cinthia Marcelle
Jen Pawsey
Cinthia Marcelle's The Family In Disorder is a perfect illustration of the beauty of entropy. If you haven't met this gem of an idea, it's the science that proves things get messier, and that tidying ...
7 years ago
The Family in Disorder: Truth or Dare - Cinthia Marcelle
Cinnamon Kitchen
Jen Pawsey
The Cinnamon empire sprang into being in 2001, with the Cinnamon Club mothership opening in the grand surrounds of the old Westminster Public Library. Back then it was a total revolution to suggest ...
7 years ago
Cinnamon Kitchen
Sophie's Cookery School
Jen Pawsey
Having been to two cookery classes I would like to give you a little of the flavour of Sophie's Cookery School. The classes, although run by specialist tutors, seem to have much in common with Sophie ...
7 years ago
Sophie's Cookery School
FUNomusica Family Concerts
Jen Pawsey
Funomusica Family Concert: Intergalactic AdventureSunday 4th March 2018
It takes a true musical geek to realise how well The Macarena dance fits with Handel's The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, and ...
7 years ago
FUNomusica Family Concerts
The Wedding
Jen Pawsey
Dance is capable of conveying great subtlety, or apparently the strident, vigorous and sometimes hilarious political call to arms that is The Wedding. We start in a sort of dystopian antechamber, ...
7 years ago
The Wedding
Up 'n' Under
Jen Pawsey
fingersmiths gave a warm-hearted and fizzing performance last night, to a rather cold sparse theatre, of a slightly problematic play. John Godber's 1984 comedy revolves around a foolhardy bet, an ...
7 years ago
Up 'n' Under
Penguin
Jen Pawsey
Long Nose Puppets are in the magical business of taking children's favourite picture books and bringing them to life. This time it's Polly Dunbar's Penguin, acted with a cast of colourful puppets and ...
7 years ago
Penguin
The Jericho Kitchen Cookery School
Jen Pawsey
Perfect Pasta! with Ursula Ferrigno, 21st January 2018
What could be nicer on a snowy winter morning than a trip to sunnier climes and a smart kitchen full of friendly people? The Jericho Kitchen ...
7 years ago
The Jericho Kitchen Cookery School
Rice Box
Jen Pawsey
Rice Box reminds me of a time when I was much younger and had less money, but strangely ate out more. Back then it was unfailingly quick, delicious and filling, and I'm delighted that this is still ...
7 years ago
Rice Box
Air Play
Jen Pawsey
Childlike, but not childish, this show from Acrobuffos combines simple props and lots of fans, and it's lots of fun. Starring a ring of 16 ordinary office fans and a couple of leaf blowers, a ...
7 years ago
Air Play
People Of The Eye
Jen Pawsey
At only an hour long, People of the Eye packs in more than most theatre pieces do in twice the time. A collage of scenes, it takes us on the journey of writer-performer Erin Siobhan Hutching's ...
7 years ago
People Of The Eye
Nicolas Party: Speakers
Jen Pawsey
Nicolas Party's giant colourful heads have landed in the Piper Gallery, and the effect is amazing. Almost everyone lets out an involuntary 'Wow' at the vibrant colour and sheer size of the five ...
7 years ago
Nicolas Party: Speakers
Hannah Ryggen: Woven Histories
Jen Pawsey
Hannah Ryggen announces her presence even as you emerge into the space up the stairs. The quality of sound is changed, the 15 enormous tapestries dampening the acoustics, making the cavernous space ...
7 years ago
Hannah Ryggen: Woven Histories
No 1 Ship Street
Jen Pawsey
No. 1 Ship Street welcomes you as an instant regular, and indeed we could see any number of reasons to come back. It's not at all pretentious, just opulent, and because it's so peaceful still manages ...
7 years ago
No 1 Ship Street
Flown
Jen Pawsey
When people talk about running away to join the circus, the emphasis is normally on the running away - leaving the mundane behind and heading for the exotic. Pirates of the Carabina offer a different ...
7 years ago
Flown
Wheatley Birds of Prey
Jen Pawsey
You can tell a lot about people by their animals, and all the animals we met at Wheatley Birds of Prey spoke well of Clive and his team. As well as the array of hunting birds there were also two ...
7 years ago
Wheatley Birds of Prey
Mill View Garden Centre Coffee Shop
Jen Pawsey
In a light and lofty building, Mill View Garden Centre Coffee Shop is a very straightforward place to come for lunch. The food is no-frills cafe fare. Our party of five ate scampi and chips, tuna ...
7 years ago
Mill View Garden Centre Coffee Shop
Oxford Bus Museum & Morris Motors Experience
Jen Pawsey
I quite like buses, as a mode of transport. I'm not someone who spots buses for fun, and I might not have thought of going to the museum were it not for our toddler who is completely besotted with ...
7 years ago
Oxford Bus Museum & Morris Motors Experience
The Oxfordshire Cook Book
Jen Pawsey
Does Oxfordshire have its own distinct identity? In terms of food, The Oxfordshire Cookbook sets out to prove there's more to Oxfordshire than Dreaming Spires and Le Manoir, by showcasing ...
7 years ago
The Oxfordshire Cook Book
The Vaults & Garden
Jen Pawsey
The Vaults is beloved by tourists and visitors, but also by the working residents of Oxford popping out for their lunch hours. It's rare to walk into a cafe and find two such distinct groups of ...
7 years ago
The Vaults & Garden
Kin
Jen Pawsey
Can you tell a story with acrobatics? If it's possible with dance, then why not? Barely Methodical Troupe have set their latest show in some sort of dystopian future where a woman who gives nothing ...
8 years ago
Kin
Offbeat Festival 2017
Jen Pawsey
OffBeat Festival 2017 was a triumph. One week, two venues, over 70 performances and extra live music events, it was a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts, and everything that Daily Info ...
8 years ago
Offbeat Festival 2017
Rose Finn-Kelcey: Life, Belief and Beyond
Jen Pawsey
Head up the stairs and you come face to face with not one but two Rose Finn-Kelceys, looking at herselves from a park bench somewhere in the 1970s. Divided Self (Speakers' Corner) is an arresting ...
8 years ago
Rose Finn-Kelcey: Life, Belief and Beyond
Ten Mile Menu
Jen Pawsey
Realising we never got to the Farmers' Markets anymore, but were fed up of supermarket veg, we tried the introductory offer (a half price small veg box) and liked what we found. We now get a box ...
8 years ago
Ten Mile Menu
The Fourth Dog
Jen Pawsey
Well I'm glad I didn't wear mascara to this performance, or I would have looked like a zebra by the end. But while Fourth Dog is very moving in places, it is also funny, acerbic, and wise. Zena ...
8 years ago
The Fourth Dog
Sometimes I Smile Politely
Jen Pawsey
Sometimes I Smile Politely is a pleasant ramble through 50-minutes of anecdotes about sexism, misogyny and harassment. It's worth taking a second to consider: that's just a selection of one woman's ...
8 years ago
Sometimes I Smile Politely
Organic Entity
Jen Pawsey
I am becoming more and more of a fan of dance triple bills, and choreographers Anna Watkins, Neus Gil Cortés and Salah El Brogy are in good company: Oxford has recently been visited by Richard ...
8 years ago
Organic Entity
Fall Out
Jen Pawsey
If you thought Tap Dance was just Old (Top) Hat then think again. This is the mission of Old Kent Road - to bring tap dance up to date, and prove that it fits into today's dance scene just fine. They ...
8 years ago
Fall Out
Tangent, Chacony, An Italian in Madrid
Jen Pawsey
Back in the days when I was a singer, I was addicted to that perfect balance of tight technical control and wild, expressive passion. This is exactly the sweet spot Richard Alston's dancers inhabit ...
8 years ago
Tangent, Chacony, An Italian in Madrid
The Story Museum
Jen Pawsey
Brian Wildsmith was a children's book illustrator, whose brightly coloured works are instantly recognisable and much loved. His bright scenes, acute observation and rich detail must have burst into ...
8 years ago
The Story Museum
Roll With Me Sushi
Jen Pawsey
When spring is just flickering into life and the days are getting lighter I get a sudden urge to eat fresh green things and leave behind the winter menus of warming stews. What better way to mark the ...
8 years ago
Roll With Me Sushi
Ever After
Jen Pawsey
Where will you find a troublesome bandicoot? A clever use for QR codes? Jasper Fforde's desk? It can only be The Story Museum, who have set about the task of making a public consultation fun, and ...
8 years ago
Ever After
Sponge
Jen Pawsey
Turned On Its Head are a theatre company specialising in shows for very small people, in this case 0-4, which sounds an unlikely age group for a target audience. Will they understand anything? Will ...
8 years ago
Sponge
Silvie's Bakery
Jen Pawsey
Silvie's Bakery is a new cafe and bakery in the ground floor of Brown's Guesthouse. Being essentially the floorplan of a townhouse the tables are in a pleasantly haphazard labyrinth of rooms, so you ...
8 years ago
Silvie's Bakery
Elder Stubbs Festival 25th Anniversary
Jen Pawsey
Elder Stubbs Festival is a lovely event, with a backdrop of the Elder Stubbs allotments which are run as an aid to recovery for people with mental health issues. I haven't visited the site before, ...
8 years ago
Elder Stubbs Festival 25th Anniversary
Oxford Literary Festival 2016
Jen Pawsey
Finding your own DetectiveSophie Hannah, David Mark and Sarah Hilary speak to Paul BlezardWednesday 6th April 2016 Panel talks work well for genre fiction: I'd be willing to bet there were people who ...
9 years ago
Oxford Literary Festival 2016
Atomic Burger
Jen Pawsey
Burgers! The eagerly awaited (at least in this office...) new menu from Atomic Burger is now live, so we were forced to test a number of burger options. Oh the hardship! Service was quick even on a ...
9 years ago
Atomic Burger
Quod
Jen Pawsey
There's something immensely reassuring about Quod. It looks right, it feels right, they get the orders right (including allergy advice), they care about the details. We were invited along because ...
9 years ago
Quod
Playing with History
Jen Pawsey
After seeing the demo of a new board game at The Story Museum, what (I thought) could be better as a follow up than to visit an exhibition of Edwardian board games? The games on show are part of a ...
9 years ago
Playing with History
Animal - A Safari Through Stories
Jen Pawsey
The Story Museum were in the very final stages of setting up their new exhibition, Animal - A Safari Through Stories, when they let us in for a sneak preview this week. Normally museums allow a good ...
9 years ago
Animal - A Safari Through Stories
Simon Armitage
Jen Pawsey
Simon Armitage is a top bloke, which is fortunate, because it can be a dangerous thing to meet your idols or indeed people you only know from the written word. Some very fine writers turn out to be ...
9 years ago
Simon Armitage
Chef [15]
Jen Pawsey
Extraordinarily lovely fairy tale for the social media generation. With a stellar cast this is an intelligent and charming film that is completely compelling without a gun in sight. Gorgeous food, ...
9 years ago
Chef [15]
Big Game [12A]
Jen Pawsey
Surprisingly good! The music is Thundering Blockbuster and keeps reminding you it's Hollywood, but it's much better than most of the We Lost The President genre, thanks largely to the young Finnish ...
9 years ago
Big Game [12A]
The Chester
Jen Pawsey
We were lured to the Chester Arms by two things: photos of the Steak Platter on Facebook, and by the fact that the chefs are the old crew from the Port Mahon whose food we liked a lot. It's great to ...
10 years ago
The Chester
Tick Tock Café
Jen Pawsey
Tick Tock Cafe is tiny, yet it almost always has room to sit down, which shouldn't be physically possible! It's a really good place for a late weekend breakfast, under the huge wall of iconic clocks, ...
10 years ago
Tick Tock Café
Majliss Indian Restaurant
Jen Pawsey
I don't think I'm the only person who would score Majliss highly for food and a complete shambles on the organisational front. We ordered a takeaway on a Friday night, which was foolish in ...
10 years ago
Majliss Indian Restaurant
Angrid Thai
Jen Pawsey
I really like Angrid Thai for quick, tasty food. It's in a the perfect location for the theatres, cinemas, bus station, pre-Thirsty Meeples or post-shopping stops. It's even somewhere that's quite ...
10 years ago
Angrid Thai
Saffron
Jen Pawsey
I've never eaten in the actual restaurant at Saffron, but I can heartily recommend their takeaways. The service has always been efficient, ready when they say, often with free poppadums or onion ...
10 years ago
Saffron
Kingsman: The Secret Service [15]
Jen Pawsey
Kingsman is a terrific film. It's not highbrow, it's just really funny, even in the bits that probably shouldn't be. It stars Michael Caine as an old snob and Colin Firth as the modernising ...
10 years ago
Kingsman: The Secret Service [15]
Thirsty Meeples
Jen Pawsey
Thirsty Meeples is a lovely place. The only reason I haven't been more often is because my partner felt it lacked a little something what with only serving coffee and no alcohol. Happily this has ...
10 years ago
Thirsty Meeples
Coppélia
Jen Pawsey
The English National Ballet's production of Coppelia is a treat from start to finish. Coppelia is a lovely ballet, with not too much plot and a mad inventor who makes toys, and the production ...
10 years ago
Coppélia
Catch-22
Jen Pawsey
Northern Stage have pulled off something I thought was impossible - translating Joseph Heller's crazy sprawl of a novel into a satisfying and highly enjoyable production. I wouldn't have ...
11 years ago
Catch-22
The Dead Secrets: Hickory Dickory Murder
Jen Pawsey
St Aldate's Tavern, Wed 4 - Thu 5 June 2014 The Dead Secrets are dead good. As part of Oxford Fringe they presented Hickory Dickory Murder - an improvised murder mystery solved (and indeed told) with ...
11 years ago
The Dead Secrets: Hickory Dickory Murder
Lover's Suicide
Jen Pawsey
If ever two characters loved each other not wisely but too well it's Gabe and Anna, the pair at the centre of this story. They meet at a support group for people who have tried to commit suicide, ...
11 years ago
Lover's Suicide
Polly
Jen Pawsey
Polly is the tale of a disintegrating marriage, after the wife has had an affair with the husband's best friend. The twist is that because they're trying to get their daughter Polly into the ...
11 years ago
Polly
Man Who Loses
Jen Pawsey
Playwright Sami Ibrahim has set himself a hard task here - no matter how well-written the characters are, if they're basically dislikable they'll likely leave the audience cold.
Edward ...
11 years ago
Man Who Loses
Love Plus
Jen Pawsey
Love Plus is the story of two friends and an army of android girlfriends. It sounds comic, and there were laughs, but it's actually more subtle and sad than you'd think. It's also one of ...
11 years ago
Love Plus
OUDS New Writing Festivals
Jen Pawsey
The OUDS New Writing Festival is one of the highlights of the theatrical year in Oxford. If you like your theatre big-budget or tried and tested then this probably won't be your thing, but it ...
11 years ago
OUDS New Writing Festivals
The Night Ball
Jen Pawsey
I wish BalletLORENT would take up permanent residence in the Town Hall. They're brilliant, and I could watch them every night. And they're generous about getting other people to dance too. ...
11 years ago
The Night Ball
The Sleeping Beauty
Jen Pawsey
You didn't have to travel to Sochi to see a display of Russian athleticism this week, as the Siberian State Ballet had kindly travelled to Oxford and taken up residence in the New Theatre. They ...
11 years ago
The Sleeping Beauty
The Mousetrap
Jen Pawsey
The Mousetrap is a legendary play, and famously secretive. Every audience is asked not to reveal anything to anyone, making them co-conspirators, so that it is even now that holy grail: an Agatha ...
11 years ago
The Mousetrap
Monkey Bars
Jen Pawsey
Monkey Bars is a compact, well-designed show with a simple and appealing concept: children were asked their views on some of the big questions of life (What do you want to be when you grow up? How ...
11 years ago
Monkey Bars
Go Back for Murder
Jen Pawsey
Five suspects in a country house? A brilliant painter poisoned? A long-buried secret, and the taint of guilt by association spilling down the years? It must be Our Lady of crime, Agatha Christie. And ...
11 years ago
Go Back for Murder
Wolvercote Sunday Market
Jen Pawsey
Wolvercote Farmers' Market has gone from strength to strength, and is back to being a true farmers' market, in that veg is local and organic in the main - alternately week by week provided by ...
11 years ago
Wolvercote Sunday Market
Organic Deli Café
Jen Pawsey
I really like Organic Deli Cafe. Yes, their service can be a little idiosyncratic, and sometimes they run out of butter and substitute cream cheese. But there is nowhere else in Oxford as sympathetic ...
11 years ago
Organic Deli Café
Tick Tock Café
Jen Pawsey
Excellent Breakfast spot. Which is why it's nearly always packed! But if you can get space on half a table they're a brilliant place to while away a bit of Sunday morning, reading the paper ...
11 years ago
Tick Tock Café
Strictly Confidential Dance Show
Jen Pawsey
I was charmed by Strictly Confidential, a sort of stage-show/fanzine of Strictly Come Dancing, with a lot of glitz and glam. It's definitely put together with fans of the show in mind and I ...
12 years ago
Strictly Confidential Dance Show
Midnight at the Rue Morgue
Jen Pawsey
This bold interactive promenade production is not a play, more a piece of theatrical installation art. The BT becomes a seedy music hall, The Rueful Morgana (Rue Morgue for short), whose last few ...
12 years ago
Midnight at the Rue Morgue
Roost
Jen Pawsey
The setting: the back garden of Eve's small house in a rural community, filled with the animals her son loves looking after. It's all poor James will ever be able to do, with his ...
12 years ago
Roost
Dancin' Oxford Festival 2013
Jen Pawsey
It takes a few years for a new festival to get itself really embedded, and to me, Dancin Oxford Festival feels like it's got there. The organisers may not agree, but once people begin to expect ...
12 years ago
Dancin' Oxford Festival 2013
Volporne XXX
Jen Pawsey
It would be easy to assume, on the basis of its name, that Volporne XXX was a gimmick production. Easy, but fortunately totally wrong. Far from being a show borne out of one bad pun and the prospect ...
12 years ago
Volporne XXX
Threads Of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles From Meiji Japan
Jen Pawsey
Here are my top 5 reasons why you should see this wonderful exhibition:
1. It's stunning.
Forget everything else, and just look at these images. Disconnect your brain, your knowledge, just ...
12 years ago
Threads Of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles From Meiji Japan
Skyfall [12A]
Jen Pawsey
It's almost as if Quantum of Solace never happened. This much-hyped instalment of Bond continues the rolling reboot begun in Casino Royale, delving into Bond's background, setting up the ...
12 years ago
Skyfall [12A]
Our Country's Good
Jen Pawsey
Back in the early 1980s Max Stafford Clark, the director of Out Of Joint Theatre Co, recommended a book to his friend the playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker. He thought it would make a good play and ...
12 years ago
Our Country's Good
Taste of Another Country
Jen Pawsey
From my days as a teacher I know that children from different countries usually begin a cultural exchange by swapping swear words. But where children use profanity, we sophisticated adults say it ...
12 years ago
Taste of Another Country
ID:A [15]
Jen Pawsey
ID:A is a cool Scandi-crime thriller, featuring half the cast of The Killing 2, which roams around Europe like it's one big gangster's playground. Imagine a sort of cross between The Bourne ...
13 years ago
ID:A [15]
La Périchole
Jen Pawsey
It's Garsington Opera's 23rd season, and they've bravely mounted two obscure operas on this year's bill. As well as the annually apt L'Olimpiade there's another rare gem, this ...
13 years ago
La Périchole
Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures
Jen Pawsey
I found Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures an evening of three halves. The performance consists of three dance suites choreographed by Matthew Bourne between 1988 and 1991. The first, ...
13 years ago
Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures
Oxfringe Festival 2012
Jen Pawsey
Contractions started life as a radio play, and this suits it to the Burton Taylor's intimate confines. It's written by local boy Mike Bartlett, alumnus of Abingdon School and now a playwright ...
13 years ago
Oxfringe Festival 2012
The Girl With The Iron Claws
Jen Pawsey
The Girl With The Iron Claws is a neat piece of theatre. The performance we saw was a bit scant on audience, mostly because the evening was so sunny. All who were there seemed to be finding it ...
13 years ago
The Girl With The Iron Claws
Barefoot in the Park
Jen Pawsey
Maureen Lipman both directs this flawless comedy, and stars in it, in a role she was born for. She plays the mother of newlywed Corrie Bratter (implausibly elfin-featured Faye Castelow) who is doing ...
13 years ago
Barefoot in the Park
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2012
Jen Pawsey
Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Which do you think is better? At a talk about Introverts what are your expectations of the audience, and of the speaker?
Susan Cain, introvert and proud, is ...
13 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2012
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2012
Jen Pawsey
This debate brought together Mark Billingham (crime) and Chris Priest (sci-fi), chaired by Christian House (critic) to discuss whether genre fiction is literature. It's a big question for an hour. ...
13 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2012
Neighbourhood Watch
Jen Pawsey
Neighbourhood Watch is a great play. I thought I'd got the measure of Alan Ayckbourn, as a sort of Michael Frayn-lite; his plays characterised by a rich premise, undemanding execution and a ...
13 years ago
Neighbourhood Watch
Lars Sørken: A Norwegian Noir
Jen Pawsey
Imagine author Matt Perkins sitting down to watch an episode of Wallander, only to find it's been taped over The Big Sleep. Scenes begin to flicker and intercut, until boom! a new genre is born: ...
13 years ago
Lars Sørken: A Norwegian Noir
Top Girls
Jen Pawsey
Caryl Churchill's play about success, feminism and the 1980s could easily have been written last year and intended as a warning about where rampant Thatcherism leads. It's all the more impressive ...
13 years ago
Top Girls
Giselle
Jen Pawsey
Giselle is a lovely, quirky ballet. It's short - only 2 acts. Its first half involves a formal stylised mime and hardly any flourishing dance. Nor are there hour-long interludes for "a selection of ...
13 years ago
Giselle
Thames Heritage Tapestry
Jen Pawsey
If you're near the Ashmolean this week and have 10 minutes to spare do dash in and have a look at this charming exhibition. It consists of 80-90 1metre square panels about The Thames, as seen through ...
13 years ago
Thames Heritage Tapestry
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [18]
Jen Pawsey
I don't think this film is a punishment at all. In fact I suddenly saw the point of a different language version coming out soon after the original. It brings out different aspects of the story - ...
13 years ago
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [18]
Tilsammans aka Together [15]
Jen Pawsey
You might think a film about a Swedish commune in the 70s would be a pretty niche thing but actually this film is really approachable and rich. It's set (and made) in Swedish, and populated by ...
13 years ago
Tilsammans aka Together [15]
Puss In Boots [U]
Jen Pawsey
Not the finest offering from the Shrek lads, it's true, but this film has some good moments. As ever, it's at its best when the cats are most catlike, or when they're borrowing from other films, like ...
13 years ago
Puss In Boots [U]
The Wild Bride
Jen Pawsey
Kneehigh Theatre return to the Playhouse with a fairy tale complete with a deer, but this is no Disney story of cuteness and bluebirds. This is a reminder of how visceral and brutal fairy tales ...
13 years ago
The Wild Bride
Alarms and Excursions
Jen Pawsey
The genius of Michael Frayn is back at the Playhouse with this charming collection of eight tales of dysfunction, in which marital discord, mechanical failures and plain old mishearings abound. An ...
13 years ago
Alarms and Excursions
Wolvercote Sunday Market
Jen Pawsey
At both Gloucester Green and Wolvercote Farmers' Markets Renee the lovely Goat farmer can be found. Her yoghurt is deliciously sour and not sloppy, and comes in beautiful glass bottles. If you return ...
14 years ago
Wolvercote Sunday Market
The Messenger [15]
Jen Pawsey
Good on the Phoenix for getting this excellent film. On Sunday there was an audience of 12, and I suspect the other screenings will be similarly sparse. For why? Well it's not the quality of the ...
14 years ago
The Messenger [15]
RSC Productions in Stratford 2011
Jen Pawsey
The City Madam was written in 1632 by Philip Massinger, who had a foot in a lot of different camps. He went to Oxford University but didn't get a degree. He was a gentleman, with no money. His father ...
14 years ago
RSC Productions in Stratford 2011
WOOD Festival
Jen Pawsey
Back in Oxford, I'm relieved to find that the End of Days has not come and swept away my home and colleagues. Inside Wood Festival it seemed quite possible we were in a charmed bubble that might be ...
14 years ago
WOOD Festival
Hidden Acoustics
Jen Pawsey
Just sometimes you can see something more clearly by looking at it indirectly, like a flickering star in the night sky coming into focus only if you watch it out of the corner of your eye. This is ...
14 years ago
Hidden Acoustics
Matthew Bourne's Cinderella
Jen Pawsey
This production is every bit as spectacular as you would hope. It's definitely ballet, rather than modern dance, but it's not the simple, classic story of a fairytale romance. It's a ...
14 years ago
Matthew Bourne's Cinderella
Source Code [12A]
Jen Pawsey
I really enjoyed Source Code, despite a number of obvious flaws. For a start there's really no Sci in their Fi. To explain the central timetravel they resort to the fabulously vague "Quantum ...
14 years ago
Source Code [12A]
The Writers' Greenhouse
Jen Pawsey
They say everyone has a novel in them. There's just one problem... getting it redrafted, edited, perfected and published. In fact getting the damn thing plotted and written would be a good start. But ...
14 years ago
The Writers' Greenhouse
Ultimate Picture Palace (UPP)
Jen Pawsey
The Ultimate Picture Palace first opened in 1911, and it's due for its royal telegram on Thursday 24th February. It wasn't the first cinema in Oxford (that was in an old wash-house on Castle St), but ...
14 years ago
Ultimate Picture Palace (UPP)
Black Swan [15]
Jen Pawsey
I was expecting a rather silly film drawing together all the common clichés and misconceptions of ballet, enhanced by some beautiful dance footage. What I got was almost the inverse - a much better ...
14 years ago
Black Swan [15]
Swan Lake
Jen Pawsey
Perhaps the quintessential classical ballet, Swan Lake has returned to the New Theatre, brought by The Russian State Ballet of Siberia. Since Ellen Kent ceased to put on tours for the Chisinau chaps ...
14 years ago
Swan Lake
Raphael Wallfisch plays the Bach Cello Suites
Jen Pawsey
I was very puzzled at the start of this concert. Here was clearly a talented cellist, pronounced a leader in his field by much more eminent people than me, and yet his cello wasn't singing. A couple ...
14 years ago
Raphael Wallfisch plays the Bach Cello Suites
Days Out In Oxfordshire
Jen Pawsey
STATELY HOMES, CASTLES and HISTORIC BUILDINGS
including those managed by National Trust (indicated NT). Most of these charge an entry fee.
Abingdon Abbey Buildings
18 Thames Street, Abingdon, ...
14 years ago
Days Out In Oxfordshire
Turn Again Lane
Jen Pawsey
It's hard to pick my favourite song, because there are so many good ones in this new musical. From the first half it would probably be Hot Girls in the EFL (that's the English Faculty Library in case ...
15 years ago
Turn Again Lane
Malcolm Gladwell
Jen Pawsey
It's always dangerous to hear a good author speak. Some extremely concise writers turn out to be sprawling and chaotic in speech. Obviously the editing process is tremendously helpful for this type ...
15 years ago
Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell
Jen Pawsey
If Malcolm Gladwell is anything like as much fun in person as he is in print then his visit to the New Theatre should be really entertaining! Gladwell is well known for his books about social ...
15 years ago
Malcolm Gladwell
Oxford Ice Rink
Jen Pawsey
If you've ever been ice skating you'll recognise that first heartstopping moment, when you step on to the ice and feel your feet running away from you. I've been a couple of times now, but I still ...
15 years ago
Oxford Ice Rink
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [18] (Swedish original)
Jen Pawsey
There are some films where everyone leaves the cinema smiling, greeting strangers as long-lost friends, in posession of a new-found hope for humanity. This is not one of them. Here the subject matter ...
15 years ago
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [18] (Swedish original)
Instead of Beauty
Jen Pawsey
On paper, the subject matter sounds familiar - two boys leave school and go to University. They talk about girls and sex, they experiment and they grow up a little. So far, so predictable. ...
15 years ago
Instead of Beauty
Toffee
Jen Pawsey
Alfie's girlfriend has gone missing. She just left him and university one day without explanation. How can the people left behind come to terms with her sudden departure? Charlotte Geater's is a ...
15 years ago
Toffee
Oxford University Film Festival
Jen Pawsey
Cuppers is an inter-college competition. You can have cuppers in anything - ballroom dancing, tiddlywinks, blancmange-making - anything for which a University Society exists. Part of the fun of the ...
15 years ago
Oxford University Film Festival
Our Country's Good
Jen Pawsey
Solidly funny, gritty and touching, this is a stunning production. It helps that it's a good play, and the Trinity Players are certainly doing it justice. It's clear from the outset that the cast ...
15 years ago
Our Country's Good
Rhinoceros
Jen Pawsey
Rhinoceros is a very odd play, which is not surprising for something in the Absurdist genre. Its premise is simple: in a town in France one day people start turning into Rhinoceroses. The play ...
15 years ago
Rhinoceros
Beauty And The Beast
Jen Pawsey
Creation Theatre's publicity is quite insistent that their production of Beauty and the Beast is a Christmas show, not a panto. They're so insistent, I began to wonder who they were trying to ...
15 years ago
Beauty And The Beast
New Theatre, Oxford
Jen Pawsey
The story of the New Theatre is worthy of appearing on its own stage. It's got mystery, tragedy, comedy, triumph, and a cast of characters which includes Harry Drinkwater the publican's son and Vera ...
15 years ago
New Theatre, Oxford
Christian Life Centre
Jen Pawsey
The Regal opened in April 1937, as a cinema for the residents of East Oxford. It was not the first cinema in Oxford, or even in East Oxford - The Picture Palace opened in 1911, but closed again in ...
15 years ago
Christian Life Centre
Roger McGough
Jen Pawsey
Roger McGough seemed on good form at the Playhouse on Friday, if a bit older, wiser and more serious than I last saw him. Though that might be just the suit.Contrary to the programme no mention was ...
15 years ago
Roger McGough
Indigo
Jen Pawsey
"This is a really dangerous shop!" say Saree's customers. And I can see why. For a start everything in it is tempting - it's all carefully chosen to be an eclectic and beautiful treasure trove, with ...
15 years ago
Indigo
Compass & Rule
Jen Pawsey
I probably wouldn't have gone to this exhibition if I didn't know one of its organisers, but I'd have missed a treat. This is more than just a mathematical history of architecture. It's got a lot of ...
16 years ago
Compass & Rule
All Day Breakfast Reviews
Jen Pawsey
There are several versions of the All Day available, hidden away in the menus which are stuck inside old hardback novels. I think the novels we had were chosen more for their looks than their ...
16 years ago
All Day Breakfast Reviews
The Big Bang
Jen Pawsey
There are several versions of the All Day available, hidden away in the menus which are stuck inside old hardback novels. I think the novels we had were chosen more for their looks than ...
16 years ago
The Big Bang
The Merchant of Venice
Jen Pawsey
Propeller admire Shakespeare for covering such a breadth of human experience. They're certainly not afraid of tackling some of the darker issues, and the anti-semitism in their new production of ...
16 years ago
The Merchant of Venice
RSC Productions in Stratford and London, from 2009 and earlier
Jen Pawsey
Michael Boyd's production of As You Like It bursts into life, prologueless, introduced by the young and dashing Orlando. He has troubles with his brother. We then bound back to Court, in its most ...
16 years ago
RSC Productions in Stratford and London, from 2009 and earlier
Alphabetical Order
Jen Pawsey
Alphabetical Order may not be as well known as Noises Off but it's every bit as good, particularly here in Christopher Luscombe's new production. It's set in the clippings library of a provincial ...
16 years ago
Alphabetical Order
Blood on the Cowley Road
Jen Pawsey
I can't resist a detective story, particularly when it's set right on Daily Info's front doorstep. Thus it was with glee I dived into Peter Tickler's debut novel, Blood on the Cowley Road. Most of ...
16 years ago
Blood on the Cowley Road
Oxfordshire Place Names
Jen Pawsey
Anthony Poulton-Smith wears his learning lightly, making it very easy to read vast swathes of this book. But since it's organised as an alphabetical list of towns and villages it's easy to ...
16 years ago
Oxfordshire Place Names
His Dark Materials Parts 1 & 2
Jen Pawsey
We came away feeling like we'd been reading a really good book. Nicholas Wright's adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is triumphant and fun, and strangely literary for a piece ...
16 years ago
His Dark Materials Parts 1 & 2
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2009
Jen Pawsey
Unlike at least three quarters of the audience I went to this talk because I love Patrick Neate's Twelve Bar Blues, and I'd never heard of Donna Leon. It was a good introduction to Leon's detective ...
16 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2009
Mark Steel
Jen Pawsey
It's really nice to see Mark Steel in the flesh, after years of Radio 4. I hadn't realised he was such a good mimic, nor that he can be physically funny, nor how sweetly he researches the location of ...
16 years ago
Mark Steel
New Theatre
Jen Pawsey
The story of the New Theatre is worthy of appearing on its own stage. It's got mystery, tragedy, comedy, triumph, and a cast of characters which includes Harry Drinkwater the publican's son and Vera ...
16 years ago
New Theatre
Etiquette
Jen Pawsey
There's not much room in G&D's for acting, but if you're walking along the Cowley Road you'll see an interesting sight. In the window are two tables set out for an interactive theatrical ...
16 years ago
Etiquette
Dancin' Oxford Festival 2009
Jen Pawsey
When you tell people you're going to watch two men dancing in a box they tend to give you a funny look. But while this description may be technically accurate it totally fails to encapsulate what ...
16 years ago
Dancin' Oxford Festival 2009
Oxford Ice Rink
Jen Pawsey
If you've ever been ice skating you'll recognise that first heartstopping moment, when you step on to the ice and feel your feet running away from you. I've been a couple of times now, but I still ...
16 years ago
Oxford Ice Rink
Cirque de Glace
Jen Pawsey
Every so often the New Theatre is transformed into an icerink. It takes one night - they put down a lining and cover it with crushed ice. Then they spray water over it, and refreeze, spray and ...
16 years ago
Cirque de Glace
Achaar Restaurant & Grill
Jen Pawsey
Despite the studied innocence of their font, The First Floor is no small player in the restaurant scene. It's newly opened on the Cowley Road, and there's obviously some serious backing behind it.A ...
16 years ago
Achaar Restaurant & Grill
Humphrey Lyttleton
Jen Pawsey
Looking back on this event, with poignancy and sadness at the loss of a great man, doesn't do justice to the sense of life and vigour in the Jazz played by Humphrey Lyttleton and his band. It was ...
17 years ago
Humphrey Lyttleton
Stan Laurel: Please Stand Up
Jen Pawsey
This is a show of two halves. To start with we see Stan in oversize nightgown calling up to a giant bed he's fallen out of, pleading with Ollie to rescue him. It paints a disturbing picture of the ...
17 years ago
Stan Laurel: Please Stand Up
The Sixteen
Jen Pawsey
Good classical music isn't hard to find these days - with CDs, Radio 3, Classic FM, and the proms broadcast on TV. So why do audiences still pack the Sheldonian to hear live music? Well for one thing ...
17 years ago
The Sixteen
Early Music by Candlelight Summer Festival 2008
Jen Pawsey
The Charivari Agréable Summer Festival began in style, with a larger audience than I've ever seen squeezed in to Exeter Chapel before. An eclectic mix of visitors and residents of many ...
17 years ago
Early Music by Candlelight Summer Festival 2008
North Wall Arts Centre Summer 2008 Festival
Jen Pawsey
There's a new focus for the arts in North Oxford. The North Wall Arts Centre is one of the newest attractions on South Parade, open to the public for just over 12 months. And the Arts Festival, which ...
17 years ago
North Wall Arts Centre Summer 2008 Festival
French Connections
Jen Pawsey
This concert was absolutely superb. I don't often leave a concert feeling that I've left my head behind in another world, but after the heady mix of Ravel's Piano Trio in A Minor and Messiaen's ...
17 years ago
French Connections
The many lives of The Regal
Jen Pawsey
The Regal opened in April 1937, as a cinema for the residents of East Oxford. It was not the first cinema in Oxford, or even in East Oxford - The Picture Palace opened in 1911, but closed again in ...
17 years ago
The many lives of The Regal
Contemporary Designer Crafts
Jen Pawsey
There's no deliberate, overarching theme to this exhibition; what ties the exhibitors together is their membership of the prestigious Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen. However there are themes, and ...
17 years ago
Contemporary Designer Crafts
Dame Gillian Weir
Jen Pawsey
Gillian Weir played an inspired programme of Bach and Messiaen in Saturday's concert in Christ Church Cathedral. It's the 100th anniversary of Messiaen's birth, so probably a busy year for Weir, the ...
17 years ago
Dame Gillian Weir
Christian Life Centre
Jen Pawsey
The Regal opened in April 1937, as a cinema for the residents of East Oxford. It was not the first cinema in Oxford, or even in East Oxford - The Picture Palace opened in 1911, but closed again in ...
17 years ago
Christian Life Centre
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2008
Jen Pawsey
No, not mud, tents and music stages, but a sedate marquee amidst the cloisters of Christ Church College. But that's not to say it will all be calm and quiet inside, as this year's Sunday Times Oxford ...
17 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2008
Testing The Echo
Jen Pawsey
Testing the Echo achieves the impossible - mocking the Citizenship Test and poking fun at English customs while making serious points about the difficulties of multicultural living and why people ...
17 years ago
Testing The Echo
Dancin' Oxford Festival 2008
Jen Pawsey
Jazz and ballet may not be a traditional pairing but David Bintley's confident choreography has fused them into an extraordinarily expressive whole. The emotional range of the dance matches the ...
17 years ago
Dancin' Oxford Festival 2008
Dolores Wears the Stares
Jen Pawsey
aka... Dolorze, Where's the Stairs?????? and an alarming array of other names... This spectacle was either terribly brilliant or brilliantly terrible, or possibly bitingly territorial, tiringly ...
17 years ago
Dolores Wears the Stares
Writing with Dinosaurs
Jen Pawsey
Cathy Thomas' sharp new writing premiered to a rather sparse audience at the BT last night. Three anonymous actors wove together the story of Boy, Girl and Writer in a beautifully fluid performance. ...
17 years ago
Writing with Dinosaurs
RSC Productions in Stratford and London, from 2009 and earlier
Jen Pawsey
Henry IV parts I & IIThe Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon, till Friday 14th March 2008The RSC is currently staging the whole History Cycle, with the same cast for each play. It's unusual ...
17 years ago
RSC Productions in Stratford and London, from 2009 and earlier
WNO's Autumn Season 2007
Jen Pawsey
La CenerentolaThe overture starts up. Immediately the audience are plunged into the flowery frills of Rossini's music. This is luxuriously the only time there is nothing else to concentrate on! It's ...
17 years ago
WNO's Autumn Season 2007
The Snow Queen
Jen Pawsey
The Snow Queen is a story of smoke and mirrors, and there were plenty of both in the English National Ballet's new commision. The direction and choreography are Michael Corder's and the music ...
17 years ago
The Snow Queen
An Evening Of Flanders And Swann
Jen Pawsey
It is said that Charlie Chaplin once entered a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest, and finished third. While this may be irrelevant (or a hippopotamus) it does prove we like our legends larger than ...
18 years ago
An Evening Of Flanders And Swann
Jumble It Up
Jen Pawsey
Jumble It Up: Best Of BeforeMonday 25th June 2007 Jumble It Up is not a theatre company or a play, it's more like an instant festival. It exists to help the performers of experimental and arts ...
18 years ago
Jumble It Up
Juan Martin
Jen Pawsey
One might be forgiven for thinking there's inter-theatre rivallry afoot, in that Juan Martin at the Playhouse this week might easily borrow the description of the line-up at the New Theatre: "sexy, ...
18 years ago
Juan Martin
Twelfth Night
Jen Pawsey
This production eclipses any other Twelfth Night I have seen. I was constantly aware it was an all-male production, with its overtones of historical accuracy juxtaposed with modern gender politics. ...
18 years ago
Twelfth Night
Richard Alston Dance Company
Jen Pawsey
These four beautiful dances leave you hungry for more. We danced all the way home. Red Run first: the programme announces grandly that "the opening music subsides gradually into a morose and humid ...
18 years ago
Richard Alston Dance Company
Insomnobabble
Jen Pawsey
Insomnobabble is fast-paced, energetic and bonkers. Ironically for such a high-energy show it revolves around Keith, who can't sleep. His sanity is disintegrating around him and it's becoming hard to ...
18 years ago
Insomnobabble
The Snow Queen
Jen Pawsey
Teresa Ludovico, writer and director, says that adults need fairy tales. She brought Beauty and The Beast to Oxford a few years ago. She has already toured with a version of The Snow Queen in Japan, ...
18 years ago
The Snow Queen
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2007
Jen Pawsey
Glyn Maxwell and Jo Shapcott: In Celebration of Auden and MacNeiceSun 25th March Poetry has an undeservedly difficult reputation. It was a cosy and intimate reading on Sunday night and this was very ...
18 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2007
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2007
Jen Pawsey
Gillian Baverstock: Enid BlytonSun 25th March I left this talk feeling very disturbed and unsure why. Perhaps it's the feeling that Gillian Baverstock has been subsumed by her mother. She followed in ...
18 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2007
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2007
Jen Pawsey
Philip Pullman With Adrian Hodges and Mark Lawson: Ruby In The SmokeThe Golden Compass - From Book to FilmFri 23rd and Sat 24th March In these two unconnected lectures Philip Pullman talked about his ...
18 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2007
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2007
Jen Pawsey
Salley Vickers: The Other Side Of YouFri 23rd March It had never struck me before that authors cannot read their own books; that if they do they are editing, that phrases they would like to change ...
18 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2007
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2007
Jen Pawsey
Anthony Horowitz: Nightrise Wed 21st March Anthony Horowitz talks just like his books - a mile a minute. ("There are so many things for children to do these days if I don't make every paragraph ...
18 years ago
Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival 2007
The Hound Of The Baskervilles
Jen Pawsey
How much fun can 3 men and a packed theatre have? Peepolykus seem to have set themselves a challenge, and are not afraid to use any trick they can think of in order to meet it. It is not for nothing ...
18 years ago
The Hound Of The Baskervilles
Going Postal
Jen Pawsey
I have seen many student productions which aspire to professionalism, and which feature stars of the future. And there are some which are done for the fun of it. This production is most definitely in ...
18 years ago
Going Postal
Arsenic And Old Lace
Jen Pawsey
"To save time I'll write my review on the way to the theatre..." This is a cheerful romp in cheerfully bad taste. Two old ladies are "sending their lodgers to peace" using a home-made blend of ...
18 years ago
Arsenic And Old Lace
Swan Lake
Jen Pawsey
Watching this ballet is like watching fireworks: when I shut my eyes I can still see the whirling figures and spinning colours. The dancing is magical, bright, transitory, ethereal and very ...
18 years ago
Swan Lake
Our Country's Good
Jen Pawsey
This is a great production of a great play.
Set in 1789, it follows the founding of the penal colony in New South Wales by Naval Officers and transported convicts. To impress the governor, who is ...
18 years ago
Our Country's Good
Big Bang Anti-Valentines Day Poetry Competition 2007
Jen Pawsey
Cupboard Love
I love my cats, all five of them.
I think they love me too.
But only if I feed them
When they pitifully mew.
How can I keep them happy?
How can I make a splash?
I know - I'll ...
18 years ago
Big Bang Anti-Valentines Day Poetry Competition 2007
Gloucester Green Farmers' Market
Jen Pawsey
At both Gloucester Green and Wolvercote Farmers' Markets Renee the lovely Goat farmer can be found. Her yoghurt is deliciously sour and not sloppy, and comes in beautiful glass bottles. If you return ...
18 years ago
Gloucester Green Farmers' Market
The Welsh National Opera Autumn Season 2018
Jen Pawsey
La Traviata, Wed 10th Oct (next on 12th Oct)
WNO's sumptuous production of La traviata has more than a hint of Dracula-chic about the aesthetics. Heavy black curtains, black marble floor, and ...
6 years ago
The Welsh National Opera Autumn Season 2018
