Reviews by Stuart Constable
One Million Tiny Plays About Britain
Stuart Constable
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t an amateur production at all. True, the ensemble of beginners had never performed in public before, but the direction was so liberating that it had the patina of an ...
4 months ago
One Million Tiny Plays About Britain
The Invisible Man
Stuart Constable
It was always going to be ambitious. Five actors playing fifteen roles, a complex, nuanced theme and a central character whose defining quality is that you can’t see him. The Sinodun Players have ...
6 months ago
The Invisible Man
Yes Prime Minister
Stuart Constable
When you take on an institution like Yes, Prime Minister, you tread a delicate line. Do you simply ham up your impressions of the lead characters for all you’re worth? Or do you bring a fresh ...
5 years ago
Yes Prime Minister
Beatin' The Blues
Stuart Constable
Oxford knows this time of year. Grey-faced students, quads illuminated by shafts of squared light from upstairs garrets and not a drop of midnight oil to be found anywhere - it’s deadline time. ...
6 years ago
Beatin' The Blues
Woodstock Jazz
Stuart Constable
Bryan Corbett with Alex Steele, Paul Jefferies and Charlie Stratford - Thu 25th April 2019 Today’s jazz musicians are lucky. They have a far broader repertoire at their disposal than the greats on ...
6 years ago
Woodstock Jazz
The Spin Jazz Club
Stuart Constable
Damon Brown with the Spin Trio, Thu 11th April 2019 There was a more laid back mood at the Spin for the last concert before its Easter break. The house trio of Pete Oxley, guitar, Mark Doffman on ...
6 years ago
The Spin Jazz Club
The Spin Jazz Club
Stuart Constable
Tria Lingvo featuring Mike Walker, Thursday 4th April 2019 “Isn’t it marvellous how they understand each other?”
These are the words of Mike Walker’s mum commenting on foreign language ...
6 years ago
The Spin Jazz Club
The Spin Jazz Club
Stuart Constable
Luca Stoll Quartet - Thursday 28th March 2019
New York in the 1940s was a glorious place to be. Jazz, America's great cultural gift to the world, was in ferment. Speeding up, getting complicated ...
6 years ago
The Spin Jazz Club
The Spin Jazz Club
Stuart Constable
Adam Waldmann, John Law, Mark Hodgson, Corrie Dick, performing on Thursday 21st March 2019 The Spin Jazz Club is a prime example of the unique energy that keeps music live in the UK. For more than 20 ...
6 years ago
The Spin Jazz Club
Corky Laing, Storm Warning
Stuart Constable
It's harsh to judge old rockers by today's standards. When they started, there were no schools of rock. They schooled us all. So if there were moments during Corky Laing's set at The Bullingdon where ...
6 years ago
Corky Laing, Storm Warning
Ralph McTell & Wizz Jones
Stuart Constable
These two old friends come from a privileged generation. They are the people who brought popular American music to the UK. The folk songs, the jazz and, above all, the blues. Without people like Wizz ...
6 years ago
Ralph McTell & Wizz Jones
Israel Nash
Stuart Constable
Israel Nash literally brought the spirit of Texas with him to The Bullingdon. He opened his set with a sprinkling of Texan Live Oak leaves on the stage around him, to the Indian drone of a tamboura. ...
6 years ago
Israel Nash
Abendmusik in Lübeck
Stuart Constable
Now in its fourth year, the Keble Early Music Festival continues to grow in ambition and vision. Once again the programme features some of the most critically-acclaimed exponents of music from the ...
8 years ago
Abendmusik in Lübeck
Black Peaks, Tiger Cub, Employed To Serve
Stuart Constable
It's a measure of the state of British metal that a cold night in January saw the Bullingdon almost full for a triple bill of fast-rising acts. Truthfully, Tiger Cub veer more closely to indie ...
8 years ago
Black Peaks, Tiger Cub, Employed To Serve
Leveret
Stuart Constable
Leveret came together when three award-winning folk musicians began experimenting with a fresh approach to traditional English tunes. The trio, Andy Cutting on melodeon, Sam Sweeney on violin and Rob ...
8 years ago
Leveret
'Howl' at 60
Stuart Constable
In fairness, Blackwell's on a typically self-conscious Oxford evening was always going to struggle to evoke the spirit of San Francisco's Six Gallery on October 7th, 1955. Then, Jack Kerouac was ...
9 years ago
'Howl' at 60
Ozric Tentacles
Stuart Constable
What a year it is for loons, hippies and freaks. 60 years since the opening of the City Lights bookshop, 50 years of the Grateful Dead and,best of all, here come the Ozric Tentacles again. More than ...
9 years ago
Ozric Tentacles
Bob Harris in Conversation
Stuart Constable
You can smell the vinyl when Bob Harris walks in. It doesn't matter that he’s been a bit delayed by roadworks somewhere. The warmth and nostalgia is immediately infectious.
Actually, the ...
9 years ago
Bob Harris in Conversation
An Evening With Arthur Brown
Stuart Constable
At 17, Arthur Brown stuck out his thumb and hitch-hiked his way from Leeds to Hamburg. There, his heart broken by his best friend and the girl he loved, he underwent a profound spiritual awakening. ...
10 years ago
An Evening With Arthur Brown
Vienna Ditto, Decovo, The Sea The Sea, The Aureate Act, Kid Kin, Alan Jaggs
Stuart Constable
When you see Vienna Ditto you want to spend the whole evening – possibly the rest of your life – gazing at the sultry Hatty Taylor. But in the end, you can’t take your eyes off the uncertified ...
10 years ago
Vienna Ditto, Decovo, The Sea The Sea, The Aureate Act, Kid Kin, Alan Jaggs
Nosferatu with improvised accompaniment by David Bednall
Stuart Constable
Some ideas are so good they have an existence that is independent of their execution. For example, someone thought it would be a good idea to screen an iconic silent horror movie in a spooky chapel, ...
10 years ago
Nosferatu with improvised accompaniment by David Bednall
The Fever
Stuart Constable
If you're a nice middle class person, be prepared for an uncomfortable evening. Actually, if you're any kind of person, Ashleigh Wheeler's production of The Fever is not a gentle ride. ...
10 years ago
The Fever
Rupert Everett in conversation with Christian Anthony
Stuart Constable
Rupert Everett describes, during an interview with Christian Anthony during the Magdalen College School Arts Festival, how a trip to the cinema to see Mary Poppins "unhinged me...I became a ...
11 years ago
Rupert Everett in conversation with Christian Anthony
The Bear
Stuart Constable
If you like your thoughts provoked, with time to reflect on them afterwards with an engaging companion, then The Bear is a fine night out.
It's a short play, devised by members of the ...
12 years ago
The Bear
Arabian Nights
Stuart Constable
Everything works, from the moment you walk in. Anna Lewis’s effortless, simple design wraps you in sumptuous, silky Eastern-ness. Co-director Tommo Fowler’s gentle drumming (not a djembe, ...
12 years ago
Arabian Nights
Simon Munnery
Stuart Constable
Simon Munnery once described the internet as proof of what happens if you give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters.
At the North Wall on an alarmingly chilly Saturday ...
13 years ago
Simon Munnery
