Reviews by Helen Smith
Dracula
Helen Smith
I have always been a fan of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, from my first visit to Whitby as a child, where I stood in the ruins of the Abbey as they towered over the harbour where Dracula first sets foot ...
3 years ago
Dracula
Charm of Finches
Helen Smith
I approached last night’s gig with a mixture of trepidation and excitement: trepidation for as one of the immuno-compromised it was my first public gig post-pandemic, and excitement as Oxford was ...
3 years ago
Charm of Finches
A Few Forms of Fury
Helen Smith
Bored of the office? Tired of the same old routine? Feeling undervalued and taken advantage of by the boss? Then channel your inner fury and imagine those feelings festering for millennia, and you ...
5 years ago
A Few Forms of Fury
Oxford Coffee Concerts 2019
Helen Smith
Viv McLean (piano) and Craig Ogden (guitar), 22nd December 2019
They were queueing out of the doors and the Holywell Music Room was packed to the rafters for the last of this year’s coffee ...
5 years ago
Oxford Coffee Concerts 2019
Two-Body Problem: A Public Performance
Helen Smith
Last night in the bowels of the History of Science Museum we explored the damaging, dangerous and often dysfunctional relationship between science and emotion. In honour of the 200th anniversary of ...
5 years ago
Two-Body Problem: A Public Performance
Oxford Lieder Festival - Tales of Beyond: Magic, Myths and Mortals
Helen Smith
The Ghost Trio: Phoenix Piano Trio, Holywell Music Room, Wednesday 16 October
Life’s been a hard slog recently – dodging showers, perpetually running up and down stairs with damp feet and of ...
5 years ago
Oxford Lieder Festival - Tales of Beyond: Magic, Myths and Mortals
Don Quixote
Helen Smith
It must be hard to take a seminal work of literature, reinvent it as a play for the modern era, set the piece in Oxford’s iconic Covered Market, and make the performance a success, but I guess ...
5 years ago
Don Quixote
Offbeat Festival 2019
Helen Smith
Rhiannon Unbridled, Burton Taylor Studio, Tuesday 25th June 2019 Rhiannon has been an integral part of my life for some years – not only because she is one of my best friends and a marvellous, ...
6 years ago
Offbeat Festival 2019
The Reunion(?)
Helen Smith
The audience at last night’s world premiere of The Reunion (?) were greeted by a corpse, a dimly lit stage regaled in smoke and accompanied by stentorian organ music, but no Toccata and Fugue, just ...
6 years ago
The Reunion(?)
Robert Newman: Total Eclipse of Descartes
Helen Smith
The title of this latest stand-up show from Robert Newman encapsulates the humour contained therein: from the popular culture of Bonny Tyler to the philosophical principles of the enlightenment, the ...
6 years ago
Robert Newman: Total Eclipse of Descartes
Springtime Baroque
Helen Smith
Friday night’s concert at the Sheldonian proved to be a most welcome retreat from the current cares of the county into the world of the baroque. The theatre was, of course, the perfect setting for ...
6 years ago
Springtime Baroque
Two
Helen Smith
Two seems such a paltry title for Jim Cartwright’s play when it encompasses such a wide gamut of human experience, as was evident at last night’s opening performance by the Thame Players. I say ...
6 years ago
Two
Little Eyolf
Helen Smith
I was not familiar with Ibsen’s Little Eyolf before last night’s production and I have to admit that after a thoroughly enjoyable, thought provoking evening I fear I am not a lot the wiser. This, ...
6 years ago
Little Eyolf
'Distant Days' - Steve Tilston at Oxford Folk Club
Helen Smith
I have been a lover of Steve Tilston’s music since I first heard him play at the Blackboy pub, Bristol, in 1982 in his rock days. I like to think I am one of the few people who own and play my ...
6 years ago
'Distant Days' - Steve Tilston at Oxford Folk Club
Matt Forde: Brexit Through The Gift Shop
Helen Smith
I wasn’t sure what to expect of Lou Sanders’ stand up – I’d done a little research of rave reviews of her previous fringe appearances but my white middle aged middle class self was concerned ...
6 years ago
Matt Forde: Brexit Through The Gift Shop
Moonrakers
Helen Smith
Last night I schlepped through the scorching streets of Oxford hoping for some respite from the sweltering heat in the cool confines of the chapel at Jesus College and for some cool tunes to while ...
6 years ago
Moonrakers
Free Willy from the Perspective of the Whale
Helen Smith
Who knew killer whales have a funny bone?! I must admit that I have never seen Free Willy, but I have seen Blackfish, which meant I approached Dom O’Keefe’s show on Friday night with a somewhat ...
6 years ago
Free Willy from the Perspective of the Whale
Handel's Attick
Helen Smith
Pursued by rumbles of thunder and the laughter of black tie bedecked students rushing to Hall for dinner on Friday night, we retreated to the understated charm and elegance of the Holywell Music Room ...
7 years ago
Handel's Attick
Brian Fagan 'A Little History of Archaeology'
Helen Smith
After a glowing recommendation from Michael Wood in the most recent edition of Current Archaeology, I was already a third of the way through Brian Fagan’s new book before arriving at Blackwell’s ...
7 years ago
Brian Fagan 'A Little History of Archaeology'
Craig Ogden & Friends
Helen Smith
On such a hot day it was a pleasure to join the ample audience in the cool of St John the Evangelist for such an eclectic selection of classical guitar music. In deference to Oxford May Music’s ...
7 years ago
Craig Ogden & Friends
1 Woman, A High-Flyer And A Flat Bottom
Helen Smith
Soaked to the skin and after a disappointing pre-performance cocktail in a piano bar sans pianist, I arrived at the Burton Taylor on Thursday evening in desperate need of a laugh. On arrival, I ...
7 years ago
1 Woman, A High-Flyer And A Flat Bottom
The Bats of Wytham Woods
Helen Smith
I have always found some illicit pleasure in sneaking into a museum after hours, and this was especially true last night whilst attending Dani Linton’s insightful talk about the Wytham Bat Project, ...
7 years ago
The Bats of Wytham Woods
Catherine Sykes' Christmas Jazz Show
Helen Smith
For those of us becoming overwhelmed by the season’s festivities Friday night’s jazz show in Garsington did much to revive the jaded aural pallet. With the combination of Catherine Sykes' ...
7 years ago
Catherine Sykes' Christmas Jazz Show
Inspector Morse Tour
Helen Smith
The faces of Oxford are multi-faceted and fascinating; the experience can be overwhelming with something new to see at every turn and a plethora of information about the city’s history and ...
7 years ago
Inspector Morse Tour
Scale: The Universal Laws Of Growth
Helen Smith
Following the unfortunate hospitalisation of this year’s planned speaker, Geoffrey West, as Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science Marcus du Sautoy was forced at short notice to ...
7 years ago
Scale: The Universal Laws Of Growth
An Englishman Abroad
Helen Smith
In these days of fake news and cyber spying, the Cold War and the activities of the Cambridge Five seemed to have passed into the cold storage of history itself. That said last night’s performance ...
7 years ago
An Englishman Abroad
Whose Life Is It Anyway?
Helen Smith
The Mathematical Institute would seem at first to be a strange venue for staging a play but the minimalist set and semi in the round seating utilised by set designer Pete Ledwith, put together in one ...
7 years ago
Whose Life Is It Anyway?
Yamato Drummers
Helen Smith
Last night the New Theatre (and I imagine much of George Street) resonated to the wonderful thrumming rhythms of an exhilarating performance of taiko drumming by the Yamato Drummers. Their ...
8 years ago
Yamato Drummers
Wild Willy Barrett’s French Connection
Helen Smith
If music is a universal language then folk music is at its roots, heart and soul. Wild Willy Barrett and the French Connection certainly explored the full gamut of folk music and beyond during their ...
8 years ago
Wild Willy Barrett’s French Connection
Incognito
Helen Smith
Flamenco is a simple art form, born of the streets in necessity, poverty, pity and pain and there are times (as in last night's piece by Mi Flamenco) when such simplicity, performance pared to the ...
8 years ago
Incognito
Jenni Murray: A History of Britain in 21 Women
Helen Smith
Ever since the tremendous success of Radio 4's History of the World in 100 Objects there have been numerous iterations of this format and Jenni Murray came to the Sheldonian this afternoon to discuss ...
8 years ago
Jenni Murray: A History of Britain in 21 Women
Ada Lovelace Lecture: Jocelyn Bell Burnell on Poetry and the Stars
Helen Smith
There is clearly a significant connection between imagination and science and between science fiction, science fantasy and actual practical science. Sometimes there is even a physical connection as ...
8 years ago
Ada Lovelace Lecture: Jocelyn Bell Burnell on Poetry and the Stars
Imogen Cooper, Piano Recital
Helen Smith
At Friday night's penultimate recital of this year's SJE Arts International Piano Series, Imogen Cooper became “a partner in… sorrow's mysteries". From the opening solemnity and sadness of tone ...
8 years ago
Imogen Cooper, Piano Recital
The Curiositorium
Helen Smith
As a keeper of a cabinet of curiosities myself I was intrigued to learn what comedic spin The Dead Secrets would put on in The Curiositorium. Spin was the correct word as the show on Friday night at ...
8 years ago
The Curiositorium
A Cavalcade of Fools
Helen Smith
Last night's performance of Andrew Barsby's new comedy by an eclectic cast from Oxford Theatre Guild was 'a riddle wrapped up in a mystery, inside an enigma'. Yes the play was a cavalcade, a formal ...
8 years ago
A Cavalcade of Fools
Brief Lives
Helen Smith
John Aubrey is perhaps best known as the antiquarian who investigated Stonehenge, but the Aubrey whom Colin Burnie and ElevenOne Theatre brought to life at the Old Fire Station last night was a ...
8 years ago
Brief Lives
The Magic Flute
Helen Smith
Opera Anywhere swathed the evening and audience in the beautiful and complex tones and tales of Mozart's Magic Flute.
A shimmering glissando of ethereal notes opened an enchanted evening's ...
8 years ago
The Magic Flute
Nicholas Daniel and Charles Owen
Helen Smith
The oboe is not really considered the 'star' of a traditional orchestra, and nor when we consider chamber music is it the first instrument that comes to mind. We are all aware of its evocative and ...
9 years ago
Nicholas Daniel and Charles Owen
Champagne History Lecture
Helen Smith
'Votre état d'esprit est change en mieux.' ('Your mindset is changing for the better.')
Considering champagne is often thought of as the epitomy of French éclat it came as a surprise to learn ...
9 years ago
Champagne History Lecture
Bridging The Void
Helen Smith
The audience were plummeted into a pitch black, free form, leaf -strewn Pegasus Theatre for last night's performance of Bridging the Void and then abandoned in the dark to their own devices. To ...
9 years ago
Bridging The Void
Wolfson College Concert
Helen Smith
As “the curfew tolled the knell of parting day" I plodded my way up the Banbury Road to the light and airy Leonard Wolfson Auditorium to join an appreciative audience of the latest performance by ...
9 years ago
Wolfson College Concert
Fire In The North Sky
Helen Smith
A strange brew was imbibed by audience and players at last night’s interpretation of Finnish folklore at the North Wall. The show opened with a toast of liquorice and salt and an early 20th century ...
9 years ago
Fire In The North Sky
Mark Thomas: Trespass
Helen Smith
Mark Thomas has inspired me to become a "domestic extremist” as he has been defined by the Met. His police file also refers to him as a “general rabble rouser and alleged comedian” but I would ...
9 years ago
Mark Thomas: Trespass
The Addams Family
Helen Smith
The “der da der dum. Click. Click.” of The Addams Family theme tune resonated around the Theatre at Headington on Friday night. With echoes from its original incarnation for the 1960s TV series ...
9 years ago
The Addams Family
July Evening in the Sheldonian Theatre
Helen Smith
Old buildings like the Sheldonian have a life of their own – a vitality accreted in the mortar over its many years of use - in which one can connect with the many people whose lives the building ...
9 years ago
July Evening in the Sheldonian Theatre
The Bear, and The Old Maid and The Thief
Helen Smith
From the opening wail of despair to the closing passionate duel, The Bear performed by Opera Anywhere at Waterperry Gardens on Friday night hit high notes, high drama and unexpected humour. Rosie ...
9 years ago
The Bear, and The Old Maid and The Thief
Michael Wood: The Story of England - Local History and National History
Helen Smith
Michael Wood has been my hero since first we danced together in my salad days on the road to Eleusis. Since then we have searched Mycenae and the hill at Hissarlik and have walked in the footsteps ...
9 years ago
Michael Wood: The Story of England - Local History and National History
Poetry Live with Roger McGough
Helen Smith
Live Poetry poses a dichotomy - the bardic versus the literary tradition - and there are strengths and weaknesses on each side. Last night’s poetry reading at SJE Arts gave an attentive audience ...
9 years ago
Poetry Live with Roger McGough
The Beaux Strategem (ages 12+)
Helen Smith
Restoration comedy is a representation of the exuberance, enthusiasm and liberation of its times and BOVTS cast embodied these qualities in their performance of Farquhar’s The Beaux Stratagem at ...
9 years ago
The Beaux Strategem (ages 12+)
Working Iron - A history of the Blacksmiths craft By Hector Cole
Helen Smith
Blacksmithing was once at the heart of every village community and clearly lies very close to the heart of Hector Cole, member of the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths and recently appointed MBE for ...
10 years ago
Working Iron - A history of the Blacksmiths craft By Hector Cole
Vladimir Ashkenazy & Oxford Philomusica
Helen Smith
Ashkenazy as a conductor is a new phenomenon for me and on Friday night at the Sheldonian he led the Oxford Philomusica through a delightful combination of Weber, Mozart and Brahms much as he played ...
10 years ago
Vladimir Ashkenazy & Oxford Philomusica
Oxford Fringe 2015
Helen Smith
The songs we listen to in our teenage years shape our lives, influencing our formative years and when older, take us back to our salad days and memories of our youth. This is one of the central ...
10 years ago
Oxford Fringe 2015
Beckett's Last Act
Helen Smith
The interior dialogue of the psyche and particularly that of playwright Samuel Beckett is explored in this play by Isosceles Productions, which is dramatically presented through a series of ...
10 years ago
Beckett's Last Act
