It’s a fairly new tradition, but now, when June comes to Oxford, I’m looking forward to the beginning of the Offbeat festival. Co-hosted by Arts at the Old Fire Station and the Oxford Playhouse, this week of theatre, music, comedy, and dance has quickly established itself as a quality showcase for exciting new artists (and more established ones). The tickets are affordable, the locations are handy to reach, and best of all, the quality is so high that you can basically pick a ticket at random, and you’re almost certain to find something you’ll enjoy! So go out, grab a ticket, and discover something new at Offbeat!
Here are our reviews, most recent first
MARY PRINCE – HER STORY, HER WORDS AND ME at the BT Studio on 27th June
Mary Prince’s life story was published in 1831 – the first narrative of the life of a female Caribbean slave – and her testimony was instrumental in the passing of the 1833 British Abolition of Slavery Act. Amantha Edmead has taken Mary Prince’s words and created a rich one-woman show – she conveys Mary as a little girl, sold to a family as a slave for the child of the house, as a worker in the salt marshes, as a slave plagued by rheumatism and rejected by a family she has lived with for 13 years.
Edmead has sensitively and powerfully brought Mary’s story to life. It’s all too easy to disregard the past as nothing but history, but hearing Mary’s words from over 200 years ago – the anguish of a mother separated from a child, the pain of finding oneself trapped with no means of escape, the sorrow of being forced to leave friends, family, and country – well, the past isn’t that much of a foreign country, is it? ★★★★☆ @BookingAround 28th June 2018
WOKE at the Old Fire Station on 27th June
Woke opens with a news report on the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and we’re instantly conveyed into the world of a naïve university student, taking her first tentative steps towards understanding inequality, police violence, and the bias of the criminal justice system. Her journey to social consciousness is interspersed with the narrative of Assata Shakur, a member of the Black Panther movement coming to the same conclusions generations apart, and making a decision to step into the struggle for their civil rights.
Apphia Campbell is the star of the show, inhabiting each of these young women, and powerfully conveying their journeys and convictions through story-telling, poetry, and song. This is a strong and challenging show, which will resonate with viewers long after the curtain falls. ★★★★☆ @BookingAround 28th June 2018
VICTIM at the BT Studio on 26th June
Crime and punishment is the theme of my next Offbeat show, Martin Murphy’s Victim. Louise Beresford plays Tracey, a well-meaning, if naïve, prison guard, and Siobhan, an observant and calculating inmate of the prison. Tracey allows her fascination about the crimes committed by a new inmate to cloud her judgement, and Siobhan know how to play any situation to her advantage. Beresford is masterful – the stage is bare, and she’s the only actor, but every gesture, turn of phrase, and facial expression is perfectly judged – I can’t wait to see what she does next. This play is only an hour long, but it packs a hell of a punch. It’s funny, but very dark, and it shows how trust can’t be taken for granted, and that no one is ever truly victim or villain. ★★★★★ @BookingAround 27th June 2018
COCONUT at the Old Fire Station 25th June
My festival got off to a great start with Guleraana Mir’s Coconut. This warm-hearted and heartfelt play centres on Rumi (Kuran Dohil), a British Pakistani woman who can’t figure out how to align her personal identity with her Muslim background. Rumi meets and falls for Simon (Jimmy Carter), a white Catholic boy who agrees to convert to Islam to marry her, but she struggles as she realises that he is taking his conversion much more seriously than she expected. There are moments of very real pain in this play, as the characters come to terms with themselves and each other; but there are also some very funny scenes, primarily found in the running conversation between Rumi and her inner monologue, played by Tibu Fortes. This enjoyable and relatable play refuses to make a culture or faith into a monolith, and is sensitive in exploring Rumi’s personal growth, into someone who decides that she has to do things for herself, no matter what others will think. ★★★★☆ @BookingAround 26th June 2018
Click here for full details and programme
