4 – 6 March
Ockham’s Razor return to Oxford with Tess, a groundbreaking, circus adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles. An ensemble of performers weave together Hardy’s words and the extreme physicality of circus to tell this tale of power, loss and endurance.
Wielding wooden planks, climbing shifting walls and traversing ropes and swathes of linen the cast evoke the vast landscapes and interior worlds of Hardy’s Wessex.
It is a story which still has extraordinary relevance for our times in its evocation of female relationships, sexual desire, consent, privilege and poverty.
This retelling captures the beauty, heartbreak and yearning of the novel and draws upon the incredible strength of the circus body to create a Tess as heroic as Hardy intended.
Duration: 140 minutes incl interval
Beaumont Street, Oxford, United Kingdom, OX1 2LW
Photography credit: Daniel Denton,
This listing appears on our front page until 11:55pm on Thursday March 6th, 2025
