Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Scrooge, and I suppose when it comes to Christmas theatre, I can become a bit Scrooge-y; I have no patience for pantomime – give me a nice true-to-the-book adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and I’ll be happy, but try throwing in some ‘O, yes, you did’, ‘O, no, I didn’t!’ banter and I’m out of there.

The evening commenced with Musical Youth Company Oxford (MYCO), dressed in black with huge smiles, giving a rousing Another Op’nin’, Another Show from the musical, Kiss Me Kate. This is a teenage musical theatre group who perform at The Oxford Playhouse and other professional venues in Oxford and always maintain very high standards. Then we were straight in to sonnets and poems . . .

I arrived at the North Wall Theatre to see more flat caps and Barbour jackets than I’ve ever seen at the theatre. I suppose I’d never really thought about it before, but it’s very easy to pigeonhole the concept of ‘theatre’ to be something which only appeals to a very specific audience, whereas in reality, perhaps if more plays were about subjects which were of interest to people from different walks of life, perhaps there would be more variety of audiences in our theatres . . .

. . . despite my ignorance when it comes to ballet, I expected that I’d still enjoy it . . . Writing this review has made me feel rather uncultured, particularly in the face of many other great reviews, but I suppose not everybody likes the same thing. After all, Nijinsky’s balletic interpretation of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring got booed off the stage, so it’s probably a good thing to divide one’s audience.

The story they tell is a history of a thirteenth-century Malian king, Sundiata Keita. It doesn’t tell of his reign or exploits, but rather of the women who shaped his destiny . . .