Trinity term 2023 in Review

My second year ended with more of a fizzle than a bang. Looking up from my laptop halfway through ninth week I realised that friends had already left and I have no big plans beyond packing (and recovering from the term!). This being said, I have no right to complain seeing as I have managed to cram into a single term more than I probably did in most of my first year. Looking back over my calendar, there are whole fortnights where I was out every night seeing show after show. It has been a term of comp tickets and 2am essay submissions, a term of sudden realisation that I had a Finals paper to do and very little time to prepare. Yet, it has also been the term where I have turned twenty one and had the sudden realisation that adulthood is coming up fast to greet me as most of my peers from school graduate.

It is hard to comprehend how much I managed to cram so much into this term. When I talk about what I have been doing, I tend to leave out the first few weeks. Did I really see The Marriage of Figaro this term? Was that only a few weeks ago that I sprained my ankle so badly that I ended up in A&E? Apparently so. The term began with a college formal and bar party. If anyone has been to Jesus College bar they will know that the underground cavern is usually packed and filled with the echoes of live music. It is a haven for jazz artists and a wonderful place to begin the term, especially after a formal with friends. What was less wonderful was twisting my ankle in my heels on the walk home up Woodstock Road. I claim that it was a puddle that was responsible but am no longer entirely sure. My clumsiness is just one of my wonderful quirks! Fast forward to three weeks later, where despite the fact that my foot is now larger than it was the day after I fell, I have managed to keep the fact to myself. At this point, as is prone to happen, the parents stepped in and I found myself on a bus to the JR. Somewhere around three hours later my father joined me and at midnight I was prescribed an anti-inflammatory, told that injuries should be checked out immediately and sent home. Long story short, if you hurt yourself have it checked out! As for the formal, it was the only one I attended this term. I did, however, find myself at The Union Ball with an equally exhausted friend trying to muster the energy to dance the night away in the Chamber to Eminem. With the help of some glitter and some friends we made it past midnight, but certainly not to the end.

Despite my questionable forays into social activities, what I have mostly done this term is sit in dark rooms, notebook in hand, writing the reviews that litter this blog. My favourite place to sit is near the isle about half way back (centre circle, if you will); however, with a confidence I am apt to envy the team of the Magdalen play decided to put me right on the front row! I guess they had a feeling that they would be receiving a positive review – an optimism that was obviously well placed, seeing as it was one of my favourite shows of the term. Despite the significant amount of History Boys involvement in the performance, it was only amongst my favourites as The Marriage of Figaro and my twenty first birthday present of a trip to the Sondheim to see Les Mis, were my standout moments. Sometimes you can simply get lost in the moment, swept along by the action of the scene rather than noticing the composition and directorial choices. Both had me walking away and seeking to recapture what I had seen and felt, playing the soundtracks over and over to try to remember every detail. Of course, obsessing over these two aside, there were plenty of great performers and performances this term. From kicking off with Macbeth, to the glitz and glamour of Gatsby to the informal chaos of Merton’s Twelfth Night, every night at the theatre has been so wonderfully unique.

Obviously, I haven’t just been sitting in audiences this term. From helping to market The Seagull to beginning my next directing project, I have also been on the creative side of the theatre. Through my marketing, I got the opportunity to break my camera out for the first time in a while, shooting stills on a sunny day in Magdalen while the trailer was being shot by the wonderful Freddie Houlahan. This coupled with an impromptu documenting of Figaro, led me to continue to flex my performance photography muscle. Some good old fashioned cold calling enabled me to capture the many bloody moments of Henry VI Part 3, the insanity of The Mandrake and an evening in Holywell Music Room for A Night of Queer Music. Oh and I also wandered around Oxford photographing the antics of the iconic Edward Launders-Grieve! (lamppost climbing photos to be uploaded soon!) On the front of my own projects, we are just beginning. Toad of Toad Hall has a wonderful cast and crew, who are adventuring into the world of talking animals and Oxford stereotypes with an enthusiastic confidence. So far I have learnt a lot about bids and the bureaucracy of venues… oh and that having an AD from day one is an invaluable asset. I look forward to see what chaos we create next term and the opportunity to direct the legendary Fitz while also marketing Don Giavanni!

Many coffees and other social activities aside, I did also study this term. There was a considerable overlap in the two, as would be corroborated by one of my Language tutors who had the pleasure of my company on 10am of May Morning. However, to not discuss my degree would be a crying shame, as the units of the term were fascinating. I was continuing my study of historical linguistics, taking a deeper dive into the thoughts and mechanisms behind the development of the language that I now write this blog in. Having crammed my life outside of academia into the first six weeks of term, I subsequently shut myself off from the world to complete my exam. Fleeing ASMing at The Playhouse during seventh week, I spent much of the next few weeks glued to my laptop exploring the world of misogyny in dictionaries and the transition from Old to Middle English. I chased Bibles across the city and carried feminist re-readings of language into coffee shops. Descending into the rabbit hole of study without the fast paced distractions of my Oxford life I remembered quite how fascinating and engrossing academia is.

So with the sun shining, I submitted my exam early and began my study my dissertation topic, spending two days at a desk in The Union perusing old articles on the 1933 debate ‘This House in No Circumstances Would Fight for King and Country’. Here is my starting point for the next adventure, turning the clock back as I hide from the stifling heat of Oxford in the summer. Year by year let the clock turn backwards as I begin my vacation, my travels taking me towards the Romans in the North, the Clearances and then across the sea to commune with the Vikings, lost First World War soldiers and the Neolithic…