Life as a reviewer at Oxford

In recent months I have begun to notice that as I have taken up more professional reviewing, my life as an Oxford reviewer has been winding down. While this can be viewed through the positive lens of making more time to revise for my Finals, it is also saddening. Whether you view Oxford Drama as a clique (or even a collection of cliques) or not, there is no denying that it is a community. For the brief time that you are a part of a show, or the society as a whole, you make lasting friendships and have quite the array of memories to take away. While I have done more than just review during my time in OUDS, it has made up the majority of my experiences. I cannot even begin to count the amount of hours that I have spent sitting in the dark with my trusty notebook, witnessing the creativity of a group of students.

Confession: I began writing this in Michaelmas of this year. I was sitting at my desk, having just been to a show, and was supposed to be writing a review, but instead a love letter to the family that I have made was what filled my notebook. Now that I am sitting down to type up said late night sentimentality, I can’t put my hand on it, so you are freed from that experience – for better or worse. Instead, I am sitting here five months later, no longer at the beating centre of the society, but rather sitting in a coffee shop at midday with Chaucer in my bag wishing I was in a rehearsal room.

A ‘Community’ is what I called the society, and it certainly is that. With the village gossips, the outspoken leaders (elected and otherwise), the jokers, the squabbles… For a society that is so big, it’s amazing how many of the regulars you end up knowing and how many know you. Walking down the street, you can’t help but bump into someone familiar, even if it’s not someone you’re extremely close to. But it’s when you enter a theatre that you feel that true sense of cohesiveness; a group of friends coming together to support their friends or the people that they have worked with before. Even on my worst days at university, when the work is piling up and the hours of sleep count an all time low, a few hours sitting in a dark room has made the world feel a little brighter. Perhaps this is turning into a love letter after all… But, perhaps that’s not a bad thing. After all, how many people would sacrifice their sanity and degrees for theatre if they didn’t love it?

The experience of a reviewer, however, is not quite the typical experience. You find yourself a little on the outside, someone who people tend to treat with respect and who doesn’t always get to hear the chaotic details from backstage (arguably the best part of being involved in a show). Sometimes your seat is reserved, which in itself is undeniably flattering but also begs the question as to why they have chosen to put you in that particular seat… It always makes me curious about what the view is like from elsewhere. So when I am in control I always opt for the out of the way seats – the true test of whether the director has properly considered the seating layout that they have chosen. It’s one of the first questions I ask myself after the show has finished, while the first thing I do inevitably upon sitting down is actually to sketch the set. So, yes, I do have sketches of most of the Oxford shows from certain terms and, no, I am not a good artist. Alongside these sketches are plenty of hurried notes that would make a lot of people laugh, although I am not prone to taking many notes these days as I have enough experience to somehow preserve all of the information in my head until I write my first draft.

To get to this point though cost a lot of money and energy and I was certainly at the height of my insanity during Trinity of last year. My body clock was in tune with the theatre existence and I would find myself writing essays at 3am after having written up my notes for the show that I had just seen. There were weeks in which I saw a show every night, hobbling around on a swollen ankle for three weeks or more before I actually stepped out of the chaos for long enough to take care of myself. That was the term that I met some of the people I am now closest to and first found myself backstage at the Playhouse. It was also the term when I inadvertently stalked someone just a little, which is testament to the fact that they were doing far too many shows! There are familiar faces that you watch over and over, people who you come to admire, people who you know will do a good job of whatever role they are cast in. When I was in first year, those familiar faces were people I looked up to without really knowing. In second year, so many of my peers performed an impressive masquerade, exchanging old character for new every week… or so it seemed. And now… and now we watch the next generation rise as many of us retreat into revision.

What has been most interesting to witness as a reviewer is the careers of those within Oxford Drama. I have spent three years watching the progression… people’s journeys. I have watched Freshers become OUDS BNOCs, seen the first performances of so many budding actors and seen them rise to challenge after challenge. And that’s not to mention the crews: the directors, designers and tech teams. This feels like a goodbye, but I certainly hope that it will not be one! We are at the beginning of term after all… at the beginning of some journeys. It makes me wonder about the next academic year, about how quickly the current finalists will fade into obscurity and who will arrive to begin the cycle again.