OUDS 125th Anniversary Gala

Synopsis

The Oxford University Dramatic Society is celebrating one hundred and twenty five years of Oxford drama with a Gala night hosted by Diana Quick. The evening will comprise of short performances given by alumni and current students including a 24 Hour Play performed by the Oxford Revue, a revival of a scene from a 1980 production of Three Sisters with Imogen Stubbs and an excerpt from last year's sell-out student production of West Side Story. The extent to which student drama flourishes in Oxford is remarkable as Oxford University has no school of drama. OUDS has been nurturing dramatic talent since 1885 and, although no longer an individual production company, it continues to support over twenty-five student shows per term.

Our Review:

Simon Tavener - 14 June 2010

Gala events are all too frequently predictably dull affairs – under-rehearsed scenes interspersed with plodding narration or pleas for money. It is all credit to the Oxford University Dramatic Society for putting together a celebration of their 125th anniversary that, on the whole, avoided these pitfalls.

Produced by current students Roland Singer Kingsmith and Emily Precious, and hosted by former OUDS President Diana Quick, the evening was a showcase of current talent and past glories. Of course, some of the excerpts were less successful than others – but some were a proper reflection of the talent that has emerged from Oxford over the past decades and what is about to burst onto the professional scene in coming months and years.

The highlight of the evening was probably a play conceived, written and rehearsed in 24 hours. Ordinarily this format can be rather variable in quality but when you have secured talent like Patrick Marber to write a 10 minute pie...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

No reviews yet

Click here to add your review