Oxford Playhouse

Box office

01865 305305
Beaumont Street, Oxford. A map is here. A seating plan is here.

One Small Step, 29th June to 2nd July, BT Studio
Two actors and a host of intriguing characters take you on a fast, furious and full-throttled trip to the moon. A brilliantly inventive and action- packed exploration of the space race.

Spider's Web, 29th June to 4th July
When Clarissa discovers a dead body in her drawing room, she tries to dispose of it before her Foreign Office diplomat husband returns home with a government VIP guest in tow. Having persuaded her houseguests to help her, it soon becomes apparent that the dead man was not unknown to everyone amongst them.

Brief Encounter, 14th to 18th July
By Noël Coward. Brief Encounter has a company of ten actor-musicians who switch seamlessly between theatre and film to recreate the world of Milford Junction and the famous station tearoom in ways that have never been seen before. It has left both audiences and critics over whelmed by emotion, laughter, tears and praise for the production.

The Comedy of Errors, 28th July to 9th August, Old Schools Quadrangle Bodleian Library
One of Shakespeare's classics and hectic tales will be performed at the Bodleian Library this summer.

The BFG, 11th to 15th August
The BFG is classic Dahl and this brand new stage show promises to mix up heart-pounding adventures with life-long friendships, jumbly words and even some whizzpopping in front of the Queen!

Adolf Hitler - My Part in His Downfall, 25th to 29th August
Spike Milligan’s celebrated war memoirs are brought to anarchic life in this hilarious new stage adaptation.

Days of Significance, 27th to 31st October
Before they depart for active service, two young soldiers make the most of a drunken night out with friends in an English market town. Their bravado is soon crushed by their tour of duty and the civilian life they return to is now as alien to them as the desert they left behind.

Jack and the Beanstalk, 4th December to 17th January
If you've enjoyed last year's production of Sleeping Beauty, book your tickets for Jack and the Beanstalk now.

Reviews of Sleeping Beauty

5th December 2008 to 18th January 2009.

From the Newbury Weekly News.

It's all good festive fun

Only Beauty falls asleep at Peter Duncan's fast-paced production

Sleeping Beauty, at the Oxford Playhouse, until January 18

Having previously directed Dick Whittington and Aladdin, former Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan has returned to the Oxford Playhouse with his own version of Sleeping Beauty.

The show is slick and fast-paced, with the traditional mix of corny gags and familiar routines. The audience is given instructions by the pantomime dame (Stephen Aintree) to "all work together to keep the princess safe" which creates a wonderful complicity as children side with the goodies against a crabby witch.

RRichard Stacey, an Oxford-based actor with an engaging stage presence, is back in the city's panto. Riveting in recent plays from the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, Stacey here plays a Shakespeare-quoting king with a secret desire to sing Queen anthems. He relishes lines like: "if music be the food of love, rock on". It is worth the ticket price alone to see him in his superhero outfit opposite his chic queen, played by Abi Finley. She was a semi-finalist in How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, has a great voice and a cheeky stage presence. She is a talent to follow.

Beauty (Lois Urwin) makes a cute heroine for the tennis-playing prince Raphael of Nadalia (Joseph Attenborough), a haughty dragon-slayer. Most of the jokes go to court jester Miffins (Robin Armstrong), a lad destined never to get the girl. The audience is sent away happy with the customary Playhouse singalong, boys belting out "boots and cats" and girls going "whoop, whoop, whoop, chica, chica, chica".

My co-reviewer, Joe, found Sleeping Beauty "funny, fun and interactive". He thought that the witch, Carmella Crabstick (Carrie Ellis) was "an Anne Robinson lookalike". The Dame (Stephen Aintree) is his favourite character because "it is funny that he is a man dressed up in women's clothes". Nevertheless, for Joe, this year's Dame is not as original or as funny as last year's. Joe says that "all the songs are good, and the costumes are brilliant." The dragon is "especially good" because "it isn't the old two people in a suit, like the horse". He believes that "Sleeping Beauty is very funny because it is interactive."

Joe awards the production nine out of 10.

JON LEWIS AND JOE ROBERTS (AGED 10)

There is a review in The Stage: "Oxford Playhouse keeps up its long-standing tradition of well-crafted, warm-hearted pantomimes, with this cracking Sleeping Beauty... a riot of the very best kind" - Andrew Blades.

This is from the Oxford Mail: "it’s just FANTASTIC. Terrific. Wonderful. Laugh-out loud funny... it’s probably the best night out of the year" - Jeremy Smith.

Previous productions

Aladdin, 30th November 2007 to 13th January 2008. See the review in the Archive.
Dick Whittington, 1st December 2006 to 14th January 2007. See the review in the Archive.
Cinderella, December 2005. See the review in the Archive.
Guys and Dolls, by Oxford Operatic Society, 21st to 26th November 2005. See the review in the Archive.
Peter Pan, December 2004. See the review in the Archive.

For more details

see the Playhouse's web site at www.oxfordplayhouse.co.uk.