So it was the boyf's dad's birthday celebrations in London this weekend and this involved a trip to the theatre. The play of choice was Our Boys at the Duchess Theatre.

The play is quite an intimate affair as the audience is privy to a ward in an army hospital and the lives of six patients who live there, each dealing with their respective injuries and how they are affecting their lives differently.

There were some pretty famous faces on stage including Arthur Darvill (aka. Rory from Dr Who), Laurence Fox (of Lewis and being married to Billie Piper fame) and Matthew Lewis (aka. Neville Longbottom). All performed well, particularly Laurence Fox who's character is perhaps the most interesting psychologically.

The story was good if a little predictable as we saw the brash ladsy lad at the

So I thought I'd knock the culture factor up a notch and go and see an opera.

The Phoenix Picturehouse in Oxford are one of the many cinemas around the world that are taking part in the New York Metropolitan Opera's live in HD project. This project involves the Met broadcasting one of their performances live to cinemas around the world to spread the enjoyment of opera.

So yes I didn't get to dress up and go to the opera in person but I did get to watch it live from a comfy cinema seat at a fraction of the price (especially when you take into account how much the ticket to New York would cost!).

So my chosen opera was Otello, Verdi's operatic retelling of Shakespeare's infamous story of revenge and jealousy. In preparation for the show I decided to read the play at home first so I would know the basic story. This was a good idea in hindsight as, although it was subtitled, the opera was in Italian. Because I knew the basic story I didn't have to religiously study the subtitles to  understand what was going on and could turn my attention to the singers.

And what singers they were. I am infamously not musical but even I could appreciate that they were incredible singers. The three central characters Otello, played by Johan Botha, Desdemona, Renee Fleming, and Iago, Falk

University of Oxford Student Company at the Oxford Playhouse (13/9/12)

I studied this play for my GCSE and loved it but I hadn't had the opportunity to see it performed, until now. And I wasn't disappointed. 

This production stuck to the play that I had studied at school with a very traditional interpretation of Arthur Miller's classic story. The simple stage design provided a great backdrop for the action without detracting focus from the actors. The actors themselves did well, especially with the Italian/New York accents but the two stand outs were Eddie and Beatrice. Both the actors held their accent and filled their roles with the emotion and passion that this play provokes. Equally the guy playing Alfieri managed to bring a sense of age and experience to his performance despite being only a student.

Unfortunately this emotion and passion was not reflected by Catherine who played her role with an air of excited terrier which was fine earlier on but she seemed a bit wooden towards the end. But the champion of wooden was Rudolfo. His accent was great and he delivered his lines well, injecting humour and emotion where necessary. The problem was that for an Italian he didn't have very expressive body language. I know it's a stereotype but his arms remained glued to his sides throughout. He acted well with his face and his voice but maybe he should have involved his body a bit.

But I don't want to sound harsh. The cast worked well together and the production was a success. I loved the play and got genuinely emotionally invested in it. This was only broken when people in the audience, obviously unfamiliar with the play, laughed at inappropriate moments and began the applause before the first half had ended. 

A really good show and one that I feel has done the play I have read and re-read justice in performance.