The Oxford Revue

Last updated

The Oxford Revue
TypeComedy society
Home Page The Oxford Revue
Founded1953
PresidentsKat Jennings and Jack Bercovici

The Oxford Revue is a comedy group primarily featuring students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University, England. Beginning in 1953, The Oxford Revue has produced many prominent comedians, actors and satirists - as is the case with their Cambridge University counterparts, the Footlights. The Revue writes, produces and performs several shows each term in the pubs and theatres around Oxford, as well as touring to cities in the United Kingdom and performing a month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival every year.

Contents

History

The Oxford Revue was originally just a revue show, not a troupe - one of many yearly productions at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe organised by the Oxford Theatre Group, or O.T.G. (a student-run group co-founded by the brother-in-law of future Revue alumnus Michael Palin). The earliest Revue was called 1953's 'Cakes and Ale', starring Maggie Smith. Other Fringe Revues of historical note include -

The term 'Oxford Revue' was initially a generic phrase, used by many Oxford student theatre companies. The Oxford Experimental Theatre Club formed 'The Etceteras' in the early 1960s [2] - this troupe would perform revues around Oxford, while the 'Oxford Revue' would be the main Oxford comedy output at the Fringe. Many students were involved with both endeavours until the late 1970s, when the two troupes began to socially divide - the 1979 Etceteras (then run by Ian Hislop) even brought their own 'Oxford Revue' to the Fringe to directly compete with the O.T.G. offering (then run by Angus Deayton).

By the early 1980s, the Etceteras had disappeared and the 'Oxford Revue' became a troupe which operated in both Oxford and Edinburgh. The 'Oxford Revue Workshop' was an important aspect of Oxford's comedy culture from its 1986 founding to the 1990s - a fortnightly comedy night based in the cellars beneath the Oxford Union building. Stewart Lee, Richard Herring, Emma Kennedy, David Schneider, Al Murray and Armando Iannucci all relied the 'Workshop' as a performance space during the late 1980s. The Wheatsheaf pub in Oxford became a reliable venue for the Revue during the 2000s, with the Jericho Tavern taking such a role during the 2020s. [3]

Oxford Revue alumni include:

Recent activities

The Revue completed its 71st Edinburgh Fringe in August 2024, with two shows - the sketch show Vive La Revuelution [7] and the late-night stand-up show Stand-Upping Citizens. [8]

The mascot of the Oxford Revue was, for a long time, a pig in a sailor's hat named Admiral Philip, drawn by Revue member Nick Davies in 2013. [ citation needed ]. In 2021, Philip the Pig's design was updated to include a top hat and bow tie, as well as a New Zealand accent. The Revue now uses a 'Simpsons font' variant, including a 'OR' abbreviation inspired by the Adult Swim logo.

Related Research Articles

Helen Atkinson-Wood is an English actress and comedian born in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire.

Radio Active is a radio comedy programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 during the 1980s. The series grew out of a 1979 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show presented by The Oxford Revue and starred Angus Deayton, Geoffrey Perkins, Michael Fenton Stevens, Helen Atkinson-Wood and Philip Pope. The first episode was broadcast in 1980, and it ran for seven series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angus Deayton</span> English television presenter, actor, writer, and comedian (born 1956)

Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster.

Philip R. J. Pope is a British composer and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Curtis</span> British filmmaker (born 1956)

Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis is a British screenwriter, producer and director. One of Britain's most successful comedy screenwriters, he is known primarily for romantic comedy films, among them Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Love Actually (2003), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), About Time (2013), and Yesterday (2019). He is also known for the drama War Horse (2011) and for having co-written the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and The Vicar of Dibley. His early career saw him write material for the BBC's Not the Nine O'Clock News and ITV's Spitting Image.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Herring</span> English comedian and writer (born 1967)

Richard Keith Herring is an English stand-up comedian and writer whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring. He is described by The British Theatre Guide as "one of the leading hidden masters of modern British comedy".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stewart Lee</span> British stand-up comedian, screenwriter and television director

Stewart Graham Lee is an English comedian. His stand-up routine is characterised by repetition, internal reference, and deadpan delivery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Footlights</span> Amateur theatre and comedy group at the University of Cambridge, England

The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy society is run by the students of Cambridge University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edinburgh Festival Fringe</span> Arts festival

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days and featured more than 51,446 scheduled performances of 3,317 different shows across 262 venues from 58 different countries. Of those shows, the largest section was comedy, representing almost 40% of shows, followed by theatre, which was 26.6% of shows.

<i>The Tall Guy</i> 1989 British film

The Tall Guy is a 1989 British romantic comedy and the feature film debut of screenwriter Richard Curtis and director Mel Smith. It was produced by London Weekend Television for theatrical release and stars Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson and Rowan Atkinson. Curtis's script draws from his experiences as straight man to long-time collaborator Rowan Atkinson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Frost</span> British comedian

Stephen Frederick Eustace Frost is an English actor and comedian, best known for his work on Whose Line Is It Anyway? as well as several projects with comedy partner Mark Arden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee and Herring</span> 1992–2000 British comedy double act

Lee and Herring were a British standup comedy double act consisting of the comedians Stewart Lee and Richard Herring. They were most famous for their work on television, most notably Fist of Fun and This Morning with Richard Not Judy but had been working together on stage and on radio since the late 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Etcetera Theatre</span> Pub theatre in Camden Town, London

The Etcetera Theatre is a fringe venue for theatre and comedy. It was founded in 1986 by David Bidmead and is situated above The Oxford Arms pub in Camden Town, in the London Borough of Camden.

The Experimental Theatre Club (ETC) is a student dramatic society at the University of Oxford, England. It was founded in 1936 by Nevill Coghill as an alternative company to the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), and produces several productions a year.

The Edinburgh Comedy Awards are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Established in 1981, they are the most prestigious comedy prize in the United Kingdom. The awards have been directed and produced by Nica Burns since 1984.

The Seven Raymonds were a comic revue troupe founded in 1987 by Oxford University undergraduates.

Born to Be King (<i>Blackadder</i>) 2nd episode of the 1st series of Blackadder

"Born to Be King" is the second episode of The Black Adder, the first series of the BBC sitcom Blackadder. Set in late 15th-century England, the episode takes a humorous look at rivalries with the Kingdom of Scotland and centres the dramatic tension on the doubts cast over parentage of the lead character, Prince Edmund, Duke of Edinburgh.

Comedy Map of Britain is a BBC documentary series which visits the places that have inspired many of Britain's leading comedians. It first aired on BBC Two in 2007 and 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rowan Atkinson</span> English actor and comedian (born 1955)

Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is an English actor, comedian and writer. He played the title roles in the sitcoms Blackadder (1983–1989) and Mr. Bean (1990–1995), and in the film series Johnny English (2003–2018). Atkinson first came to prominence on the BBC sketch comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979–1982), receiving the 1981 British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance.

Andrew Rissik is a British scriptwriter, journalist and critic best known for the BBC Radio 3 trilogy, Troy and the five-part thriller serial for Radio 4, The Psychedelic Spy. He was theatre critic at The Independent from 1986 to 1988, and a book reviewer for The Guardian from 1999 to 2001. His full-time writing and journalistic career came to an end in early 1988 when he was diagnosed with Myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.), from which he still suffers.

References

  1. ↑ "The Oxford Comedy Archive (accessible in UK only)".
  2. ↑ "'Seven-A-Side' 1964 compilation album".
  3. ↑ "The Oxford Comedy Archive (accessible in UK only)".
  4. ↑ "The Oxford Revue Tour Dates and Concerts".
  5. ↑ "Rebecca Front". Hachette Book Group. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  6. ↑ "The Rest is Entertainment podcast episode".
  7. ↑ "Vive La Revuelution ticket page".
  8. ↑ "Stand-Upping Citizens ticket page".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.