What's in the Cinema this Week? (Jan 19-25)

Opening in Oxford this week is Babel, starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, and Gael Garcia Bernal. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett play an American couple whose accident on holiday in Morocco links them to people at the Mexican-US border and in the heart of Tokyo, who are also dealing with misunderstandings and a sense of isolation. The film contains strong language, violence, sex references and drug use. (15)

Also opening this week is Rocky Balboa starring Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, and Milo Ventimiglia. Sylvester Stallone returns as Rocky, now a retired middle-aged fighter, and given the chance to step into the ring against the new reigning champion of the world. The film contains infrequent moderate boxing violence. (12A)

Opening at the Phoenix this week is Black Book (Zwartboek). Set during the end of WWII, Black Book is the story of a Dutch Jewish girl who narrowly survives the war in Holland. She joins the resistance to find out who betrayed her family after all of them were killed in an attempt to reach the liberated south. The film contains very strong language, strong violence and nudity. (15)

Opening this week at the Vue Cinema is Guru, starring Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Vidya Balan, R. Madhavan, Mithun Chakraborthy, and Mallika Sherawat. The film concerns a man, Gurukant Desai, from an average village who, starting from very modest means, attempts to build a successful business in Bombay. His troubled private life includes with his frustrated wife, Sujatha, who must adjust to being in a marriage she never really wanted. He must overcome a number of personal and professional problems in order to fulfill his ambitious dreams of success. (12A)

Also at the Vue only this week is The Return, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Estranged from her father and stalked by an obsessed ex-boyfriend, Joanna Mills' problems worsen when she starts experiencing increasingly terrifying supernatural visions. The nightmares revolve around the violent and brutal murder of an anonymous woman, and guided by those nightmares, she travels to the woman's hometown to uncover the horrific mystery. (15)

Get showtimes for all the cinemas in Oxford

What's in the Theatres this Week? (Jan 19-25)

The Oxford Playhouse:

Bobby Baker - How To Live - A highly entertaining, thought-provoking and inspirational show asking the biggest questions of all...How To Live? Bobby Baker opens up her unique Therapy Empire in a show guaranteed to affect ordered and disordered minds alike.

Our Country's Good -
Australia, 1789. A young lieutenant prepares to stage a play, facing the opposition of his colleagues, a cast of headstrong prisoners and a leading lady who is about to be hanged.

Old Fire Station:
Tales From Hollywood - A fast-paced, controversial and charmingly funny story of European expatriates writing American films in the 1940's. As they fall in and out of love and adjust to American life, they explore their roles as artists and come to terms, from afar, with the political disorder of their home countries. A mix of politics, film history, and raw comic genius, this play has something for everyone. If you see one play in Oxford, this should be it!

Burton Taylor Theatre:
Diary of a Madman - by Joe Spence adapted from Gogol - Poprishchin's love-induced hallucinations steadily drive him mad. Gogol's famous and amusing short story brought to life in a fresh new adaption for the stage. A fast-paced adaption of Gogol's comic masterpiece. The tale of a hapless clerk who falls for his boss's daughter. His unrequited love drives him to hallucination and insanity.

The Enormous Space - devised by the company, based on writing by J G BallardA man decides never to leave his house again. As time slips away, the man wonders why he hadn't ever noticed how much space there was within his four walls....

New Theatre:

Imogen Heap - A singer songwriter of astonishing emotional eloquence, and one half of the art-rock band Frou Frou. Classically trained when she was younger, her own songs explore electronica, alternative pop and rock and Euro-pop. 'Although she employs bells and whistles from equipment I can't comprehend and instruments I can't pronounce, the songs are so well-written, they would stand on their own'- Performing Songwriter.

Peter Pan On Ice: The Russian Ice Stars - The finest company of professional skaters in the world with a line-up that includes Loulia Barsoukova, the 2000 Olympic gold medallist. Expect a magical show with exciting choreography and world class skating.

Theatre at Headington:
ODT productions presents The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui -
Described by Brecht as 'a parable play, written with the aim of destroying the usual disasterous respect which we feel for mass murderers' Arturo Ui is a savagely witty satire of the rise of Hitler. Written for an American audience just before Brecht's arrival in the USA in 1941, the play casts the fuhrer as a small-time Chicago gangster who, with his cronies, holds the entire vegetable trade to ransom.
This prize-winning translation by Ralph Manheim vividly captures the wide range of paraody and pastiche in the original without reducting the horror of the actual nazi originals.

Linda Marlowe presents Believe - The tales of the old testament can seem wild and implausable to a modern sensibility. But re-cast these stories in a psychologically truthful light,or sometimes in a totally contemporary re-imagining, and they are shocking even by today's sensationalist tabliod standards. Decapitation. Pregnant at ninety. Incest. Child abduction. Rape. Male rape. Murder! Disguise. Seduction.

Believe looks at the lives of women who carved their names into history; women who believed fervently in a God who had forgotten them. Their stories raise questions that are more pertinent now than ever before: what does it mean to have faith? If God exisits, what is He like? is He or She or It something outside of us, or is a force within us all? And just where does God fit in to our lives NOW-if at all?

Oxford Amnesty Lectures 07 - Incarceration and Human Rights - Sheldonian Theatre:
Oxford Amnesty Lectures invites internationally respected figures to debate the future of human rights. Lectures are open to the paying public and texts published as a book. OAL has to date donated over £100,000 to Amnesty International
Speaking this week: January 25th - Jan Loic Wacquant: The Uses and Misuses of the Penal State in the 21st Century

Abingdon Touring Theatre:
Aesop's Fables
Their third tour is a specially commissioned adaptation of Aesop's Fables. This tour has been written to be suitable for the entire family and will combine Aesop's stories with tales from his own life.
Showing this week at - Abingdon Museum; Magdalen College Auditorium in Oxford; Cassington Village Hall; Icknield Community College in Watlington.

For all theatre information, times and dates, click here

This Week's Classical Music (Jan 19-25)

The Holywell Music Room will host this week's Coffee Concert, featuring Thomas Carroll (Cello) & Anthony Hewitt (Piano). Also at the Holywell this week is Oxford Lieder - Song Evening, featuring Geraldine McGrerevy (soprano) and Graham Johnson (piano); A Violin and Piano Recital featuring Jack Liebeck playing Bartok, Ravel, Rachmaninov, and Franck; and finally, Oxford University Music Society's Ceri Owen performing a solo piano recital.

Also this week is Oxford Sinfonia perfoming an orchestral concert at the University Church of St Mary; City of Oxford Orchestra's Viennese New Year at the Sheldonian; Oxford University Music Society's Oxford New Concertante at New College Chapel; and Winterreise by Schubert being performed by David Crown (baritone) and Charlotte Tomlinson (piano) at the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building.

There are two free recital performances on Wednesday - an organ recital by Tom Wilkinson at Queen's College, and Henry Carter and Marina Johns (oboes) with Nicholas Race (piano) at the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building.

Get information for all classical music events in Oxford

This Week's Jazz and Blues (Jan 19-25)

The Backroom at the Bullingdon Arms is featuring Pete Boss & The Bluehearts from the UK on their famous Monday Blues night, and Tom Grey will play there with his quintet on Tuesday; also on Tuesday are NPK Jazz Duo at Bar Milano; Wednesday has the Terry Hutchins Trio – Frank Hockney (drums), Paul Jefferies (bass) playing at The Big Bang; Thursday has Chantelle Pike at QI and Jim Hart on Vibes at the SPIN jazz club at the Wheatsheaf. One gig we're particularly excited about is Ben Taylor (son of James Taylor and Carly Simon) (pictured) at the Zodiac on Wednesday, Jan 24th.

Get information for all jazz and blues music events in Oxford

For music other than classical, jazz, and blues, check out our extensive gig guide