The Tempest: this term's dramatic highlight

This term's dramatic highlight will be a d'Overbroeck's College production of the Tempest. Shakespeare's last play – a dark, brooding comedy about power, cruelty, love and magic – has been relocated to a technological junk heap in the middle of the Pacific. On this pile of discarded motherboards, monitors and technological detritus sits Prospera, usurped Duchess of Milan, and her daughter Miranda.

Caliban, their slave, the man who built the island with his mother Sycorax, plots his revenge on Prospera, while Prospera herself spies her former enemies on a passing ship. Summoning a storm with her sprite Ariel, the ship is wrecked on the shore of the island and its occupants scattered. As they all try to make sense of their new situation, they realise the island is not what it seems and that someone is controlling their every move.

A thought-provoking and visceral new interpretation of a complex and fascinating play, students from across the d'Overbroeck's family combine video, physical theatre, a cutting-edge soundtrack and exciting visual effects to bring you Shakespeare like you've never seen it before. Intense, energetic, funny and tragic by turn, this promises to be a spectacular theatrical event.

Thursday 1 & Friday 2 July, 7pm
Leckford Place Hall
Tickets £10 (adult), £6 (student/concession)

To book your tickets, please contact the Leckford Place Office: 01865 302620 / leckfordplace@doverbroecks.com

Artweeks Exhibition 2010

d'Overbroeck's College doesn't just sponsor Artweeks; we also host our own exhibition. This year's took place over the weekend just passed. As those of you who came along will attest, there was a fantastic array of work: everything from intricately detailed miniatures to gigantic cardboard sculpture; oils to watercolours; sketching to photography.

Here's a slideshow of photos taken at the Private View of our exhibition, on the evening of Friday 14 May.

Artweeks Artist and d'Overbroeck's Parent

Yesterday we paid a visit to Kevin Wooding, who is the father of Year 9 student Lucy Arque. Kevin is exhibiting a selection of his art as part of the Oxfordshire Artweeks festival – currently in full swing.

[On which note, a quick reminder that our own exhibition – featuring work by students, parents and staff of the College, as well as local artists – will be open this weekend. Please do come along! More details here (pdf)]

Artweeks entails a host of Oxfordshire artists throwing open their studios, galleries and homes to the public. In this spirit, we pitched up at Kevin's exhibition, video camera in hand, to find out a little bit about his art. To find out more, watch the interview:



If you'd like to see Kevin's work in the flesh, the opening hours for his exhibition are on the Artweeks website. Alternatively, send Kevin an email to book a viewing.

Student art on show at Museum of Natural History

This Thursday (6 May 2010), artwork by a number of Leckford Place students will be on display at the Natural History Museum in Oxford, as part of the 'Young Art Oxford' exhibition in aid of Cancer Research.

The students listed below had their work chosen from a field of over 1,000 entries, so all have done very well in being selected.

• Joseph Anderson
• Lucy Arqué (highly commended)
• Laura Bossom
• Barney Cremin
• Robbie Dorey
• Hamza Khan
• Flo Rifat
• Aidan Robbins
• Alex Robertson McWillam
• Chloe Townsend
• Peter Wood

The exhibition will feature work from children at 24 Oxfordshire schools, and opens on Thursday 6 May at 3pm. Postcards and the works of art are for sale and all money raised is in aid of Cancer Research UK – specifically, going towards research into the genetic causes of cancer in children.