The Oxford Revue
History in the 1950s
The Oxford Revue is a long-running amateur comedy troupe at the University of Oxford, rooted in student theatre. It began in the 1950s as an annual revue production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, organised by the student-run Oxford Theatre Group. These early shows, such as Cakes and Ale (1953) starring fellow student Maggie Smith, featured entirely amateur casts and crews drawn from the university.
History in the 1960s and 1970s
Through the 1960s and 1970s, the Revue remained an amateur student endeavour, with shifting line-ups and even rival productions mounted by different Oxford student theatre clubs. Performers like Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Dudley Moore first appeared in Revue shows before moving into professional work. In the 1980s, the troupe’s Oxford Revue Workshop provided a regular student-run space for experimentation and performance, reinforcing its amateur, developmental character.
Despite producing many high-profile alumni, the Oxford Revue has retained its identity as an amateur troupe, with each new generation of Oxford students writing, directing, and performing shows both in Oxford and at the Fringe. This continuity of student-led amateur performance has made it a cornerstone of Oxford’s theatrical culture.[1]