“Dead Man’s Suitcase”. Burton Taylor
This review was written for Daily Information and appears on their website . Following two years of covid-induced slumber, drama has reawakened in Oxford like a Blue Peter tortoise after a winter of enforced hibernation. The flowering I've witnessed this term has been beautiful, inspiring and triumphantly creative. Of the twelve shows I’ve seen in the last few weeks, nine have been original pieces of work. That in itself is impressive – but on top of that, the talent on display has been remarkable. And even when shows haven’t come off, at least they went down fighting. Dead Man’s Suitcase is an original musical, written and directed by Felix Westcott. It’s packed with toe-tapping tunes, its lyrics are genuinely witty, its story is instantly relatable but at the same time totally fantastical, and its company of just four performers carry the whole thing off with aplomb. In other words, it’s a treat. Our hero is John, an everyman in a literal dead-end job. He writes obi...