Spring has arrived and with it the annual Oxfringe Festival, bringing some of the best entertainment from local companies and other shows on the UK fringe circuit. The range and variety is impressive as for three weeks the festival takes over many well-known and some less obvious venues all over Oxford. I started at the Copa Bar on George Street with the hugely entertaining Byron, Get One Free! Oliver Gozzard, inspired by Lord Byron and commuter travel, took us on a surreal journey intertwining these two unlikely subjects, while Laura King had the audience in stitches with reflections on the life of a modern young woman.

I then hurried around the corner to the New Road Baptist Church for a very different kind of show set in the aftermath of the First World War, although Never Tell Them, by Stuart Lee, certainly had its humorous elements too. It begins with a woman consulting a medium. He thinks she wants to contact her fallen husband. Simon Holden-White was hilarious as the bogus parapsychologist ‘Professor’ Bailey, while Hannah Morrell as Celia the bewildered wife brought great pathos to this fundamentally tragic story of what we now call survivor guilt. The two military characters, her husband Captain Jones (Steve Hay) and Jenkyns (Michael Fraser), were powerfully played with honesty and strength. Several cunning plot twists kept me on the edge of my seat. It’s a complex piece, which the accomplished company brought to eerie life.

Returning to the church the next day I thoroughly enjoyed Jubilate. The excellent Rosalind Adler played five different characters, whose interwoven stories were hilarious but suffused with dark intimations. Adler’s script has lots of bite and fun. You can also see this outstanding performer in her award-winning show LOL, about Internet dating, at the Burton Taylor Studio – from April 7-10. I have marked it in my diary as one not to be missed!

I rounded off the week with a visit to Bite Size Soiree, a five-piece ensemble offering six short plays at the OFS. I was particularly tickled by the first piece, Tangled Net, and the performance of Cleve Wedderburn, and the other pieces jollied along very nicely too. All good fun!

There are ten days of Oxfringe to go and I highly recommend a visit or two, or even more. For details go to http://oxfringe.com