Third term. Distinguishing features include: post exam elation, wasps, sitting outside whilst drinking cider, and the d’Oscars (well, for some people). Through a cunning amalgamation of ‘The Oscars’ and ‘Durham’, The Durham Oscar’s will reflect on an academic year containing around 50 theatrical productions by 27 different production companies, with a night of black tie, lots of wine, and, of course, awards. Some may call it a gratuitous, self congratulatory load of bollocks, but those people tend to be missing the point of the evening. Granted, to all intents and purposes, it is a little bit tacky, however, the University, whilst recognising other extracurricular achievements, such as sport, DUCK and Palatinate (ahem), tend to overlook the fact that DST- with it’s £150,000 annual turnover, is kind of a big deal to a lot of students. It is all too easy for those wise third years, jaded and willing to shrewdly tear to pieces anything to which they are not intrinsically connected, to bemoan the ‘thesps’, and concentrate on the negatives of DST. And whilst the D’Oscars does, admittedly, invite cynics to have a good laugh at the pretentious act-ors flouncing about congratulating each other and comparing poorly spray-painted wobbling-men awards, this attitude is frankly a little irrational. Like the constant references to it’s apparent tendency towards exclusivity, for example.

Now, call me ridiculous, but with regards to extracurricular activities, surely this “exclusivity” only extends to those who are, erm, excluded from that specific activity. So if you aren’t massively involved with theatre, this will probably be the reason why it appears exclusive. Those who love theatre will talk about theatre when they are together. If I attended an English Literature bash, which I’m sure would be a right laugh, I would probably find like-minded people who insisted on discussing books. Similarly, if I attended a jousting match full of people dressed up as King Arthur I would be stuck for small talk.

To be honest, this whole ‘annoying thesp’ complaint is getting as tired as the “Rah Craze” which swept the nation and just made everyone look a little bit silly. The fact is, there are annoyingly pretentious people involved in theatre, as there are public school idiots who play Rugby, or tortured yet painfully bohemian souls who study English Literature. These stereotypes are in the minority and do not reflect the entire student population involved in that particular past-time or degree. That is why they are called ‘stereotypes’.

In fact, there are people working incredibly hard behind the scenes at DST; the Exec and the Tech team all slog away tirelessly for the sole purpose of putting on a show for people’s enjoyment. Without ever getting paid. I recently spoke to current DST President Hugo Soul in order to ask him a few questions about the d’Oscar’s and, more importantly, DST, because admittedly my knowledge was pretty poor. He was on his way to a DST meeting after having got up at 5.30am and written a 4000 word report entitled ‘The Future of Durham Student Theatre’. The job of DST presidency doesn’t predominantly involve swanning about drinking wine and discussing whether a white wash downstage truly brings out the poignancy of Act Three Scene Two then. In fact, Hugo has recently overseen a £100,000 refurbishment of the Assembly Rooms whilst simultaneously building up contacts with Developing Artists, based overseas, and providing mentoring and drama therapy to the County Durham Young Offenders Institute. This is not to mention supervising a working theatre wherein every week a new production team move in to repaint, re-stage, and entertain the 6000 audience members the Assembly Rooms saw this year alone. Oh, and of course, there is the old degree to be cracking on with.

So one vaguely gratuitous night, organised again by the DST Exec, in order to recognise the enormous effort that goes into just one of the numerous productions performed in various locations around Durham by hundreds of students, can’t exactly be a bad thing. It might get pretentious, there may well be some loud voices declaring ‘no, darling, you were the best’ and the ‘thesps’ might not be able to talk about anything else for a good month or so, but they’ve worked incredibly hard this year. In my humble opinion, it’s been the best line-up of shows for a long time (Patrick Marber’s Closer, Richard III , and Martin McDonaugh’s The Pillowman are all good examples) and what has actually been quite an entertaining academic year surely merits at least some recognition. It may be ultimately a load of bollocks, but it’s a well-deserved, much needed and quite entertaining load of bollocks.

Stevie Martin.