Well, the Corbins were on Thursday night. I didn't win the award, but it was darned good fun all the same. In spite of having to get ready in very little time due to an inconvenient lecture (honestly, these lectures are always getting in the way of uni life) I managed to make myself look presentable and arrived in time.

The team organising the event had obviously put a lot of effort into it- there was even a red carpet, which upon closer inspection turned out to be a red duvet-cover (the poppers were showing). there was a photographer at the entrance and buck's fizz on the door. We also got a preview of a pretty good band, Radio Luxembourg, who're playing at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre sometime soon. After the awards ceremony, which was pretty swift, there was a party with plenty of nineties musical cheese. The only downside was the lack of Courier writers present- but this was compensated for by the extreme enthusiasm of the university radio (Bay Radio ) DJs and producers.

After much dancing and my friends and I embarrassingly getting through four bowls of crisps and one of peanuts, we called it a night and went for chips in all our finery. On our way to the chip shop, I was stopped by a young, rather enebriated Scottish feller, who first asked me where I got my shoes; he then declared that they were the best shoes in the world, got down on one knee- which was pretty impressive considering the state he was in- and proposed to me. I'm SO wearing those shoes again.

All in all it was just one of those thoroughly fun, slightly surreal evenings that I'll remember for many years to come. Super high five to those who organised it.

I've had a pretty fun-packed week, actually. On Wednesday evening I saw The Importance of Being Earnest , performed by the Welsh Theatre Company, Mappa Mundi (http://www.mappa-mundi.org.uk/). I was expecting something enjoyable, but fairly regular. I was pleasantly surprised, however.

Mappa Mundi, instead of taking a realist approach to the text, as I had expected, instead picked up on all the wonderful campness and artificiality and presented it as it was- a play, nothing more, certainly nothing less. They went to the extreme of taking deliberately self-satisfied bows between scenes. Malodrama was parodied hilariously in Algernon's terror of his aunt and of people flirting with their own spouses.

What was interesting about this production is that even though we were constantly reminded that this was only a play (with the help of a giant picture frame at the back of the stage through which characters often entered and boards, upon which were the act and scene numbers, being displayed throughout), the acting was so superb as to make the characters solid- even if it was within their status as caricatures. Jack was convincing as a naturally irresponsible man who was ridiculously protective of his ward, brilliantly ditzy Cecily. Algernon was totally off the wall and shallow, appearing at first in a shocking pink smoking jacket- one great moment was when he was using his toupee as a tea cosey, replacing it in a hurry as his cousin walked in and burning his head. Said cousin, Gwendolen, was supremely manipulative and polished, with a touch of her mother's ferocity. Lady Bracknell stole the show, as is to be expected of such an overbearing character. The terror she inspired in the others, particularly Jack, was pure comedy. Merriman (a maid here) and Lane (doubling as Dr. Chasuble) maintained a droll backdrop, showing up the ludicrous habits of the gentry. I found Miss Prism a tad hysterical, but on the whole very watchable.

The production really captured the essence of the play. It was extremely brave to choose to dispense with realism pretty much altogether, but it certainly paid off. I suspect some of the party I went with disliked the descent into farce in the second half, but how else can it be played? There are absurd coincidences, dashings to and fro and what-not. I'm pretty sure Wilde was not trying to be overly subtle. Imposing modern subtlety on Nineteenth-Century texts is questionable and Mappa Mundi bridged the gap between modern and old-fashioned theatre styles flawlessly. The show's still got a couple of weeks to run and will be in Hereford, Swansea, Brecon and Cardiff among other venues, so catch it if you can.