I recently popped down to London for a couple days. I booked it in for the weekend after we were done with the Festival madness so I could get away from Edinburgh for a minute. Not reeeally sound logic to escape the Festival by going to see more theatre but hey ho, that’s me. For the most part the weekend was wholesome and lovely, seeing good pals and good theatre and just wandering about the city in the sunshine. The one downer was travelling there and back with all the delays 😦
So what did I get up to? Well obviously the primary reason for the trip was to get stagey so I saw Falsettos, The Woman in Black and Come From Away and then to kill some time on the Sunday I also picked up a last minute ticket to see School of Rock.
Falsettos is a musical I’ve wanted to see for a long time, mostly because I didn’t know too much about it other than a few of the great tunes. I got really cheap restricted view seats (as you can see below), slightly obscured by the overhang of the tech rigging. A totally do-able restriction by the way, but I saw some empty seats farther down and seized my opportunity during the interval. This was my first time at The Other Palace and I really like the space, it’s a nice layout, lovely and intimate. The show was great, funny, emotional and well performed. Laura Pitt-Pulford absolutely smashed I’m Breaking Down which I was very grateful for. The ending got me a lot more emotional than I was expecting – all in all a great time.
For my sat mat I met a pal and we decided to go and see The Woman in Black, not one I’ve properly considered before but its been on the West End for ages and people seem to have enjoyed it. I didn’t really know anything about it, other than that it was supposed to be scary. If I’m honest I found it really underwhelming, the actors give a great performance and its amazing how they carry a story like that with just two actors but I didn’t really feel hugely suspenseful and other than the odd jump scare or scream, I wasn’t scared at all. Unfortunately I think I could’ve given that one a miss. Saturday was absolutely redeemed, however, because I saw the beauty that is…
Come From Away. It’s hard to fully word how I felt about this show but here I am attempting to gush that out. This is such a brilliant piece of theatre and exactly the kind of storytelling that MT has the power to enhance. I had goosebumps most of the time, I laughed, I cried, I felt grief and I felt filled with love for humanity. It is everything we need right now, real stories. The ensemble cast is so frickin’ talented and diverse, shape-shifting between many characters and accents and the whole staging of the piece is so perfectly fluid. This musical has jumped right up into my favourites. Personal highlights include Rachel Tucker singing Me and The Sky (obviously), Cat Simmons’ Hannah made me want to cry for days and the band are bloody incredible. What a cracking show.
Then on Sunday I had a while to kill before my flight home and so why not find another show to see. The selection on a Sunday is limited and I’ve already seen the best option (Matilda) before so I decided to get a cheap seat at School of Rock. Luckily I was treated to a seat upgrade so I had an amazing view. The show is a lot of fun, and obviously those kids are amazing, it was everything I expected and made for a nice Sunday afternoon.
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Next I’m gonna tell you about my foodie fun. In a wonderfully timely manner my YouTube faves Sorted Food put out a video exploring the Carnaby area of London and all the treats there was to find there – so I knew where I was heading to explore. I mostly explored the haven that is Kingly Court (just off of Carnaby Street) – its this really cool courtyard with three floors of cafés, restaurants and bars. It’s such a cool vibe and there’s loads of options for good eats. We had lunch in The Rum Kitchen where I got the halloumi bun with chargrilled portobello mushroom, spicy avocado, scotch bonnet mayo and salad with a side of maple sweet potato fries and a pineapple daiquiri which was really yummy. I got my sweet fix on Sorted recommendation from Crumbs & Doilies who sell these tiny cupcakes – ideal for trying different flavours and not being too sickly! I had the chocolate caramel cornflake cupcake (with rich chocolate sponge, salted caramel icing, and caramel cornflake nuggets) and the Baklava cupcake (pistachio sponge, filled with honey-caramel, topped with pistachio and honey-caramel sauce). Both were delicious but the cornflake one was unbelievably rich – 10/10
I was staying on Brick Lane this time around so obviously I had to return to Spitalfields market for more street food deliciousness – I talk about the market in more detail in this post. This time I grabbed a Char Sui RiceRoll with homemade chilli oil from Ricebrother and a Sicilian lemon olive oil sourdough donut with candid Amalfi lemons from Crosstown Bakery.
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The most lovely surprise was an impromptu reunion with my good pal Sophie! We went to the same school and actually haven’t seen each other probably in about 4 years since I’ve been at uni in Edinburgh and she’s been at uni in Glasgow/Bournemouth and now freelancing all over the place. It was so lush to catch up with a friendly face and we just sat in the sun with margaritas and then wandered around Shoreditch living our best lives. FYI we have vowed not to wait four years til the next time.
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