The other weekend I was back in London for a weekend packed full of theatre and food. It was a great time spent with my lovely mum, seeing great shows and pre-emptively celebrating my birthday.

So I’ll start with a brief round-up of the theatre. We saw Sylvia, a new musical about the life of Sylvia Pankhurst which was really great. It was a preview so I think there was still some work to be done in terms of pacing and resolution but the music, choreography and performances were fantastic. We also saw Emma Corrin in a play adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando – it was fun and irreverent, a cool journey through different time periods and a story that feels so far ahead of its time. Next, although not pictured, was Mandela at the Young Vic – which, again, was gorgeous vocally and had really effective movement direction, respect to the accent co-ordination. The main reason we went down was Newsies which I’ve wanted to see live for years and it definitely didn’t disappoint – it was astounding! There was so much going on at all times and SO much talent on stage. I don’t know how those performers can breathe let alone sing at the same time as all that impressive choreography. Thankfully it has extended into the summer so I’ll hopefully get another chance to go back and enjoy it again. We closed out the weekend experimentally with ABBA Voyage which kinda felt like being in an episode of Black Mirror but was very impressive technically.

Luckily our hotel and plans were conveniently located for market hopping so we spent some time browsing and tasting at Borough and Spitalfields markets which is always a fun morning/lunch-time activity.

Some other things we got up to; a bit of shopping (I got my hands on an amazing sale dress!), checking out an optical illusion museum (a bit underwhelming, to be honest) and spending an age browsing in the beautiful Daunt Books. I had a voucher to spend at Daunts which makes for the best kind of book shopping. If you’re interested I picked up Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung. We also tried to go to an anaesthesia museum but unfortunately, it was closed that day.

So all in all a lovely trip down once again – I’m looking forward to getting back down next month to see Scottish Ballet perform Coppélia again to sold-out audiences at Sadler’s Wells!