This February, Mr Edwards set off with five Sixth Form Theatre Studies students for a cultural experience in the Big Smoke.
Setting off at lunchtime on Monday, they arrived in London at 4pm and headed to the hotel to check in and drop their bags off. This was just a short five-minute walk from Kings Cross Station. Once they’d all freshened up, they headed for dinner at Pizza Express before catching the tube across to Leicester Square.
Whilst the girls had visited the city regularly, Jack was quite blown away by the scale of everything, and even by the end of the trip struggled to understand the tube system!
Beginning in Leicester Square, they went for a spot of sightseeing, heading down to Trafalgar Square in their free time before the first show. The students headed down to the Victoria Embankment to see the Kit Kat Club, the purpose-built immersive theatre location of the current production of Cabaret.
Whilst there, they also spotted a film crew recording an action sequence for an undisclosed film. Speculation was wild that it was for the latest Marvel film. They reconvened in the Square and headed to Trafalgar Studios for the production of “Oh, Mary!”. An hilarious farce, the show featured powerhouse performances and great slapstick, with Mason Alexander Park’s Mary Todd Lincoln in drag a particular highlight of this revisionist piece.
After the show, they headed back to the hotel – after stopping off at McDonalds for supper – and headed to bed, before the following early morning. Tuesday morning saw them head to Gail’s Bakery, where they were all blown away by this taste explosion! Following a snack, they headed back to Leicester Square and walked down to Covent Garden for lunch, sightseeing and a bit of retail therapy.
The second show was unfortunately cancelled, due to illness in the cast, so they rearranged their plans and booked some last minute tickets to see The Mousetrap, the longest-running show in the West End. By the interval, Rosalie had managed to work out ‘Whodunnit’, but kept it to herself.
From St Martin’s Theatre, they emerged in torrential rain to walk across the city to Piccadilly Circus for a light bite before our final show of the night. Titanique is an out-and-out farcical musical, parodying the events of the film Titanic.
The show features cameos from a camp iceberg who sings Tina Turner numbers and framed as Celine Dion’s own version of the events – she was there, 84 years ago, you know? The vocals in the performance were phenomenal, and the kids were all blown away by the piece.
They caught the final train home at 10pm, arriving back in Darlington at 1am. Huge thanks to Mr Pepper for his chauffeuring for the group, particularly on such a late return.
