Last weekend was a very cultural weekend.
To celebrate my little sister’s birthday there were family related outings in Bath.
First up on Saturday afternoon was Austentatious.
Bath is well known as the home of Jane Austen and so there are frequent Austen related events. In honour of Bath Literature Festival the Austentatious improv troop were presenting ‘previously unpublished’ books in the style (very approximately!) of Austen. We the audience gave them the book titles to work from.
It was funny what they came up with, sometimes you were laughing at the performers rather than with them though :s. The bonus laughs came from accidental staging, odd references being explained and at the end a memorable kissing session where the same two actors were in two different trists!
Due to the nature of improv, you never know what you are going to get, but there is a formula to Jane’s life – so naturally, balls, courting, walls and riding horses/carriages came up. I’d recommend seeing Austentatious – they made it to the Edinburgh festival last summer too!
The literature festival started last weekend and goes on til Sunday 8th March.
You can find out more about Austentatious here and Bath Literature Festival here.
We then had a spot of afternoon tea at home, including some vintage cava my parents found under the floor (they are renovating their house – what a great find!)
Then in the evening we headed to the Theatre Royal for the musical fun that is Hairspray:
If you haven’t heard of Hairspray before, it’s set in 60’s Baltimore with all the music and dance to go with it. I had seen the poster and thought it would be lighthearted, but there was also a serious message about segregation in here (America in the sixties).
This version was performed by the Bath Operatic and Dramatic Society – so all amateurs, but still a very professional production! (Even if the odd moment descended into Panto in some of the deliberately amusing scenes!). We caught the last night, so the crowd was full of friends and family and a bit raucous – all the more fun!
See what’s on at the Theatre Royal here, and more about Bath Operatic and Dramatic Society (BODS) here.
We then grabbed an after theatre dinner at Raphael’s literally around the corner. They always do decent food here. I tried smoked duck carpaccio and venison. Steaks are good and the lamb chops also looked amazing and they are open late enough to eat post theatre.
Plenty to do in Bath! (Not the bath…)
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