21/05/15 - 'Cuddles' at the Royal Exchange
With so many brilliant productions running back-to-back in the main theatre of the Royal Exchange, it can be easy to forget the 90-seater studio that the venue also offers allowing smaller, often touring, performances an intimate theatre space within the beautiful building. Despite being a regular visitor, I had ashamedly overlooked some of the performances on offer in favour of the larger shows. However, the advertising for Arch 468's Cuddles very much intrigued me and so, with a midweek day off, I ventured into the studio for what turned out to be a truly unique piece of theatre.
12/05/15 - Pitch Perfect 2 and Q+A with Anna Kendrick
No one wins competitions, right? That's what I always thought, so you can imagine my surprise when I ended up winning the opportunity to head down to London for an advance screening of Pitch Perfect 2 with Stylist magazine followed by a Q+A with the film's star Anna Kendrick hosted by comedian Sarah Millican! After a long and laborious coach journey down from Manchester (apparently I get really travel sick - who knew?), we began our time in London with some intense sight-seeing, hitting every landmark possible in a few hours before heading to the swanky Mayfair Hotel for the screening itself. The venue was beautiful - we were greeted for a drinks reception in the Crystal Room which was incredibly impressive and full of excited chatter as the winners mingled and sipped free wine.
08/05/15 - How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran
Caitlin Moran has been making quite a stir recently. From a regular column in The Times, to a career as a bestselling author, to most recently co-writing Channel 4 sitcom Raised by Wolves, her particular brand of candid and unashamed feminism seems to be everywhere and I for one could not be happier. As a big fan of her work, I was therefore very glad to be able to spend a couple of hours in her presence on her recent tour.
04/04/15 - Election! at the People's History Museum
With the UK general election looming at the beginning of May, there has been a lot of talk recently about voting and its relevance or lack thereof. The People's History Museum's latest exhibition is tackling this issue head on and demystifying the political system in the process, which is something incredibly useful regardless of how politically aware you are. Election! Britain Votes is an exhibition of two halves: the left hand side of the room details clearly the voting system, answering questions such as why we vote, moving all the way through to the exact details of forming a government; the right is a timeline covering the history of elections from the start of the twentieth century to the present day. The beauty of such an exhibition and the reason it's so important is that it's a totally unbiased political lesson - the only 'agenda' it pushes is the importance of voting and of democracy.
