Time for a Baileys?

Hello! I still have to write about my most recent steampunk event i attended in May, but I thought I’d write about my most recent and probably bravest adventure since the covid pandemic started-I went on a day trip to London!

I think it was February that i heard the news that a revival of a Mike Bartlett play was opening in London and my attention was grabbed by one of the main characters would be played by Jonathan Bailey.

Bailey is an up and coming actor who’s recently be touted by Time magazine as one of their ‘Next Generations Leaders’ and is most well know for his part in Netflix/Shondaland Production ‘Bridgerton’ as the Viscount Anthony Bridgerton.

I came across him originally when I watched a Phoebe Waller Bridge comedy called Crashing. It’s a pretty decent comedy about a group of young people who live in an abandoned hospital as property guardians as a cheap way of living. Bailey for me really was the stand out performance, he plays a somewhat vain, cocky and horny character called Sam with bleach blonde hair. The surprising thing is that his character goes through a whole emotional journey which is the heart of the programme.

Interestingly this blurs over into the play Bailey is in, which is called ‘Cock’ at The Ambassadors Theatre in Covent Garden, London .

The thing that tipped over the decision to go was that Taron Egerton would also star (bonus was that the 2 other characters are played by Jade Anouka (His Dark Materials-totally wort following on Instagram too) and Phil Daniels). Sadly Taron pulled out of the play fairly soon into the run.

I went with a twitter friend Laura (who I’ve met a couple times previously) on 28th May 2022 to the Saturday matinee. We went on the train which took less than 1 hour and a half.

The weather is gradually getting warmer so I dressed nice and summery for the trip in a broderie anglaise t-shirt and skirt with a faux suede biker jacket and some Adidas trainers.

When we arrived at Paddington Station, Laura suggested we have a go on the new Jubilee line extension on the London Underground, which literally opened the week before.

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It was very swish and tidy and the trains were so smooth running!

Because we had a few hours before the play we decided to go and have a mooch at Borough Market at London Bridge. This is actually my old stomping ground when I lived in London. The market was really busy, so it was a relief when it was time for brunch and get away from the crowds.

sugar cane!

Guy Tower

We stumbled across a lovely plant based restaurant called Mallow, it was really pretty inside and the staff were very nice. We both ordered vegan burgers-i had buttermilk plant chick’n, cacio e pepe mayo, puttanesca relish, brioche bun, fries!

We then made our way into town via the overground to Charing Cross and a walk up to Covent Garden. We had a nice walk and was pleasantly surprised to see some of my favourite haunts still trading.

Then Cock!

The stage was really minimal, all stainless steel, which had a revolve on the floor, ledge on the backdrop and colour changing fluorescent tubes for lighting. There were no props, changes of clothes or even furniture, everything was left to the imagination.

credit-brinkhoff/mogenburg

The play was brilliant, very funny , acerbic and poignant. Bailey plays the only named character John who is in a long term relation with M (Harper-Jackson) but it’s on the rocks and John breaks up with him. He meets a lady on his commute W (Anouka) and eventually up having sex with her, almost on whim. and falls in love. But he still also loves M. He just can’t decide who to have a future with. The play is a commentary on labels and sexuality. Bailey really lived up to expectations and was brilliant (and weirdly flexible). Joel Harper-Jackson and Jade Anouka were fantastic too. Didn’t think much of Phil Daniels turn though.

After 1 hour and 45 mins of almost non stop laughter (some painful) , it ended very abruptly. The cast got a standing ovation and genuinely looked surprised at the love from the audience.

We waited round a little to at stage door after to see if Bailey might come out as we had some time before our train back to Bristol but alas no 🙂

Was a really lovely day, we walked 11k steps and it was nice to do something fairly normal again.

Thanks for reading!