Just as you're apt to run into someone from Great Britain during a day out around Southern California -- we're home to one of the largest British ex-pat populations anywhere -- you're apt to run into people who know Los Angeles like a local while visiting London.
It's symbiotic, it's twin-cities-ish, and it makes sense that each and every spring BritWeek opens here with a flourish, with pomp, and with some properly made and heated tea.
Make that a lot of tea. The Great British Afternoon Tea-Off, where the public can vote for "their favorite tea establishment," is one of the main goings-on during BritWeek (which, by the by, is not so much a week but a fortnight).
The dates for both the Tea-Off, and BritWeek itself, are Monday, April 21 through Sunday, May 4.
So what else is on the doily-bedecked table for the annual celebration of "creativity and innovation between the UK & US"? Plenty. Astronomer Richard Ellis will speak at Griffith Observatory on April 21 on "Finding the Earliest Galaxies." It's ticketed, note, so reserve, star watchers.
Nineteen thespians will take on the words of Shakespeare, over one night, in Santa Monica, in honor of the Bard's 450th birthday (Jane Seymour and Malcolm McDowell, we see you on the list).
And art and hobnobbing to-dos round out the run.
The Scene
Want to find new things to do in Los Angeles? The Scene's lifestyle stories have you covered. Here's your go-to source on where the fun is across SoCal and for the weekend.
But, really, you should get on that tea vote-off, if you are indeed sweet on your afternoon cuppa. And, nope, BritWeek's table isn't strictly covered in doilies; there's just one, under a symbolic teapot. Rather, BritWeek boasts a diverse spread of delights, a buffet that accurately reflects the creative relationship between SoCal and the UK.
Still, shouldn't it be BritFortnight? BritWeekers, no pressure. We raise a pot of Tetley's your way.
