The Doubtful Guest returns tonight!

Posted by David Ralfe (Marketing & Admin. Assistant, Hoipolloi)

Our autumn tour of The Doubtful Guest opens in Plymouth tonight! The curious creature will then be heading to Southampton, Cambridge, Leeds and Cardiff. Click here for the full tour schedule and box office details, and book tickets soon!

Since joining Hoipolloi in July, I’ve had a great time learning about Edward Gorey, whose book The Doubtful Guest Hoipolloi’s production is based on. Gorey’s biography is a series of curious anecdotes and eccentricities. For those who are new to the blog and my Gorey obsession, let’s have a recap...

Edward Gorey was an American author and illustrator, and he still has a cult following in the States. He produced hundreds of books, all of which exhibit a melancholic wit and a playful sense of the macabre, not unlike Edgar Allan Poe. Gorey’s stories are full of mysterious mishaps. The Gashlycrumb Tinies, for instance, is Gorey’s take on children’s alphabet stories; but in Gorey’s world, “S is for Susan who perished of fits”, whilst “T is for Titus who flew into bits”.

Gorey’s distinctive hand-drawn illustrations take the viewer into a pseudo-Gothic, Victorian world, reminiscent of Tim Burton, who acknowledges Gorey as a huge influence. The eccentric Mr. Gorey was famous for his enormous fur coats and his white plimsolls; his books feature brooding, ominous figures in similar outfits!


The Times called Hoipolloi’s version of The Doubtful Guest “a playful, accomplished piece of nonsense” and The Guardian said it “captures all the Victorian pastiche, fantastical imagination and ominous air of Gorey’s original”.

I've just come back from re-rehearsals in Plymouth and the show looks better than ever! Once again, click here for the full tour schedule. We hope to see lots of you at the theatre over the next few weeks!

And here for good measure is our trailer for the show: