It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Posted by Simon Bedford (Marketing & Touring Manager, Hoipolloi)

I'm almost there. It's my last day of work for 2008 and I've reached the last few tasks on the to-do list. Phew!

It's been an incredibly busy year and now I'm totally looking forward to my two-week holiday. I fly off to New York on Monday - bizarrely its my third trip there this year - and the first where I won't be doing any form of work whatsoever!

Anyway, rather than bore you with the details of my Christmas plans, I thought I'd take this opportunity to look back at Hoipolloi's year...

It's incredible to think of everything we've achieved this year. One full new production, two further productions touring, two productions in development, and simultaneous performances in both the UK and Colombia!

So, here in photos and videos is Hoipolloi: 2008!

The first part of the year was dedicated to creating The Doubtful Guest. The creature itself ran wild around the Barbican Estate:


Before coming alive on stage for its first performance at Watford Palace Theatre where Lyn Gardner of the Guardian proclaimed the show was a:

"piece of visual theatre that captures all the Victorian pastiche, fantastical imagination and ominous air of Gorey's original"


And as soon as the show was on its feet, it was time for Hugh, Aled (and myself) to fly off to Bogota, Colombia with Story of a Rabbit for the XI Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro:


My favourite memory of this trip was being ambushed by the South American press in the hotel lobby!

Back in the UK, Story of a Rabbit went touring around the UK. Here's Hugh being interviewed on the radio whilst in Brighton:



And not content with the simple life, Hugh dashed off in the middle of the tour for some performances of Floating in Moscow.

But he was back in time for a two-week run of the show at London's Barbican Centre:


Once that was over, it was time for me to say goodbye to one intern and welcome another!

For the past two years, August has been a crazily busy month spent in Edinburgh for the Fringe. But this year we took it easy and instead popped over to Finland for a short run at the Helsinki Festival:



The autumn saw the Bishop's and their Doubtful Guest back on the road:



The tour started with our co-producing partners at the Theatre Royal Plymouth and reached Leeds' West Yorkshire Playhouse in time for Halloween:


Finally, the year ended with Hugh and his friends at the National Theatre Studio where they've been busy preparing a potential new show called Invisible Town:



Thank you again to everyone who's seen a show, read the blog, watched a video or commented on the wall of our Facebook groups.

So, it's time for me to officially sign-off for the year. We'll be back in January and can definitely guarantee that 2009 will be even more exciting than this! Best of all, we'll be reporting all of it right here on the blog. Come join us...