Made In England... and Paris and Switzerland and Norway!

Hoipolloi had a wonderful day last week, celebrating St. George's Day with Arts Council England and the BBC. We took part in Made In England, a huge event taking place over many parts of the country.

Hoipolloi led The Full English, which involved a performance in front of Milton Keynes Theatre, a double-decker bus journey to Luton, performances on a commuter train travelling from Luton to St. Pancras and a final performance at St. Pancras itself, alongside a choir of school children singing a 'new national anthem' composed for the day. We then retired to the Betjeman Arms pub for a well-earned afternoon relaxing in the sun!

It was a really interesting project for Hoipolloi to be involved in because we tend to think of ourselves as an international company rather than particularly 'English'! Steffi, who founded the company with Shon Dale-Jones, is from Switzerland; the theatre we make tends to draw more on continental theatrical traditions than British ones - in fact, Shon and Steffi met at the Lecoq school in Paris; and Trond-Erik, one of the five actors in our ensemble, is from Norway!

But as a touring theatre company, we perhaps spend more time than most thinking about where we come from in relation to whichever part of Britain (or the world!) that we're performing, and how we carry our roots around with us wherever we go. This is certainly a common theme in Hugh Hughes' work and something that Hoipolloi all think about a lot.



It was also a chance to celebrate English eccentricity, with the sort of larger-than-life characters that Hoipolloi do best! And it was interesting to hear what Steffi and Trond thought of England and 'the English'. Often it takes an outsider to point out what is peculiarly English! Let's not forget that Oscar Wilde, that great satirist of all things English, was actually from Ireland...

You can click here to see photos from Milton Keynes, click here for photos of the bus journey, click here for photos of the train journey, click here for photos inside St Pancras and click here for a lovely BBC interview with the company. There's some audio stuff on there too!

The Full English

Good evening! Today has certainly been a hectic day. I've been in the office continuing preparations for Story of a Rabbit's USA tour and getting images ready for 360's run at the Edinburgh Fringe. Over in Milton Keynes, the ensemble have been completing final preparations for tomorrow's performance of The Full English.

Speaking of The Full English (just typing that makes me feel hungry!) I think we now have a little more detail for you if you'd like to come and enjoy the show. And there's certainly more information about what's happening over here on the BBC's site.

The day starts in Milton Keynes at around 10am where the performance begins at the Theatre Square. The company will then board a double decker bus over to Luton railway station.

They're due to board a train just after midday and will arrive at London's St Pancras station at approximately 1pm, where the performance ends about an hour later.

This is all delightfully vague but undoubtedly the ensemble will have fun with whoever and wherever they end up performing! Here's what they've been telling the BBC about their plans.

If you're not in MK, Luton or able to get to St Pancras, you'll be able to hear more of what's going on as BBC local radio in Bed, Bucks and Herts and in London will be broadcasting live from the event between those hours.

Tomorrow I'm acting as chauffer for the ensemble's luggage, making sure it is delivered safely from MK into London. I'll attempt a few tweets along the way as, traffic permitting, I hope to make it into St Pancras in time for the show!

Photographing Hugh

Today is going to be a busy day! We have some important meetings in London and then I'm running a photoshoot with Hugh Hughes. Our regular photographer and company friend, Geraint Lewis, will be taking the shots as we try and find an image for Hugh's brand new show, 360.

I'll try and keep our Twitter updated with what's happening and perhaps post some sneaky preview shots there too! Unfortunately the direct feed into the website seems to have collapsed but you can follow us here.

Meanwhile, the ensemble are already one day into their preparations for Thursday's St George's Day celebrations, Made in England.

Made In England

Hoipolloi will be celebrating St. George's Day with the BBC and Arts Council England. If you're on a train coming into London on Thursday, watch out! You might meet one of the colourful, larger-than-life characters Hoipolloi will be creating to let loose on unsuspecting commuters...

Made In England is an artistic adventure, assembled by the BBC and Arts Council England, taking place all over the country on Thursday 23rd April. The project aims to explore England through its people and its art. It’s a contemporary take on our national identity, which will show how England continues to inspire creativity.

Next week, Hoipolloi will be developing ideas for a series of improvised performances taking place on trains and railway platforms between Milton Keynes and St. Pancras. We’re just one of many artists and groups of theatre-makers taking part. The project also encompasses poetry, visual art and music.

Highlights will be broadcast all day on BBC television, radio and websites. And Hoipolloi will be joining in a rendition of a “new national anthem”, developed as part of the project and performed at St. Pancras station to kick start the event!

There’s loads more information here. Don’t forget to tune in or come and say hello in person!

A special announcement for our 100th Post

As luck would have it, our 100th blog post is also a very special annoucement!

Finally, after lots of discussion, Hugh has decided on a title for his brand new show! It was christened in a coffee shop in Melbourne a few weeks back and we’ve made a little video to announce it officially:



The show will receive it’s official world premiere at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. We’ll announce the full details of this gig when the Fringe launches in June but needless to say that anyone who saw Floating and Story of a Rabbit at the Fringe in 2006 and/or 2007, won’t have too far to look to find him!

In the meantime, Hugh will be packing his tent, his wellies and his flask of coffee and heading off to one of the summer’s fastest growing festivals, Latitude. Taking place at Henham Park in Southwold, Suffolk on 17, 18 and 19 July, Hugh has been asked to perform some special previews of the show as part of the Pick of the Pleasance’s mini-season.

To book your tickets for the festival, head here. Last year’s festival sold-out and there’s plenty of other exciting theatrical offerings including performances from our friends over at English Touring Theatre.

Toffee / Truffle / Truculent

A few weeks ago, Hoipolloi released its first ever podcast, with our brand new feature: Stefanie Muellers Word of the Week.

Now, realistically, I think we all knew that we’d be defining “week” pretty loosely; “A word every time we manage to get round to doing it” didn’t have quite the same ring. And in our defence, Steffi’s been touring a show and I had to single-handedly run the company for two weeks whilst my valued senior colleagues abandoned me to go on a jaunt round Australia.

But I know you’ve been waiting with baited breath, so here we go. Stefanie Mueller’s word of this week is...

"Truculent"

Now, as those who listened to our podcast will know, this feature contains not just the real definition of each word but what Steffi (who isn’t a native English speaker) originally thought each word might mean and how she eventually taught herself to remember what they really meant.

(Thus we offer you an insight into the delightfully confuzzled mind of Hoipolloi’s Associate Director.)

I would define “truculent” as meaning “pugnacious”, “belligerent”, “unco-operative” and “difficult”, all rolled into one. When Steffi first heard the word “truculent” she didn’t recognise it but it reminded her of “truffle” and by association “toffee”, which made her think of eating something that sticks your teeth together and is difficult to chew. (Cross-reference: every schoolboy’s favourite not-quite-a-pun, “masticate”.)

So imagine her delight when she learnt the real meaning of “truculent”, which in many ways is like an unco-operative lump of toffee, refusing to be chewed. Trying to talk whilst chewing toffee even makes you sound like you’re moaning and groaning and arguing and being “truculent”!

So, voila! Another vocabulary-expanding look inside the brain of Stefanie Mueller. I’ll bring you another word of the week soon... ie. when I manage to get round to it.

Thanks to Lilthorner for the photo!

A talk with AmbITion

Today I'm talking at an AmbITion event in Manchester. And that's Manchester, UK not a similarly-named town here in Tasmania. And yet, I don't actually start my journey back to England until tomorrow!

How am I doing it? I'm doing the presentation via a YouTube video! All this means I don't need to get nervous as it's all pre-prepared and all they have to do back in the UK is hit play! This is definitely the kind of presentation I could get used to!

If you're at the event in Manchester, I hope you're having a fantastic day and sorry I can't be with you. If watching the video raises any further questions that I don't appear to answer, feel free to email me and I'll do my best to help out.

The video follows our journey from Launceston in the north of Tasmania, back down to Hobart here in the south. If you find what I'm saying at all boring, feel free to turn the sound off and just watch the stunning scenery in the background!

Enjoy!

A trip to Beaumaris

Our trip to Tasmania has proved to be full of connections back to Anglesey, Wales and the UK.

Here are just a few of the places we've visited or passed through since we arrived: Brighton, Kettering, Launceston, Tamar, Swansea, Melton Mowbray, Richmond, Ross.

If my commute to work in the UK from South London up to Cambridge took place in Tasmania, it would take no time at all as Lewisham and Cambridge here are conveniently located just a few miles from each other.

And next to our hotel here in Hobart we've found St David's Park; St David's Cathedral is only just round the corner.

As we undertook our epic drive down the east coast, we happened to pass through the town of Beaumaris, which you'll also find in Anglesey, so Hugh and Sioned made this very brief video.