A Message From Hugh Hughes

Hello! I hope you enjoyed Saint David’s Day yesterday. Or the day of Dewi Sant, as we call him in Wales.

A big part of my shows is about meeting people and making connections with them. If you’ve seen one of my shows, maybe Hugh Hughes in...Floating or Hugh Hughes in...360, you’ll know that I like to get the audience involved a little bit. I like us all to have a nice time together. We are sharing a space together, after all, and we might as well enjoy our time together, in that space, together.

The purpose of this blog post here is for me to invite you to come and share some time and space with me again. Or maybe even for the first time. You never know, it might just put a spring in your step.

If you’ve seen one of my shows before, you might like to know that I’m performing all three of them in March and May this year. So you could come and see one that you haven’t seen yet, perhaps, or remind yourself of one that you have seen. If you enjoyed it and you know someone else who might like it too, why not bring them along and introduce us all to each other?

All of my shows are being performed under the title The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes, which you can find out about on my new website here: www.hughhughes.me/wonderful-world-of-hugh-hughes.

Let me tell you the important bit here though:


15 –19 March at the Drum Theatre in Plymouth (tickets on 01752 267 222 or here)
22 – 26 March at The Junction in Cambridge (tickets on 01223 511 511 here)
17 – 21 May at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds (tickets on 0113 213 7700 or here)

Sometimes people contact me through my website saying ‘Hugh, I really wish I’d brought my sister/brother/friend/mum/dad along to see your show, I think he/she would have really loved it, but we’ve missed our chance now’.

Well, you still have the chance to make sure your sister/brother/friend/mum/dad does see the show!

I’d love to see you in Plymouth, Cambridge or Leeds – so why not come and see me, and bring a friend along!

Best wishes,
Hugh x

Visit Hugh's brand new website

To celebrate his arrival in London, Hugh has launched his own brand new website and he'd love to share it with you. It can be found at www.hughhughes.me

Thank you to everyone who's paid a visit to the site so far, we're really excited that we've been able to work with Hugh to create it. Over time, it'll become both a vast archive of the Hugh's journey as an emerging artist and also a place for a whole host of new content for you to enjoy.

It's been a busy month, hence the lack of posting here since the 13 August!

The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes has opened at London's Barbican Centre to great critical acclaim and we've had the very first screening of Hugh's brand new film - How I Got Here.

Here's some of what the press has been saying:

"If there's a friendlier, more engaging character in contemporary British theatre than Hughes, I've yet to meet him"
The Times (reviewing 360)

"An infectious enthusiasm that radiates warmth like a homely coal fire."
The Stage (reviewing The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes)

"Just the tonic for the cynicism and drudgery of London"
Time Out, Show of the Week (4stars)

Don't forget that the shows run at the Barbican until Saturday 2 October and then move on to the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh (5 to 9 Oct) and the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival (12 to 17 Oct).

And also, if you're in Cambridge this Sunday (19 Sept, 6pm, Cambridge Arts Picturehouse), Hugh will be introducing a screening of How I Got Here as part of Cambridge Film Festival. This will be a special moment as it's the first time that Hugh's work has been included in a non-theatre festival.

And to celebrate that fact, he's an exclusive clip from the film...

A very big Hugh Hughes announcement

I've some big exciting news to announce but before I do, I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who contacted me last week regarding our research into your experiences of seeing Hugh's shows.

I hadn't quite expected so many of you to be in touch! I hope I've replied to everyone's emails by now - it was exciting to speak to those of you who I had time to call and to all of the others, I hope to be in touch again in the coming months.

And now to the big announcement!

Hugh Hughes is returning to London's Barbican Centre. And this time he's not just bringing Floating, Story of a Rabbit OR 360. He's bringing ALL three!

Louise Jeffreys, the Barbican's Head of Theatre, has been a great supporter of Hugh's work since his first Edinburgh run in 2006 and last year, she offered The Pit to Hugh for the whole of September. He's decided to create a residency project, bringing Floating, Story of a Rabbit and 360 together and call it...

The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes

The residency, whic has been co-commissioned by the Barbican will contain all three shows, which you'll either be able to see individually during the week or in one big tasty gulp on Saturdays.

And that's not all!

Every Thursday evening, as an juicy treat following performances of 360 you'll be able to enjoy a special additional extra. This includes a visit with Hugh around the John Bock exhibition, the opportunity to enter Hugh's development space with Stories from an Invisible Town and finally a brand new documentary film called Hugh Hughes: How I Got Here.

And that's still not all!

In September, we'll be launching the Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes online. A brand new site that will provide an digital fabularium of content created by Hugh. This ranges from diary entries from the past few years, sneaky peaks backstage or just random ideas that have come into Hugh's head.

This is what Hugh has to say:
"It's really exciting to have this opportunity to share my stories with you. Come and join me. Share the fun. It might put a spring in your step."

Now that I've whetted your appetite, here's the science bit.

Performances take place from Wednesday 8 September until Saturday 2 October. The schedule is as follows:

Floating: 14, 21, 28 Sept at 7.45pm (Tuesdays during the run)
Story of a Rabbit: 15, 22, 29 Sept at 7.45pm (Wednesdays during the run)
360: 8, 9, 16, 23, 30 Sept at 7.45pm (Thursdays during the run plus one extra Wednesday!)
Full trilogy: 11, 18, 25 Sept & 2 Oct from 2pm (Saturdays during the run)

Tickets cost £15 each or £33 to see all three shows on Saturdays and are available from the Barbican.

Fear not if you don't live in London or can't make the trip there. We'll be announcing two further residencies in major cities in Scotland and the Republic of Ireland in the next month (that's s big a hint as to where we might be heading as I'm currently allowed to give!).

I'm really excited that we've been able to work with Hugh to make this all work. We'll be drip-feeding through more and more information over the next couple of months as there's plenty on offer to all of our audiences, wherever in the world you happen to be based, over the next few years.

See you in London!

Posted by Simon Bedford (Producer, Hoipolloi)

An amazing weekend / Now we need your help

Wow, what an amazing weekend that was (obviously ignoring the football result!). I hope you had as much fun as I did. The weather was glorious and I took my very first trip to Anglesey to meet up with Hugh Hughes and see his homeland.

Before I talk more about the weekend, I should first explain that now Marieke has left us, I (as in Simon, Hoipolloi's Producer) will be the main voice on here for the next few weeks whilst I await the arrival of Marieke's replacements.

Anyway, back to my travels...

It's strange that since I first joined Hoipolloi in 2005, I've spent most of that time talking about Anglesey and yet I had never actually once visited the place. But this weekend that all changed and I had a special guided tour of all the places that had previously only existed in my imagination.

I crossed the now fully reconstructed Menai Bridge (after it's collapse in Floating), I went to Llangefni and saw the house that Hugh grew up in and the church where Hugh's father died (as described in Story of a Rabbit). Perhaps most excitingly, particularly for 360 fans, I also saw the river where Hugh and Gareth built their dams (as pictured here).

It was a delight to see these places and have them leap into reality, suddenly become vividly alive in my mind. It's deepened my connection to the shows and brought the world of Hugh even closer.

And now we need your help to discover our audience's experiences of the work of Hugh Hughes.

This weekend has been just one of many exciting experiences of Hugh Hughes over the past five years. And now we'd like to understand more about your experiences of Hugh.

We're currently conducting some research into our audiences and are looking for some volunteers who might be willing to offer us up to about 30mins of time to chat about what they think of Hugh Hughes and their experiences of seeing his work.

You'll need to be:

• It's last minute but you'll need to be available for a 30min conversation (probably by phone) at some point between today and this Thursday (1 July).
  
• Have seen at least one (but preferably more) of Hugh Hughes' shows - Floating, Story of a Rabbit, 360 (or indeed in development projects such as Invisible Town or In Rehearsal).

If you're interested in helping us out, please email your contact details, including a phone number, to me via this address simonb@hoipolloi.org.uk.

As I'm looking for a real cross-section of people, it would be great if you could include your age (or I'll also accept a rough age bracket if you'd prefer!).

Not quite sure how the response to this request will go but I promise I'll respond to everyone who emails in to let them know whether we'll need to talk to them or not.

I look forward to hopefully talking to some of you very soon!

Posted by Simon Bedford (Producer, Hoipolloi)

Phantom/Love

First things first, a huge thank you to everyone who came to see 360 in either Oxford or Liverpool. We really hope you enjoyed the show. If you did, you may want to check out our Get A Little Closer page on our website. It will tell you how you can, well, get a little closer, and get in contact via a variety of glorious means. We hope to hear from you!

Over here in the office Simon has opened my eyes to something glorious. He has taught me so much over these past few months, but I think this has to be the greatest gift yet: The West End Whingers. Click the link for unbelievable amounts of joy. I laughed so much I had real tear droplets tumbling down my face. Their reviews of shows are utterly brilliant. My particular favourite is the review of Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest creation, Love Never Dies. I have yet to see the show, but am most intrigued by the extraordinary range of reviews the show has had. So, especially for your enjoyment, and to help with a potential 'should I or should I not book tickets for Love Never Dies' quandry, here is a medly of some of the best bits from the reviews I have read.

First, and possibly most crucially, here is what the West End Whingers had to say...

On the title: "what does it mean? Nothing. Of course love dies. Of course it does. What bollocks."

On the lighting: "It was a bit gloomy. So was the next scene and the one after that. In fact the whole thing was gloomy. Andrew’s advice to people with contact lenses: take eye-drops and a high beam torch."

On the end of act one: "the climax at the end of act one involves Madame Giry throwing a jacket down a stair well. As climaxes go, it’s not really up there"

On the casting: "what a shameful waste of talent"

On a more fitting alternative title: 'Paint Never Dries'


Michael Billington of The Guardian gave the show three stars in his review and on the whole was really quite positive, but not in an 'Omygod you have to see this show or you will be missing out on something totally epic and amazing' way. More in a 'yeah, it's quite good, probably worth seeing, but don't sell a vital organ in order to get hold of a ticket' way. His most quote-worthy comments were probably: "From my distant seat in row O, the performances seemed fine" (not fantastic then). According to Mr Billington the show's main problem...
"What the show lacks, in a nutshell, is narrative tension. For Christine, having discovered her employer's true identity, the big question is "to sing or not to sing?". Hmm, doesn't sound terribly nail-biting to me. I'm also guessing, since it's a musical, she probably does end up singing.

Benedict Nightingale at The Times only gave the show two stars and seemed rather miffed that it was not the original show. I hate to break it to you Benedict, but the point of a sequel is that it is similar but not identical to the first one, something you clearly have yet to grasp:"this Phantom is not the phantom we knew. The “poisoned gargoyle who burns in hell” has clearly taken an anger management course in New York...Where’s the menace, the horror, the psychological darkness?"

Over at The Telegraph Charles Spencer awarded Love Never Dies a very respectable four stars. Although he "attended Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long-awaited sequel to his world-conquering Phantom of the Opera with a degree of trepidation." He seemed to like it, and summed things up as follows:"The show may ultimately prove too strange, too dark, too tormented to become a massive popular hit, but I suspect its creepy allure will linger potently in the memory when frothier shows have been long forgotten. "

Now over to members of the great general public, who we can count on for their honest opinions. The comments on whatsonstage.com include the following:

"this pointless waste of money and time"

"Fantastic - enough said! ALW's best ever"

"Tedious"

"Well, it's NOT phantom. It's Phantom meets Vaudeville, but in a bad sort of way"

"Not quite sure what show all these other reviewers went to see but it can't have been Love Never Dies. ...Have seen it twice already and would go again tomorrow!"


So, there you have it folks. I hope that has provided you with at either enlightenment or entertainment, ideally both of course. If you do go and see the show I would love to hear your thoughts.



Thanks to kimba for the photo

Oh the mystery!

Secret agent Marieke here, working on a top secret, high profile mission, assigned by mastermind spy and not so evil genius, Simon Bedford. I have never been terribly good at keeping secrets, which is why you are getting some sneaky hints now, but I will have to keep schtum about the finer details for the time being. Rest assured the cat will come out of the bag before too long.

Anyway the secret project is seriously exciting. More exciting than the fact that we've recently won a gold medal at the winter Olympics. Now if you read last week's post you will understand that I am a ludicrously keen bean when it comes to winter sports (a strange combination of passions I know, skiing + theatre, but maybe linked in some quirky way...? Discuss.) so this should give you at least some idea of how brilliant the secret project is.

Clues: 1. I'm going to be searching through some Hoipolloi archive material over the next few days. 2. Hugh is involved. 3. If you're based in Cambridge, then make sue you keep a bit of space during the tail end of May free in your diaries (i.e. don't go on a month long cruise around the Bahamas or something like that. Stay here. You will not regret it). 4. If you're based in London, or nearby, or not but would like to visit London, then my magical mystical crystal ball says you shouldn't go away for an extended period of time in September (so that trekking holiday in Peru you had planned - cancel it).

Keep your eyes and ears open and keeping reading the blog as more information will be leaked soon.

In the meantime, whatever you do, don't forget that Hugh is hitting the road again next week and he would love to see you in either Oxford (3 March) or Liverpool (4 to 6 March).

Posted by Marieke Audsley (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi)

Thanks to laurakgibbs for the photo

Three cheers for 360

The winter olympics are in full swing and Hugh is approaching his next tour of 360 faster than you can say 'short track speed skating', although probably not as fast as the snowboarders travelling down the boarder cross track, or the bobsleighs, because that would be ridiculous.

Anyway, March is looking very close and we think visiting Oxford and Liverpool is as exciting as the Giant Slalom (now I'm a seriously big skiing enthusiast so that really is very exciting indeed). Plus the chance you'll enjoy the show is as great as the chance that the figure skaters will be wearing sparkly lycra and too much make up (extremely high).

Now in case you haven't got your mittens on a ticket yet, and still need convincing, here is a trailer to whet your appetite...



Convinced? No? Then perhaps this will sway you...



Still not gone to book via the websites of Oxford Playhouse or Everyman in Liverpool to book? Watch this and maybe you'll change your mind...



I can even hear the curling team in Vancouver shout 'say hello to Hugh for us'. Now if that isn't a reason to see 360, then I don't know what is.

Hello 2010!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had wonderfully indulgent Christmases with plenty of food and prezzies, snow, carols, decorations and other lovely things, plus brilliant New Year celebrations including bubbly and countdowns and Auld Lang Syne. But alas all good things must come to an end (at least for another 365 days) and 'real life' is back. Of course it's not all terrible and here at Hoipolloi we have many exciting things on the cards. Most excitingly...Sydney. Hugh will be in there performing 360 at the festival. So if you're in Sydney,do go along. If you're not, but you need a holiday, then you should go too. Click here for more info.

As much as I would love to go along for the ride, muggins here will be remaining in Cambridge for the foreseeable future. Aside from freezing my face and fingers on my bike as I cycle around the city in my shiny new shoes, and attempting to stick to my probably un-stickable-to-resolutions, I'll be preparing things for Hugh's trip to Oxford and Liverpool in March. So if you can't make it to Sydney, but you still want to see 360, then here's your chance.

Thanks to Geraint Lewis for the picture of Hugh

And a partridge in a pear tree!

Finally, we've made it to the end of the week and the end of the year! A huge thank you to everyone who's seen a Hoipolloi show this year. And if you've missed anything, you can read about it in part one, part two, part three and part four!

OCTOBER

October was the changing rooms month when we switched everything around in the office. This involved some fun day trips, including one to the dump. It was here that Simon and I rescued the following books from the paper recycling bin: Sebastian Faulks' Charlotte Gray; Industry and Empire by E.J. Hobsbawn; The Path to Genocide by Christopher R. Browning; Safe Outback Travel by Jack Absalom and The Holocaust in History by Michael R. Marrus.

NOVEMBER

Hugh toured Story of a Rabbit with Aled, and learnt to tweet. I’ve never seen anyone throw themselves into twitter with such enthusiasm. Do check out our twitter stream for Hugh’s wonderful musings.

While Hugh was obsessed with twitter, my attention was focused on Cate Blanchett’s dress and my appetite was mainly keen on cake.

Oh, and the reason I mentioned Cate Blanchett's dress was because we won another award! Floating picked up Best Live Theatre from Australia's The Age paper.

DECEMBER

The best thing to have happened so far this month has to have to been the announcement that 360 will be touring in the New Year – Sydney, Oxford and Liverpool, prepare yourselves!

If you haven't seen it already, we've prepared this little trailer for the show!




As well as getting everything sorted for the tour, Simon and I were involved in the 24 Hour Plays at the ADC, which was a lot of fun indeed. And Simon's spent several occasions this year telling our arts world colleagues about we keep up communcation with you guys via the internet.
As you can see it’s been a great year for Hoipolloi and we’d like to thank you all for reading the blog, seeing the shows, sending us emails and generally being fantastic.

And to sing out the year in good cheer, and in the absence of the Hoipolloi staff doing so, here are the muppets (with the help of John Denver) to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!





Posted by Marieke Audsley (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi). Thanks to G-hat for the photo.

Two turtle doves...

There's an obvious focus to today's part of our review of the year... the ridiculously busy month of August plus we manage to squeeze in September too! If you've missed any of the earlier posts, here you can find part one, part two and part three.

AUGUST

Literally masses of fun things happened while we were in Edinburgh.

We had some sell-out performances, some excellent reviews, one really not so good review, The Doubtful Guest was nominated for a Total Theatre Award, 360 won a Three Weeks Editor’s Award, Shon featured in a HUGE interview in The Scotsman and we all saw lots of excellent shows.

Definitely worth a mention is My Name is Sue, which all of the Hoipolloi team saw and enjoyed. Although David definitely deserves the title ‘most obsessed My Name is Sue fan’. I lost count of how many times he went to see it.

It would take yonks to give you a blow by blow account of everything that happened in Edinburgh, so in neat, bullet point form, here is a list of the top anecdotes from the street team:

* One day in the Courtyard I was proposed to by a man. He asked whether I’d marry him if he bought tickets to see ‘360’. I said ‘of course’, willing to do almost anything to make people see 360. The man then produced two tickets, which he had bought earlier. So I guess I’m engaged then.

* Chris flyered someone who seemed quite interested but then said, "Oh, the time doesn't quite work for me. I've got badminton at six."

* A very inebriated punter wandered into the Pleasance Two dressing room, helped himself to NIE's costume rack and came out holding a megaphone and wearing a Russian policeman's hat and a pair of fluffy knickers.

* Chris got picked out of the audience during a show and found himself doing press-ups on stage, with Denise Van Outen standing over him singing 'Let's Get Physical'.

* A friend of David’s drunkenly pointed her finger into a woman's face and shouts, "You're Gillian McKeith!" It is not Gillian McKeith. It is a not-very-famous actress who is extremely offended that my friend didn't know who she was. Actress shouts as David’s friend. Five minutes later, actress goes back to shout at her some more. Five minutes after that we send someone to ask if she knows any good recipes for lentil soup.

* David flyers a couple who seem really interested in the show. "Where is it?", they ask. "Pleasance Two!", David exclaimed and pointed rather over-excitedly behind him, poking a man directly in the face. It was Simon Amstell.

* David flyers a man with two sons. Conversation as follows:

Father: Sounds interesting. Is it suitable for these two?
David: Yes, absolutely.
Father: So there's no tits or fannies in it?
David: Um... no. It's not really that kind of show.
Father: Oh, OK. Because I have two thirteen year old boys with me, so if you'd said there were tits and fannies in it, they'd have probably become a lot more enthusiastic. It sounds good though, maybe we'll come along.
David: Great, see you there.
Son 1: Dad, when are we meeting Mum and the knobs?
Father: They're not 'knobs', they're your younger siblings.

And if all that weren't enough, here's a fantastic little snippet of Hugh Hughes' pre-show warm-up routine...




SEPTEMBER

September saw the first ever ‘What’s in a Name?’ award for the best show titles listed on the CVs of actors who have sent their details to us at Hoipolloi.

The nominees were:

* Daisy and the washing up gloves
* The Christmas Chimney Pot Plot
* This is a Chair
* Incest and plastic surgery
* Captain Cholesterol and the Grannies from Mars
* Princess Plimsole
* Seasonal Sauce
* Cowardly Custard
* Quidditch Adventure
* Wot No Condoms!
* The Uggs
* Orgasm: the musical
* Scandalous! The musical
* The Lazy Ant
* Mission Possible
* The Pumpkin Eater.

Posted by Marieke Audsley (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi). Thanks to paparutzi for the photo

Three French Hens...

We're really storming through the year now! If you've just arrived at the party, we're reviewing the year and here you can find part one and part two.

JUNE

Hugh and Aled returned to the UK after their American tour. It was officially a smash hit with more lovely comments: one review, on the Charleston City Paper's Spoleto Buzz Blog, began with these words:"Hugh Hughes made me cry. It's a good thing".

The same blog also named Story of a Rabbit the best show at the festival, calling it "pitch-perfect theater". The Lantern said: "some in the audience were left with tears in their eyes, while others had smiles on their faces". The best comment though has to be in a review in the Charleston SC newspaper which urged people to go and see Story of a Rabbit with a wonderfully Hugh-ish call to arms: "embrace it, and remember that Life IS spectacular!"

Not quite everyone agreed though, and critic Tim Page got a bit of an ear-bashing from audience members who disagreed with his not so charming review of the show!

When one tour ends, there’s always the risk that there will be an empty hole left, and a sad cry for more performances. Fortunately June wasn’t just the end of the USA tour but also the month when it was announced that Hoipolloi would be taking not one, but TWO shows to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This is one of my favourite of David’s blogs, mainly because of the insanely cute picture of a cat in a bag.

As if things couldn’t get more exciting than the Edinburgh announcement and the cat photo, June also revealed that The Scotsman listed both The Doubtful Guest and 360 in its Top 100 shows to see at the Fringe feature.

JULY

Of course July was mainly focused on gearing up for Edinburgh, but one of the fold, Ben Frimston, was busy being a television star… Ben has performed in Hoipolloi’s last five ensemble shows, but somehow managed to find time to appear in a Rowntree’s Randoms advert.



And if that video wasn't enough, David made his video debut with Simon as they selected the winners of our little competition for Edinburgh tickets...



Other highlights of the month included the arrival of the 360 badges and Hugh’s performance at Latitude.

Posted by Marieke Audsley (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi). Thanks to LizJones112 for the photo

Five Gold Rings...

Welcome to the Hoipolloi Advent Blog! It is the final week in the office before we all take a break to enjoy the delights of Christmas and New Year so we thought we should do something special.

Instead of five gold rings, you get five blog posts this week. Lucky you! As it is the end of the year I thought it would be fitting to do a nice little round up of 2009. Of course I only joined the team in August, so I have trawled through all of David’s posts from January to July in order to get the low down on all of the exciting things that happened before I rocked up. So this is in effect, the Hoipolloi blog 2009 ‘digested’; if you didn’t get a chance to follow the whole thing this year, then do not despair, the key events will be reported right here...

JANUARY

Hugh was a busy bee performing The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes at The Junction in Cambridge. We are big fans of The Junction here at Hoipolloi and we can highly recommend Gomito’s Christmas show, A Merry Little Christmas, which is being performed there at the mo.

Hugh also performed sneak previews of his new show Invisible Town at the Barbican in London. As I wasn’t there I’m afraid I can’t fill you in on the intimate details of the performance. Although I will take this opportunity to say how much I enjoy following the yellow line which takes you from the tube station to the Barbican. It always makes me feel a little bit like Dorothy following the yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz.

FEBRUARY

February was a month of great adventures with Hugh, Aled and Sioned flying to Singapore, where Hugh and Aled performed Story of a Rabbit at the National Museum. Meanwhile, back in Blighty, Shon starred in a Radio 4 documentary about limericks. The show was put together by the performance poet John Hegley. John introduced Shon with the following lovely lines...

Shon Dale-Jones
Who write and directs and who hones
Works for the stage
Which inform and engage
And his company Hoipolloi have used some of Edward lear's limericks in the creation of a biographical drama.

MARCH

More exciting travels for the gang, with performances across Australia, including Floating at the incredible Sydney Opera House. At the same time, we revived the classic My Uncle Arly in London and Los Angeles and ended up with a time where both shows were on stage at exactly the same time!

When Hugh and the crew zipped over to Melbourne they experienced an earthquake during the tech rehearsal of Floating. Luckily it was only a little one, lasting for about thirty seconds but poor Tom was caught up on a rickety balcony at the time.

To round things off, here's a video of Hugh Hughes' day trip to Anglesea (that's the one near Melbourne, Australia and not Hugh's homeland in Wales!). We'll see you back here tomorrow for the next installment...

Posted by Marieke Audsley (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi). Thanks to Jerry 7171 for the photo

New UK dates for 360

Just a quick blog post from a dark and wet Wednesday evening in Cambridge!

I will leave Marieke to do a far more interesting post on Friday when she's back in the office but for today, I wanted to let you know that we've just announced some further touring for Hugh Hughes in... 360.

In addition to a return to Australia to perform at the Sydney Festival (performances from 22 to 30 January 2010), we'll also be doing shows back in the UK in early March with a return to both Oxford Playhouse (3 March) and the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool (4 to 6 March).

We haven't had a chance to update the main website with these new dates but full details can be found either by clicking the individual links above or they're posted at the top of the right-hand bar of this blog.

Ok, sales message over. You can get back to your normal routine!

Posted by Simon Bedford (Producer, Hoipolloi)

Neon, brains and cake

I was most intrigued by Hugh’s recent ‘tweet’ about fluorescent clothing sales. In fact I thought I might be able to work this trend in with my ‘bed-linen chic’ collection. Sadly my trawling through news websites didn’t offer many neon revelations, although I did stumble across something else fascinating. Now I know I’ve been guilty of straying away from topic recently, taking what is essentially a theatre blog into the realms of fashion and gastronomy, however I am going to remedy this immediately with some very relevant news regarding what happens to an actor’s brain when they play a role. It’s fascinating stuff I promise...

Fiona Shaw recently had an MRI scan to assist with some brain research in London. This was very brave of Fiona. I had an MRI scan recently and can tell you that it is not at all pleasant. You get strapped down so that you can’t move and then shoved into a big tube which makes strange noises. Terrifying. Although you do get a picture of your brain at the end, which is rather exciting.

While Fiona was having her scan she recited some lines from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Personally I would’ve gone for a splash of Spike Milligan to keep my sprits up while stuck in the scary tube, but hey, each to their own. The results of the scan showed a few things. Firstly, that Fiona used more areas of the brain when reciting poetry than when counting. Good. Also, that she used the part of the brain called the ‘infra parietal sulkus’ . To me this sounds like the name of a dinosaur, but what do I know about brains? Or dinosaurs for that matter. Anyway, Wikipedia tells me that the ‘infra parietal sulkus’ is associated with memory, analysis and doing a complex transformation of a visual image. Interestingly, when they are acting, actors use a part of the brain to create a voice which is different to the part of the brain we usually use when we speak. So that’s what happens inside an actor’s brain when they’re on stage! Aren’t you glad that’s been cleared up?

The results of the experiment and other similar ones will be displayed in an exhibition on identity at the Wellcome trust. If you haven’t already been, the Wellcome Collection is WELL worth a visit. (Please excuse the horrendous joke. I just couldn’t help myself). It is a fascinating place and the cafe there is fantastic. In fact I’m going to take this moment for a bit of cake news (now a regular item on the blog): the Wellcome cafe has some of the most gorgeous cupcakes your eyes and taste buds may ever have the pleasure of enjoying.

Righty – o, from brains and cake back to our very own Hugh Hughes:

You can see him. Tonight! He is performing the marvellous ‘360’ at the Drum Theatre in Plymouth until November 28th.

Don’t forget that he’s also going to be in Sydney in the New Year. Last time he visited tickets were snapped up like hot cakes (cough, wink, cough) so make sure you visit http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/ to grab yours in good time.

One final note before I depart for now... I am delighted to share the news that Hugh will be performing 360 at the Oxford Playhouse on March 3rd 2010. Although my heart lies with Cambridge, Oxford is pretty lovely too. Why don’t you book yourself a ticket and make a fun trip to Oxford for some punting and a wander around the Ashmolean or Magdalene College’s deer park? You can’t beat a bit of fresh air and spot of deer spying now can you?

Thanks to My Name is Rom for this fab brain picture

Hugh learns to Tweet and is off down under... again!

With Story of a Rabbit out on tour, there's plenty going on at the moment. And we have lots of exciting news to report as well!

First up, for those of you who follow us on Twitter, you'll have noticed that in the last 24hours a brand new voice has been joining in the conversation, our very own Hugh Hughes.

Now that he's the (very) proud owner of an iPhone (other phones are available), I've taught Hugh how it all works and he spent his journey up to Edinburgh today sharing his thoughts on the world around him.

As there will now be multiple voices sharing the Hoipolloi account, we'll try and reduce confusion by signing off each tweet with who we are! Hugh's been busy doing that today and from now onwards, I'll be adding 'SB' to the end of my tweets so you can tell whose voice is whose!

I've also taught Hugh the simplicity of audioboo and he's promised to make a least one boo during his time at the Traverse this week. I'll repost it here when he does.

Which reminds me to plug this week's performances of Story of a Rabbit. Hugh and Aled are at the Traverse from tonight (11th) until Saturday (14 Nov). Tickets can be booked by calling 0131 228 1404 or via their website.

Perhaps our most exciting news is that Hugh will be returning to Australia to perform 360 as part of the presitigous Sydney Festival from 22 to 30 January 2010.

A copy of the brochure landed in the office this morning and we'll be joined by some illustrious company from the UK... Edinburgh Comedy Award-winner Tim Key, Isy Suttie (from Peep Show), a charming family show from Oxford Playhouse and Rupert Goold's acclaimed Six Characters in Search of an Author.

I've heard via Twitter that tickets are already flying out the door for Hugh's limited season (just 8 perfs) so if you're in Sydney or know someone there who should go, get them to the box office swiftly!

Details of how to book and the full festival programme can be found by clicking here.

And my final plea, if you've been to see Story of a Rabbit, why not share your thoughts by commenting here on the blog, visiting our Facebook groups (Hoipolloi or Hugh Hughes) or via the delights of a tweet. Thank you!

Posted by Simon Bedford (Producer, Hoipolloi)

Selling Out, Adding In

Things are about to get spectacularly busy here at Hoipolloi. Hugh will be commencing his latest Story of a Rabbit UK tour next Monday and there's plenty of other activity to report on too!

We mentioned back in September about our forthcoming Master Class at The Junction, here in Cambridge, on Sat 12 December. This has now officially SOLD OUT! Thank you to everyone who's booked themselves in.

However, don't be too disappointed if you intended to book but didn't get a chance! We're giving you a second chance to come along. We have now added a further master class the following day on Sunday 13 December. This time it runs from 12noon until 7pm and is once again at The Junction.

There was already a waiting list for Saturday places so if you'd like to come along, I'd get yourself booked in for the Sunday pretty quick. Places cost £35 and are available by calling 01223 511 511.

And if you're in Cambridge next week, don't forget that Hugh will be performing his award-winning hit, Story of a Rabbit at Cambridge Arts Theatre on Wednesday & Thursday (4 & 5 Nov). Get your tickets here!

If you can't make it to Cambridge, he's also heading to Eastleigh (2 & 3 Nov), Edinburgh (11 to 14 Nov) and Leicester (18 to 21 Nov). To round the tour off, Hugh will be performing new show, 360, in the Drum Theatre Plymouth from 24 to 28 Nov.

Right, sales pitch over! Although from the outside it's been pretty quiet here at Hoipolloi since our return from Edinburgh, I can promise you we've been extra busy planning an exciting 2010.

I have some exciting news to announce in a couple of weeks (it's currently embargoed so I'm afraid no amount of bribery will make me spill the beans). And then we'll be drip-feeding you further announcements as we head into the new year!

I'm hoping that Hugh will be able to provide some updates on his tour over the next few weeks but in the meantime, here's a quick reminder of Story of a Rabbit...

Affected by the Effects

The 'big move' is complete and the office has been officially turned upside down. Simon and I are very happy with our shiny new desk, glossy blue floor and big windows. In fact we're so happy we think we may even be working a bit harder. Although not hard enough to avoid a brief peek at what the oracle Wikipedia has to say about the effect of changing your office space...

After some extremely thorough research we are pretty convinced that we are prime examples of both the Hawthorne effect and the Pygmalion effect. "What are these?, tell us more!" I hear you cry. Well...

The term 'Hawthorne effect' was coined by Henry A. Landsberger in 1955 when he was studying some experiments held at the Hawthorne Works in Chicago in the 1920s-early 1930s.

Hawthorne Works commissioned a study to see whether their workers would work more or less productively in different levels of light. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the higher the level of light, the more productive the workers. Other changes examined included keeping work stations clean, getting rid of obstacles on the floor and moving workstations. Here at Hoipolloi HQ all these changes have taken place, and we are sure we're working harder, although maybe this is a result of the Pygmalion effect....

The Pygmalion effect refers to the phenomenon of placing a greater expectation on someone, in order to make them perform better. Perhaps we're just expecting to work harder because we've perused the world wide web and become enlightened about the Hawthorne effect, which has now smoothly taken us directly under the influence of the Pygmalion effect...

But now I'm just confused, so, moving swiftly onwards to certain territory, the really exciting news for this weekend is that...drum roll please....

Hugh Hughes will be performing his award winning show, 360, at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich on Sunday. If you are nearby, or fancy a jolly Sunday evening outing to Ipswich we would love to see you at the show. You can book tickets by clicking here.

The Last Post

My last post (for now).

I spent the whole festival wanting to film Hugh's pre-show warm up but feared he may think it intrusive. Before the last show, however, I threw caution to the wind and captured this gem without Hugh knowing.

Whoever guesses what's on his iPod wins a prize.

Sunset

In the last few days my limbs have turned to jelly, my voice has dropped two octaves and gone croaky like Yoda and if I walk over anymore Edinburgh cobbles my feet will start screaming and frogmarch me back onto proper pavements.

But I refer you once again to my patented definition of Festival Fatigue to stress that whilst my body is wrecked, my mood remains indefatigably good. As much as I'm looking forward to going to bed for a week once I'm home, I'm sure I'll be missing the festival before too long.

At the Total Theatre Awards ceremony the other day, one of the speakers pointed out something obvious but very important. Every one of us knows what an endurance contest the Edinburgh Festival is, we know we're signing up to an utterly exhausting month and yet we troop back, year after year. It's pretty special.

*

Today is my last day working for Hoipolloi, for now. I am refusing to articulate this fact with any degree of finality, as I feel sure that I'll stay in touch with everyone at the company and work with them again before too long, in some capacity or another.

I have an anecdote which I've found myself referring to a lot whilst working for the company, or when I explain to people what Hoipolloi means to me. This feels like a good time to share it with the wider world.

In 2007 I visited the Edinburgh Fringe and saw Hugh Hughes in Story of a Rabbit. (I was already a Hoipolloi fan, having seen Floating and My Uncle Arly on previous tours.) That hour in Pleasance Two remains one of the most unforgettable experiences I've ever had at the theatre. Like so many who've seen the show, I laughed and I cried. And I cried and I cried and I cried.

When I left the theatre and shook hands with Hugh, I wanted to tell him that he'd completely altered my perspective on theatre. Sadly I couldn't because I was still crying and also feeling a bit embarassed because I was covered in tears and snot. My equally snot-covered friend Hannah and I staggered into the sunlight and sat down with a drink to calm our nerves. We continued crying for at least 20 minutes, during which time a number of people tried to flyer us for shows, only to find two weeping individuals, sobbing into pints.

Less than twelve months later I was at the National Theatre Studio working on Hugh Hughes' future production Invisible Town. About 18 months later I was creating 360 with Hugh, for which I'm now credited as an Artistic Collaborator. If you'd tapped me on the shoulder, as I sat at that table crying, and told me that I'd be working with Hugh within a year, I'm sure I wouldn't have believed you.

I probably don't need to say (and wouldn't be able to find the words anyway) how much those experiences have meant to me.

As well as loving every minute I've spent with the creative team at Hoipolloi, I need to say a huge thank you to Simon my 'boss' for the year and a wonderful mentor. And we're all bidding a fond farewell to Louise Coles who has been Hoipolloi's Administrative Director for the past five years. Louise boarded a plane for Perth two days ago. She's returning to her native Australia after several decades away, to run Perth's Blue Room. We all wish her the best of luck!

So here's to Hoipolloi, to Louise, to Edinburgh and to what is sure to be a fun-tastic final performance of 360 tonight. Hugh's been hinting that he has something special planned. I dread to think...

Hugh Hughes wins an award!

Hooray! That makes it three Edinburgh Festivals in a row at which Hugh has been awarded something. This morning Hugh was presented with a Three Weeks Editor's Award for 360 and the Three Weeks team had some very kind words to say about the show.

Meanwhile, The Doubtful Guest didn't win at the Total Theatre Award ceremony on Friday but My Name Is Sue did! (This is the show I've seen four times and have been hype-ing on the blog for weeks.) Simon Tweeted the whole thing minute-by-minute, so if you'd like to re-live the experience check out the Tweet Stream.

It was also great to see Improbable presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Phelim McDermott, one of Improbable's Artistic Directors, gave our Artistic Director Shon some mentoring back in the day, and they're a company Shon has always looked up to.

Two more performances of 360 and one Doubtful Guest to go. The Festival Fatigue is taking its toll and I'm looking forward to collapsing into bed for a very long time.

However, the other day I found a temporary cure for Festival Fatigue. I ignored the fact that I felt run down, supressed the suspicion I was getting a temperature, refused to have an early night and went clubbing instead. And WOW did I feel better for it. (Look, I had to resort to capital letters to express how much fun I had.)

Until you've seen DJ Yoda on the decks, you cannot comprehend the restorative, healing powers of old-school eighties hip-hip combined with general Yoda silliness which peaked with a bagpipe/hip-hop mash-up. London Elektricity and Scratch Perverts weren't bad either. Woo.