Have your say...

Have you just seen Story of a Rabbit? Why not get in touch and let us know what you thought. There are a whole host of ways to engage with what we're up to!

Someone who saw the show last night in Eastleigh messaged us via Twitter to say "Hugh Hughes was wonderful (as always)... He makes me laugh and cry at exactly the same time!".

Just add @hellohoipolloi into your tweets and we'll spot them (or in fact, just mentioning Hugh Hughes often catches our eye!).

If you're not a fan of Twitter, why not comment on this blog with your thoughts or head to our Facebook pages - here is Hugh's and here is Hoipolloi's.

Someone wrote this on our wall earlier...

"Saw "Story of a Rabbit" at Eastleigh Theatre last night. Hugh Hughes is a highly original and talented performer. The show was genius - comic, reflective, moving, evolved and original. Thanks Hugh"

Or you can send us a slightly old-fashioned email if you'd like! Just drop a note to info@hoipolloi.org.uk and it'll make it's way through to us.

Finally, if you'd like to get a little closer and receive regular email updates from us, you can sign up to the mailing list here.

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...

Hugh Hughes solo show: selling fast!

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

It's not much more than a week since Hugh Hughes was at The Barbican, performing sneak previews of his new show Invisible Town. As we walked to the pub after the last performance, someone asked, "So what's next Hugh, are you going to have a bit of time off now this is over?"

Ha ha.

Hugh Hughes has at least six projects up in the air at any one time. As soon Hugh finished at The Barbican he went back to work on another brand new show:
The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes.

Invisible Town was a chance for Hugh to work with a larger ensemble than ever before, with six performers and three musicians joining him on stage. His new solo show takes the opposite road, putting Hugh onstage completely alone, sans performers, sans multimedia, sans music, sans everything.

It will allow him to connect with audiences more intimately than ever before, as he tells stories from his past, taking us even deeper into his wonderful, fantastical and imaginative world. I've been in some of the rehearsals and I can promise it will be an incredible show, and a chance to see a slightly different side of Hugh.

The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes will be performed for the very first time at The Junction in Cambridge from 29 to 31 January. But Friday's performance has already sold out! So book for the remaining nights quickly to avoid disappointment, particularly since tickets are a credit-crunch-busting £5 each.

You can book tickets via The Junction's website: just click here.
Or call The Junction's Box Office on 01223 511 511.

We hope to see you there!

What a week...

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

Phew! Here at Hoipolloi headquarters, we’ve just about calmed down and caught up on sleep after our very busy week with The Doubtful Guest at Cambridge Arts Theatre. And what a week it was...

Six performances in just four days, and more than 1,700 people saw the show. That’s a Hoipolloi record for sure! It was wonderful to receive such great support in our home town. In the last twelve months we’ve staged Floating, Story of a Rabbit and The Doubtful Guest in Cambridge and our audiences have grown and grown. Hits from the Cambridge area on our website and this blog went through the roof last week, and we had some very favourable write-ups from the local press and the Cambridge University newspaper Varsity (articles are here and here). And The Doubtful Guest video trailer on YouTube has now been viewed over 1,000 times!

The company are enjoying a well-deserved week off at the moment, but The Doubtful Guest will be brooding in Leeds next week and Cardiff the week after that. Click here for the full tour schedule and, for good measure, here’s The Doubtful Guest video trailer one more time!

Gathering stars...

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

Two lovely five-star reviews for The Doubtful Guest rolled in last week during our run at Cambridge Arts Theatre.

The first, from Varsity (a Cambridge University student paper) had this to say:

"Hoipolloi’s Artistic Director writes ‘we hope that age won’t matter when watching The Doubtful Guest’, and the first thing you notice in the auditorium (which you are encouraged by the cast to consider) is that all sorts of people are there. This production has something to offer each one of them, and in that single, glorious idea lies Hoipolloi’s greatest strengths – the excitement to leave no stone unturned and the ability to lever them up from every angle."

Click here for the full review!

The second, from Whatsonstage.com, was equally complimentary:

"Edward Gorey was someone about whom I knew very little; this production sends me straight to the library to find out more. Which is probably as high an accolade as you can bestow on a stage adaptation of a written work... Like all good folk legends and fairy stories, it’s for adults just as much as for youngsters. Gorey illustrated Edward Lear, and one can sense the affinity. Catch it if you can."

Click here for the full review!

Become a groupie!

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

Good evening, ladies and gentleman blog readers. It's been a little while since I posted on here as I've handed you over to the very capable hands of my assistant David (and as he's got a first in English from Cambridge University he's far more qualified to entertain you with witty wordplay than I am!).

It's been a hectic week for everyone here at Hoipolloi.

The Doubtful Guest has been running at Cambridge Arts Theatre since Wednesday (and with three performances left, you haven't missed your opportunity to see it here just yet!). And as its our home town, we've been busy making new friends and entertaining guests.

Anyway, my reason for posting is to alert you to a brand new tool on the blog - your opportunity to become a Hoipolloi groupie! By signing up (using the link on the right-hand side), you'll be able to follow this blog closely and be automatically updated when we put up a new posting.

And this isn't the only way you can follow our activites! Why not click here to sign-up to the free Hoipolloi mailing list to receive regular emails from us or join either the Hoipolloi facebook group or the Hugh Hughes Appreciation Society.

Tonight we've got a potentially riotous company meal at CB2 (where you can also find our Hoipolloi photo exhibition) and then The Doubtful Guest moves on to Leeds (from 28 Oct to 1 Nov) and Cardiff (5 to 8 November).

Wishing you a fantastic weekend!

Spectral sounds

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

A big thank you to everyone who came to see The Doubtful Guest in Southampton last week and Plymouth the week before. We've had some very complimentary emails and posts on our Facebook Group from audience members who enjoyed the show.

At this very moment, the company are at the Cambridge Arts Theatre setting up for tonight's performance. We're delighted to be playing in our home town and we hope that The Doubtful Guest is as well received there as Floating was last December. The show runs at the Arts from Wednesday to Saturday, with matinees on Thursday and Saturday. To book tickets, click here!

If you see the show over the next few weeks in Cambridge, Leeds or Cardiff and you leave the theatre humming the haunting tunes from the show's original soundtrack, you can buy your own CD copy in the theatre foyer after the show for a measly £5. If you've seen the show already and would like a CD, just send us an email.

The soundtrack was written and recorded by the production's composer Alex Rudd, who spent the rehearsal week before the first night of the tour dashing all over the country, from our rehearsal room to his recording studio and back to his new baby, writing and recording new songs and incidental music for the show.

It's a beautiful soundtrack, perfectly suited to the eerie world of Edward Gorey! You can hear a taster in our video trailer for the show:



For the rest of The Doubtful Guest's tour dates click here. See you at the theatre soon!

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:

Fresher faces in Cambridge

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

On my way home from the pub the other night, I popped into my local chip shop for some deep-fried carbohydrates, only to find this usually reputable establishment over-run with drunken school children. Upon closer inspection, said school children turned out to be rather larger than one would expect. They weren’t children at all, they were students dressed as children. Freshers’ week is upon us.

Now explain this one to me: you leave school, you leave home, you go to university in a hyperactive flurry of grown-upness... and the first thing you’re expected to do is put your school uniform back on for a Freshers’ Week “School Disco”.

There are rather a lot of students in Cambridge, making it completely normal to stumble across groups of people in silly costumes wandering the streets late at night. Pirate costumes are a popular choice in my experience, and I couldn’t approve more of such a wholesome and hearty theme. But school uniform in this post Hit Me Baby One More Time-era?

Perhaps I’m jealous. I’ve just graduated and I’m still getting to grips with being on the wrong side of the university/real-world barrier. But I’ll be returning to university spheres, for the Anglia Ruskin University Freshers’ Fayre tomorrow and the Cambridge University one in a couple of weeks.

Hoipolloi are looking forward to meeting lots of Cambridge’s newest residents. We hope that you’ll come to our stall and say hello, and that we’ll see lots of students at the Cambridge Arts Theatre for The Doubtful Guest between 15 to 18 October.

The company started re-rehearsals for The Doubtful Guest in Plymouth today and I’ll be blogging from the rehearsal room next week. In the meantime, don’t forget to book tickets for Plymouth, Southampton, Cambridge, Leeds or Cardiff! All the tour dates and box office details are here. Book soon!