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

Four calling birds...

Welcome to day two of our special round up of 2009, undoubtedly Hoipolloi's busiest ever year. I worked out earlier that this year we've worked on 5 full shows plus 1 show in development and 1 mini-project. Wow! And if you missed it, part one of our round-up is here.

APRIL

Still on tour and making new discoveries…Simon made a note of all of the places in Tasmania which have connections to the UK: Brighton, Kettering, Launceston, Tamar, Swansea, Melton Mowbray, Richmond, Ross.

Although there was also plenty of fun to be had back in Cambridge, especially with Steffi’s word of the week podcast. One of the highlights was ‘truculent’, which apparently Steffi originally associated with truffles and toffee. Yum!

Amazing April also saw the 100th blog post, and Hugh announced the title for his new show…360.

As if all this wasn’t enough, Hoipolloi took part in the Made In England celebrations for St George’s Day. Made In England was a special artistic adventure assembled by the BBC and Arts Council England, which took place all over the country on Thursday 23rd April.

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.

MAY

This was the month when David’s post was advertised as up for grabs and I got terribly excited and wrote a letter begging Hoipolloi to pick me. I thought I’d scuppered my chances when I had to ask to move my interview date due to one of my final exams. Luckily Simon, Louise and David very kindly let me come on another day.

I was so nervous that as I crossed the road to get to the office I tripped over on my brand new shoes, looking like a fool in front of all of the pedestrians on Mill Road. Oops. Although I must have done something right in the interview as a few weeks later Simon rang to offer me the job. Hurrah!

While Simon, Louise and David were busy interviewing keen beans like me, Hugh and Aled were wowing audiences with Story of a Rabbit. They got some lovely reviews, too. The Charleston SC Newspaper's review described the show as one "that links the audience together with laughter, song and tears" whilst the Charleston City Paper enthused, "you're going to be talking about how inventive and charming it is for the rest of the festival."

Posted by Marieke Audsley (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi). Thanks to Ansik 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

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...