Hoipolloi: stretching the imagination

MASH

The Full English

In 2009, Hoipolloi celebrated St. George’s Day with the BBC and Arts Council England.

The company took part in a huge event called Made In England, which was designed to examine Englishness and investigate how England inspires art.

Hoipolloi led a project called The Full English, in which our actors played a troupe of eccentric foreigners who were terribly enthusiastic about finding out about England and what they would have to do to become ‘English’!

The day began with performances outside Milton Keynes Theatre. The team then boarded an old-fashioned Routemaster double-decker bus and travelled to Luton station.

From here, they progressed to St Pancras, London, echoing the journey which inspired Sir John Betjeman’s celebrated BBC documentary ‘Metro-land’. They entertained passengers on board the train, mingling with commuters and performing extracts of Betjeman’s poetry.

They made quite a splash when they arrived at St. Pancras, greeting tourists and asking what ‘England’ meant to them. Finally, they set up an impromptu picnic in the St. Pancras Station concourse before being serenaded by a choir of school children who sang a ‘new national anthem’ composed for the day.

You can read more about what happened on our blog.