The Full English

The Full English is an all-singing, all-dancing, one-day "on the move" performance celebrating what it is to be English here and now.

The whole event will be led by award-winning theatre company Hoipolloi, whose costumed, interactive, carnival-style show will start in Milton Keynes, go by double-decker bus to Luton, then arrive by train at St Pancras station - were the performers and train passengers will be greeted by a 100-strong choir on the concourse singing a new anthem for St George's Day, composed and conducted by young composer Sam Dunkley.

“We got asked by the BBC to come up with some ideas of theatrical walkabout performance that could be done in a square, on a train and in a railway station” explained Ben.

“So we are devising short pieces using music and stories, plus poems by John Betjeman which are very exciting and very English! We have been coming up with lots of characters to tell the story of what ‘England’ is.”

Exaggerated

They also explained how these characters will have to be quite exaggerated in order that they are not lost amongst all the onlookers.

“To be outside in quite a big space we need big characters to be seen otherwise you are just going to drown between all the people” said Trond-Erik.

“So you need big strong characters and striking images.”

In the theatre square, people will come and watch them in a relatively conventional fashion, in that an audience will come to a space and see them perform.

But on the train between Luton and St Pancras it will be a completely different kettle of fish, because their potential audience will not be expecting to be treated to some kind of show! So do they think that the reaction will be different?

“Yes” revealed Steffi, “because I think it will be very intimate and as it is such a small enclosed space, you will have quite clear interactions with people on the train.

“We have a few ideas how to do this but you can’t really rehearse that” she added.

“You can have propositions where you know what’s on offer but then we’ll have to work together and see if we can go along with an improvisation.”

Oblivious

Of course, commuters are renowned for being oblivious to what’s going on around them – or ignoring it anyway – which of course is a very English thing to do. So in many ways, their reaction will become part of the whole project! But is it possible for the theatre company tell if someone is approachable?

“Yes it is” said Steffi, “but at the same time you want to respect that people want to be left alone while other people will be curious, but this is something that we will have to explore as we go along.

“But there are four carriages and the journey is 40 minutes long, so I really don’t think we’ll impose too long with whatever we come up with, we’ll just move on because there will be other people in the carriage as well.”

So, what will tell them that they have done a good job on the day?

“I think if people are smiling” said Ben, “because quite often in train stations people keep themselves to themselves and when people don’t expect something to happen they normally shy away. But if they just look and if they smile and there’s a recognition of “oh that’s something to talk about over dinner tonight”, then that’s a pretty good gauge for feeling we’ve done a good job.” 

“Yes” added Trond-Erik, “It will be fun on the train because you never know if people are going to shy away. So if you realise that people are starting to open up and are enjoying passing time with us, then that will be a very good sign for me that things work.”

Plan

And with that we left them to their rehearsals, with a very loose kind of plan!

“We’re going to try not to panic!” laughed Andrew.

“We’re going to create some small scenes that can happen on the train and we’re going to create some small songs that can happen on the train.

“We have some surprises that we hope to have popping out of our hats and costumes at various points, we might even have a little tea party – who knows what we’ll come up with!”