This film is part of Free

Inter-action in Croydon

Do you remember when the moon men came to Croydon? You can bet these kids never forgot the day Dogg's Troupe landed

Documentary 1971 12 mins

Overview

They're coming for your children! Three moon men, a cosmonaut and a mysterious professor march through the sparse streets of a new Croydon housing estate. But don't panic, this is a friendly invasion. The performance was designed to parachute a taste of participatory theatre into areas of new-build housing that were often sorely lacking in their own neighbourhood cultural facilities.

The brainchild of E.D. Berman, Inter-Action was founded in 1968 and grew to encompass a range of socially engaged theatre and education projects with an emphasis on the community. Through his alter ego, Professor R.L. Dogg, and a range of performers who were part of Dogg's Troupe, Berman lit up alternative theatre in the 1970s both on and off the stage. Dogg's Hamlet was just one of the pieces written for Berman by the renowned playwright Sir Tom Stoppard.

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