Bumper Blyton: Hysteria in India

Straight from London’s West End came the funniest British invasion since the 2024 Cricket test series.

Bumper Blyton, the award-winning live comedy show from the UK came to New Delhi for one night only to perform their hit parody performance based on everyone’s favourite childhood author, Enid Blyton! (Famous Five, Mallory Towers, Far Away Tree) in a unique collaboration with the Delhi-based theatre company Kaivalya Plays, whose work focuses on transcultural exchange and community engagement using theatre.

The London-based Make ‘Em Ups theatre company performed their show in New Delhi for the first time on Saturday 20th April with two sold-out performances at the Indian Habitat Centre.

The audience was invited to draw images from their childhood, which were then used to improvise the stories on stage. The matinee show was a family-friendly experience, and saw children and adults alike dig deep into their love for Enid Blyton whilst the evening show for adults brought out more innuendoes and double entendres through tongue-in-cheek British humour.

The British artists also hosted four unique improv theatre workshops for local artists in Delhi on Sunday 21st April at the Sanskriti Kendra. This included musical improvisation with Amy Cooke-Hodgson and Ed Zanders, essentials of acting by Jonah Fazel, improvising in the style of Harry Potter with James Witt and finally, improvising in the style of Jane Austen with Amy Cooke-Hodgson. In addition, the British artists also undertook workshop for school children at the British School New Delhi and for two schools in Hyderabad in collaboration with Hyderabad Children's Theatre Festival.

Here are some words from the British artists on their experience of India:

"We had such an incredible time performing our show to Delhi audiences. We were excited to find out how many people were new to watching an improvised show - over half of our audience were first timers! We didn’t make any changes to the show so were intrigued to see it resonating so well."
- Amy Cooke-Hodgson, Performer

"It’s amazing that these these books still have a place in people’s hearts. I imagined people may come along for the Mitch Britishness but there was a deep connection, somewhat identical to our own in the UK."
- Tom Wilkinson, Performer

"During our workshop with local artists, it made me very happy to see how eager they were to throw themselves into musical improv: a notoriously difficult thing to do! It was a pleasure to share skills from our Western perspective but, more excitingly for me, to learn from them - how they approach scenes, their musicality and way of looking at the world. Improv clearly has a bright future here in Delhi."
- Ed Zanders, Musician

"I was surprised how loud and interactive the matinee audience was. In the UK they’re often quiet and timid. I loved how up for fun they were and seemed like genuine fans of Enid Blyton too. I also loved teaching improvised Harry Potter as a workshop for other improvisers and artists in Delhi. My highlight was creating the Indian version of Harry Potter called Harish Patel who went to Hogwarts in Patiala."
- James Witt, Performer