Tree
On Tuesday evening, I headed to the Old Vic with alternative comedy legend and create-your-own-pizza technician Darren Maskell to see Tree, Daniel Kitson's latest offering.
Stephen Fry once described Peter Cook as "the funniest man to ever draw breath". I feel similarly about Daniel Kitson. I first saw him perform live in 2008 and was absolutely blown away. Here was stand up comedy as I'd never seen it before, eloquent, intricate, touching, moving, hysterical. In the years that have followed I've endeavoured to catch all of his shows, often twice.
I remember going to the release gig for "Meeting Your Heroes", the second Gavin Osborn record. I walked into the toilets at The Albany and heard an unmistakeable voice from one of the stalls. "I'm having a lovely time in the toilet", Kitson mused. I used one of the urinals. He came out and began washing his hands. I could have said anything to him. That I enjoyed his recent show at the Union Chapel. That's he's been a huge inspiration to me as a stand up. The words I chose were "This soap dispenser is a bit fiddly, isn't it?". Never meet your heroes. Especially if you are a total prat.
Anyway, the first person to win the major stand up and theatre awards at the Edinburgh Festival (The Perrier and Fringe First awards at the time), Kitson has enjoyed a great deal of critical acclaim. Last year saw a mini-backlash with lukewarm reviews of "Analog. Ue" at the National. I saw it twice and while not his strongest work, found plenty in it to enjoy. Only last month Maskell and I saw him perform a Christmas show at the Battersea Arts Centre and concurred that Kitson had rediscovered his mojo. If indeed he had ever lost it.
Which brings us to Tree. Staged in the round with full sized foliage, this feels like Kitson's most ambitious theatrical piece to date. It's also his first two hander, enlisting Tim Key to play a self-conscious lawyer who finds himself early for a date at the foot of the tree Kitson has been in for quite some time. The people I know who like Tim Key absolutely bloody love Tim Key. His live shows are normal based around snatches of oddball poetry that I've found difficult to get into. Here he is a fine foil for Kitson as the ordinary bloke wary of the eccentric bearded man he's found up a tree. Key's performance provides a depth of character occasionally absent from Kitson's solo theatrical pieces and I'd like to see him pursue further collaborations of this type in the future.
The two of them gradually reveal their stories as the piece unfolds, with many of the hallmarks of Kitson's work present and correct. Key's story is that of a romantic missed connection, meeting up for a date with a woman he hadn't seen for ten years. Kitson's character is the idealist, finding joy in an act of defiant rebellion against the neighbourhood watch and the jobsworths who work at the local council. The dialogue is as sharply written as I've come to expect. It's also the only show where you're likely to see nachos prepared on stage in full.
I'm a bit cagey about some of the details here because a) I saw it three days ago and a lot of the info has fallen out of my brain and b) I'm wary of spoiling a show with three weeks left to run. But believe me when I say that Tree provides warm and witty viewing over 90 minutes. Despite the website crashing chaos that normally follows Kitson around, there are still plenty of tickets left too. And Darren Maskell said it was "very good" and he's a difficult man to please. Go and see it.
Stephen Fry once described Peter Cook as "the funniest man to ever draw breath". I feel similarly about Daniel Kitson. I first saw him perform live in 2008 and was absolutely blown away. Here was stand up comedy as I'd never seen it before, eloquent, intricate, touching, moving, hysterical. In the years that have followed I've endeavoured to catch all of his shows, often twice.
I remember going to the release gig for "Meeting Your Heroes", the second Gavin Osborn record. I walked into the toilets at The Albany and heard an unmistakeable voice from one of the stalls. "I'm having a lovely time in the toilet", Kitson mused. I used one of the urinals. He came out and began washing his hands. I could have said anything to him. That I enjoyed his recent show at the Union Chapel. That's he's been a huge inspiration to me as a stand up. The words I chose were "This soap dispenser is a bit fiddly, isn't it?". Never meet your heroes. Especially if you are a total prat.
Anyway, the first person to win the major stand up and theatre awards at the Edinburgh Festival (The Perrier and Fringe First awards at the time), Kitson has enjoyed a great deal of critical acclaim. Last year saw a mini-backlash with lukewarm reviews of "Analog. Ue" at the National. I saw it twice and while not his strongest work, found plenty in it to enjoy. Only last month Maskell and I saw him perform a Christmas show at the Battersea Arts Centre and concurred that Kitson had rediscovered his mojo. If indeed he had ever lost it.
Which brings us to Tree. Staged in the round with full sized foliage, this feels like Kitson's most ambitious theatrical piece to date. It's also his first two hander, enlisting Tim Key to play a self-conscious lawyer who finds himself early for a date at the foot of the tree Kitson has been in for quite some time. The people I know who like Tim Key absolutely bloody love Tim Key. His live shows are normal based around snatches of oddball poetry that I've found difficult to get into. Here he is a fine foil for Kitson as the ordinary bloke wary of the eccentric bearded man he's found up a tree. Key's performance provides a depth of character occasionally absent from Kitson's solo theatrical pieces and I'd like to see him pursue further collaborations of this type in the future.
The two of them gradually reveal their stories as the piece unfolds, with many of the hallmarks of Kitson's work present and correct. Key's story is that of a romantic missed connection, meeting up for a date with a woman he hadn't seen for ten years. Kitson's character is the idealist, finding joy in an act of defiant rebellion against the neighbourhood watch and the jobsworths who work at the local council. The dialogue is as sharply written as I've come to expect. It's also the only show where you're likely to see nachos prepared on stage in full.
I'm a bit cagey about some of the details here because a) I saw it three days ago and a lot of the info has fallen out of my brain and b) I'm wary of spoiling a show with three weeks left to run. But believe me when I say that Tree provides warm and witty viewing over 90 minutes. Despite the website crashing chaos that normally follows Kitson around, there are still plenty of tickets left too. And Darren Maskell said it was "very good" and he's a difficult man to please. Go and see it.
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