Collaborator - A Work in Progress - T0819692273I dislike audience participation. I think It's creatively bankrupt, ethically questionable and if I see it mentioned in the blurb for a show,I will not attend due to moral objections and/or personal discomfort. Anyway. I've written something about that and it's got just over 200 parts. So. | |
| 16 Feb 24 to 17 Feb 24 | Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough :: V949 listing details L01177322656 |
| 5 Feb 24 to 9 Feb 24 | The Cockpit, Inner London :: V182 listing details L2095216646 |
Outside - T0547700404Daniel hasn't been on stage for over two years. And, to be entirely honest, he's not really missed it. It is, however, his actual job and everyone's gone back to work now. So, he's picked out a comfy pen, bought a new notebook and booked himself a summers worth of outdoor shows to find out whether he can still do his job and what, if anything, he has to say to large groups of people he doesn't know. | |
| 18 Jul 22 | mac birmingham - Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham :: V146 listing details L1755031639 |
| 17 Jun 22 | mac birmingham - Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham :: V146 listing details L01439865490 |
Keep - T1662419129A new show about how much past the present can usefully contain. About rigor and generosity. About postcards and hair pins and a certificate from Harry Ramsdens in Blackpool. About how long it takes to stop noticing where you are. About the compromise of a full life and the burden of a full heart and how it's impossible to know where looking back will lead. About the task of being who we are without denying who we've been. About the importance of regret and the possibility of hope and the delusional idea of starting again. About all the books I've never read and all the jam I've ever eaten and the bags of torn tickets and the drawers of empty pens and the inevitable sadness of ever holding on to anything. A show, in short, about the things in my house and the stuff in my head. | |
| 15 Oct 19 to 19 Oct 19 | Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne :: V568 listing details L194219920 |
| 8 Jan 19 to 31 Jan 19 | BAC (Battersea Arts Centre), Inner London :: V168 listing details L02100236648 |
| 4 Dec 18 to 16 Dec 18 | The Wardrobe Theatre, Bristol :: V1322756877 listing details L1178411568 |
A Show for Christmas - T513532574It's 4.52pm on Wednesday the twenty fourth of December when Pollyanna Plunket, briefly distracted by opening a bag of toffees - glances away from the road for no more than a second only to find, upon looking back that an old man, from nowhere made his way to the middle of the street. She hits the horn, the man turns, she stamps hard on the brakes and whilst the vehicle, a mid sized motorhome - does slow down, it does not stop. Skidding on, over glistening black tarmac, careering into the old man - making no visible attempt to move - rooted to the spot, bent over under the weight of a battered red bag - the inevitable impact flips him up over the bonnet and into the windscreen - his eyes oddly calm as they meet hers for a moment before he slumps down the glass, rolling back off the bonnet and out of sight. A story about possibility and magic and grief and hope and tradition and toffees. Which is to say, Christmas. Basically. In 2014 Daniel Kitson was asked by Shelley Hastings at the Battersea Arts Centre if he wanted to write a Christmas show and, much to his surprise, he did. This is that show. It was performed that Christmas for five nights, in the Grand Hall at BAC and for fourteen nights the following Christmas at the Connelly Theatre in New York. | |
| 7 Dec 17 | Square Chapel Arts Centre, Halifax :: V1098014226 listing details L0628644815 |
Something Other Than Everything - T1658412772Marooned in the middle of a circle of microphones, speakers, lights and people Daniel Kitson will attempt to not simply, dismantle and rebuild his own ideas about compassion, isolation, solidarity and progress but in doing so momentarily alter the function of language and invent a new form of stand up comedy. So. There you go. That's something to look forward to. | |
| 31 Aug 17 to 9 Sep 17 | Royal Exchange, Manchester :: V491 listing details L1124215573 |
| 12 Jul 17 to 29 Jul 17 | Roundhouse, West End :: V242 listing details L382800719 |
The Persistence of an Unlikely Thought - T1650748794A few years ago, quite suddenly, I thought of something. Something unlikely. An implausible story about a mouse. Since then, whenever starting a new show, faced with the empty page and the endless possibility and the looming deadline, I have tried and failed to find a way of telling that particular story. Every structural gambit or presentational conceit feeling both oddly insufficient and insufficiently odd. And so, every time, eventually, I've abandoned the mouse and I've moved on. I've had a different idea, for a different story and I've written a different show. This time was no different, again I wanted to tell that story and again I didn't know how. And then, quite suddenly, I thought of something else. Something equally unlikely. An implausible story about a phone call. And here we are. | |
| 19 Oct 16 | Sheffield Theatres, Sheffield :: V962 listing details L571230203 |
| 7 Aug 16 to 28 Aug 16 | Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh :: V605 listing details L0682123267 |
Polyphony - T0223647498In 2015 I wrote a play - a real humdinger. It has a pretty epic scope, a relatively staggering vision and somewhere in the region of twenty characters. Each of which has been performed and recorded in isolation, producing a litany of individual voices - each of them perfect, captured as a single track that will, when played back in precise unison, form a glorious theatrical polyphony. The play is perfect. The recordings are perfect. I just need enough people to hit play. That's all. | |
| 21 Jun 16 to 26 Jun 16 | The Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol :: V1384579886 listing details L630051561 |
Stories for the Starlit Sky - T771818021Daniel Kitson (Me) and Gavin Osborn (Gavin) return to the wide open road for the first time in ages. Ages. So long. Years. Oh god. Nothing stays the same does it? Dust on the wind. That's all we are. Anyway - here we are. The D Machine (Me) and G Unit (Gavin), back on tour. Doing it right. In 2009 (Seriously, isn't the passage of time horrifying?) we wrote a trilogy of story (Me) and song (Gavin) ultra combo mega shows called ''Stories for the Starlit Sky'' and comprising three interlinked stories about love (obviously), staying up all night (naturally) and a village populated by retired assasins (yeah, that makes sense). We performed them in Regents Park Open Air Theatre on three separate summer nights, one in June, one in July, one in August and all of them at midnight. There were indeed stars in the sky. Some people brought flasks. A couple of years later, we whacked them out over consecutive nights at the Latitude festival from the middle of a lake in a slightly futile battle against the ambient bass of various DJ sets and whooping intoxicated infants. Most recently in July of this year (2015, obviously guys) Regents Park Open Air Theatre had a spare night after a late drop out - I rewrote the stories a bit (one of them really quite a lot) Gavin practiced his songs and we performed all three of the shows in one night. One after the other. It was great. So, that's what this (indoor) tour will be, the whole blinking trilogy on one night complete with two intervals. Boom. Break. Boom. Break. Wallop. Hometime.Performer Daniel Kitson. Performer Gavin Osborn. | |
| 4 Nov 15 | Sherman Theatre, Cardiff :: V824 listing details L0769858252 |
| 1 Nov 15 | Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry :: V156 listing details L01345210173 |
Polyphony (A Work in Progress) - T0722140742I have written a Play. It has a pretty epic scope, a relatively grand vision and somewhere in the region of twenty characters. It is, in short, a real humdinger. Unfortunately though, it is a script so ambitious, so demanding, so exquisitely detailed that handing an actor this text and putting them in front of an audience is much like handing a three year old child a pint of coffee and putting them in front of a zipwire. It wont end well. So I, ever vigilant, have pre-recorded each actor, in isolation, onto a separate tape, their fallibility erased with editing and their odious need for attention mitigated by the removal of the audience. Leaving a litany of individual voices - each one perfect and captured on a tape that when played back in precise unison will form a glorious theatrical polyphony. The play is perfect. The tapes are perfect. I just need enough people to press play. That's all. | |
| 16 Mar 15 to 21 Mar 15 | BAC (Battersea Arts Centre), Inner London :: V168 listing details L697396541 |
A Show for Christmas - T645388079In the winter of 1998 I was in my early twenties, living alone in London, and just beginning to get paid work as a comedian. I had spent, maybe a year, performing for food, evading train fares and surviving largely on the kindness of my parents. So, to me, for a while the Christmas party season seemed absolutely incredible. Come December, the bigger comedy clubs in London (block booked by office parties and charging maybe three times the usual admission) would pay comedians double the customary weekend rate and the gigs - drunken, messy, giddyingly lucrative - ran all week for the entire month - sometimes twice a night. At that time, my then agent booked what was a rowdy, demanding club in Shoreditch and I found myself fast tracked with unwarranted velocity to the role of compere. I could not believe my luck - back then, twenty two years old, desperate to get better, stage time was all I wanted, and this particular type of stage time ? high status crowd control, the management of rowdy rooms rammed with volatile, conflicting energy and the intermittent dodging of cracker toys, thrown by an office manager ? felt like an utterly exhilarating place to be. I felt like I was being toughened by it, like I was getting harder and faster and better and that somehow, something important was being forged in that cold fire of drunken disinterest. And maybe it was. I don't know. But over time, over years, I found it harder and harder to find glory in the battle. I took less and less pleasure in the collective drunken lunacy, the parade of paper hats, the bulk bought crackers and in wrangling this orgy of c***s to cheer at the right time. I could feel my delight dwindling, overcome with a burgeoning disdain for everyone involved, myself included. I was just starting to build an audience of my own and I didn't want them to come there and see me like that. I didn't want to be there, being like that. So I stopped. Now, this show isn't actually about any of that but it serves to explain my surprise when, in late spring of 2014, Shelley from Battersea Arts Centre asked if I wanted to make a Christmas Show and I found myself thinking: - Yes, oddly, I really do. I may wear a costume and there might be snow in it. | |
| 1 Dec 14 to 6 Dec 14 | BAC (Battersea Arts Centre), Inner London :: V168 listing details L02016547495 |
and Some Colleagues - Comedy Benefit in Aid of The Neuro Foundation - T1122779721Daniel Kitson hosts an evening of first class stand-up comedy. It's what Bob Holness would have wanted. | |
| 17 May 14 | Leicester Square Theatre, Inner London :: V0148424484 listing details L1824637032 |
After the Beginning. Before the End - T0133901496"I've been waiting to have the idea for this show for weeks. A space held open in my head waiting for the idea. For months. I've done previews and stared at the Internet. I've made chicken and I've tried not to worry. But the idea has not come and I have worried and doubted and waited more and more and more. But then today, whilst driving home, it happened. Somewhere between East London and South London, it arrived. The Idea. Just like that. Like a child, late home from school, oblivious to the worry and the panic and the phone calls. It just walked in and sat down like it wasn't even a big deal. And you have to trust me. Two hours ago I didn't have the idea. Now I do. And it's going to be good.. Something like a stand up show." | |
| 9 Jun 13 | Oxford Playhouse, Oxford :: V803 listing details L0238471138 |
| 5 Jun 13 | Lincoln Performing Arts Centre, Lincoln :: V0251629711 listing details L0639942564 |
| 31 May 13 | Sheffield Theatres, Sheffield :: V962 listing details L79028637 |
| 30 May 13 | Harrogate Theatre, Harrogate :: V942 listing details L559081518 |
| 25 May 13 | Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh :: V604 listing details L01047425203 |
| 20 May 13 | The Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol :: V1384579886 listing details L01539075152 |
| 14 May 13 | Royal Exchange, Manchester :: V491 listing details L0938512940 |
| 11 May 13 | Theatre Royal, Brighton :: V657 listing details L1924681272 |
Work in Progress: Its Always Right Now Until It's Later - T01252384532Work in Progress by Daniel Kitson towards a new show about Everything and Nothing. I wanted to put something amazing where you wouldn’t expect to find it. To take the first moments of the morning and fill them with something silly and sad and wonderful. Something audacious in its scope and scale. Something to make you laugh and cry and wonder before the world even knows you’re awake. Something to stuff your hearts full and send you out, into the day and into the world, wet eyed and open mouthed. This, is work in progress towards that show. This is a show about every single one of us, the past in our pockets, the future in our hearts and us, ourselves, very much stuck, trapped forever, in the tiny eternal moment between the two. Or at least, it will be when its finished. | |
| 20 Jul 10 to 31 Jul 10 | BAC (Battersea Arts Centre), Inner London :: V168 listing details L0818746761 |
66a Church Road - T0922496355A Lament Made of Memories and Kept in Suitcases. In 66a Church Road (Winner Fringe First Award 2008, Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Daniel Kitson turns to the break-up of his longest relationship: that with his old Crystal Palace home. "Last September I had to move out of my flat after living there for almost six years. I didn’t want to. I lived alone. I am single. 66a Church Road was the longest relationship of my life. This is a break up show. For my flat." Daniel Kitson | |
| 19 May 10 to 21 May 10 | Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry :: V156 listing details L01592293643 |
| 17 May 10 to 18 May 10 | mac birmingham - Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham :: V146 listing details L02005468532 |
| 4 May 10 | Gala Theatre, Durham :: V0146218420 listing details L01155486194 |
| 28 Apr 10 to 1 May 10 | The Tron, Glasgow :: V622 listing details L447239185 |
We Are Gathered Here - T0281766067Everyone you have ever known will die. And so will you. And yet we dance in the looming shadows of mortality, we dance and we talk and we eat and we argue. We read books. We care for people. We buy houses. We plant trees and we start to drive and we learn how to make milk frothy. Because something, somewhere in the middle of it all has to matter. As our seconds and minutes and days slip by, something has to be important. And who are we to giggle and point and sneer at what others have found to care about? Who is to say what is beneath us, what is not worthy of our hearts? Everybody needs something to hold when it gets dark, so who am I, who are any of us, to point at anything and call it facile or redundant or stupid or rubbish? Even when it quite clearly is. A new stand up show about finding something important in an ocean of twaddle. | |
| 18 Nov 09 | Sheffield Theatres, Sheffield :: V962 listing details L086978703 |
| 17 Nov 09 | Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool :: V536 listing details L1358754383 |
| 16 Nov 09 | Playhouse, Nottingham :: V457 listing details L847666761 |
| 14 Nov 09 | Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry :: V156 listing details L1804932043 |
| 10 Nov 09 to 11 Nov 09 | Brighton Dome, Brighton :: V655 listing details L1132334522 |
| 1 Nov 09 | The Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol :: V1384579886 listing details L734309115 |
| 30 Oct 09 | Hull Truck Theatre, Hull :: V935 listing details L01281818639 |
| 29 Oct 09 | Harrogate Theatre, Harrogate :: V942 listing details L44888015 |
| 28 Oct 09 | The Tron, Glasgow :: V622 listing details L417787900 |
| 22 Sep 09 | Oxford Playhouse, Oxford :: V803 listing details L0556431161 |
The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church - T0690370123Work in Progress. Gregory had fifty seven letters to write. He’d never written that many letters, not in one go. In fact, he’d never written a single letter and it was taking significantly longer than he’d anticipated. He’d started, curiously enough, full of optimism at 9 am. Now here he was 8 hours later half way through letter twenty four. He glanced at his watch and then at the noose hanging over his head. Gregory sighed. Had he known how long suicide letters take, he thought, he wouldn’t have cancelled the milk for the morning. | |
| 13 Jul 09 to 1 Aug 09 | BAC (Battersea Arts Centre), Inner London :: V168 listing details L1276548356 |
66a Church Street - T01568415111Work in Progress. "Last September I had to move out of my flat after living there for almost six years. I didn’t want to. This is a break up show. For my flat." This is a work in progress towards Daniel’s new Edinburgh show. Stories will be told, props will be played with. Ideas will take shape, and as the month of August draws ever closer panic will doubtless set in. | |
| 23 Jun 08 | BAC (Battersea Arts Centre), Inner London :: V168 listing details L1204596568 |
The Impotent Fury of the Privileged - T1463486098The world is a saddening mess, of unfathomable complexity and the simplest cruelty and yet, rather than raging or weeping, most of us still manage to eat snacks, do crosswords and occaisonally wash. But what if, what if we heave our compassion from wherever its buried and with courage enough to seem naïve or underinformed or oblivious to futility, we reach for something better. Something more engaged, more humane and less snack based. An angry, frustrated and beautiul new show about wanting the world to change but not doing enough to change it. | |
| 15 Jun 08 | Open Air Theatre, West End :: V403 listing details L0439914937 |
| 12 Jun 08 | Playhouse, Nottingham :: V457 listing details L1924244597 |
| 11 Jun 08 | Liverpool Playhouse, Liverpool :: V536 listing details L0537821213 |
| 1 Jun 08 | The Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol :: V1384579886 listing details L2137829762 |
| 31 May 08 | Gulbenkian Arts Centre, Canterbury :: V673 listing details L0114309666 |
| 22 May 08 | Theatre Royal Wakefield, Wakefield :: V979 listing details L537048975 |
| 21 May 08 | Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield :: V972 listing details L01266451103 |
| 11 May 08 | Hull Truck Theatre, Hull :: V935 listing details L1839948312 |
| 8 May 08 | Gala Theatre, Durham :: V0146218420 listing details L05322401 |
| 6 Feb 08 | Brighton Dome, Brighton :: V655 listing details L0570017676 |
C90 - T01746186273It's Henry's last day at work. Surrounded by thousands of discarded or undelivered compilation tapes he will start, at last, to listen. And he'll find in the tapes unheard stories, stories about himself, about people he knows. About everything. Daniel Kitson's new show is an astonishing and original story-based piece about how small acts of kindness can bring joy and hope to an otherwise grey day. | |
| 11 Jun 07 | The Albany W1W, Inner London :: V2091657262 listing details L01556064808 |
| 5 Jun 07 to 12 Jun 07 | The Hen and Chickens Theatre, Inner London :: V234 listing details L1620667679 |
| 28 Mar 07 | Theatre Royal Wakefield, Wakefield :: V979 listing details L0911431960 |
| 27 Mar 07 | Hull Truck Theatre, Hull :: V935 listing details L380807190 |
| 18 Mar 07 to 19 Mar 07 | Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff :: V1984858935 listing details L1623071763 |
| 13 Feb 07 to 26 Feb 07 | The Hen and Chickens Theatre, Inner London :: V234 listing details L1078392299 |
C90 - T01985875838Work in progress. It's Henry's last day at work. Surrounded by thousands of discarded or undelivered compilation tapes he will start, at last, to listen. And in the tapes he'll find unheard stories, stories about himself, about people he knows. About everything. A new show by Daniel Kitson about memory, hope and a mans last day in a job that has never existed. | |
| 25 Mar 07 | Oxford Playhouse, Oxford :: V803 listing details L626108633 |
| 26 Jul 06 to 29 Jul 06 | Riverside Studios, Outer London :: V331 listing details L668044790 |
| 12 Jul 06 to 15 Jul 06 | Soho Theatre, Inner London :: V1035 listing details L1249565733 |
Weltanschauung - T1139868707Kitson delivers his theatricalised stand-up with the aid of a record player and some nice orange lights. | |
| 7 Oct 06 to 29 Oct 06 | The Hen and Chickens Theatre, Inner London :: V234 listing details L1499158987 |
| 28 Feb 06 to 4 Mar 06 | BAC (Battersea Arts Centre), Inner London :: V168 listing details L1325885934 |
| 17 Feb 06 | Lemon Tree, Aberdeen :: V587 listing details L01887208470 |
| 16 Feb 06 | Town Hall, Loughborough :: V02111941779 listing details L1701515114 |
| 24 Jan 06 | Unity Theatre, Liverpool :: V539 listing details L882795484 |
| 19 Jan 06 | Gulbenkian Arts Centre, Canterbury :: V673 listing details L1530007659 |
Shuffling Around and Being Funny - T01067800492 | |
| 17 Oct 05 to 18 Oct 05 | Brighton Dome, Brighton :: V655 listing details L441298876 |
| 10 Oct 05 to 11 Oct 05 | Brighton Dome, Brighton :: V655 listing details L01379297015 |
| 11 Jul 05 | Unity Theatre, Liverpool :: V539 listing details L2083488079 |
| 5 Jun 05 | Hull Truck Theatre, Hull :: V935 listing details L1657624703 |
T1705066638 | |
| 26 May 04 | The Rondo, Bath :: V855 listing details L2043263252 |
| 25 May 04 | The Tobacco Factory Theatres, Bristol :: V1384579886 listing details L76503951 |
| 21 May 04 | Theatre Royal Wakefield, Wakefield :: V979 listing details L02022361623 |
| 17 May 04 | Guildhall Theatre, Derby :: V994 listing details L095276384 |
| 16 Feb 04 | Burnley Mechanics, Burnley :: V519 listing details L1119256316 |
A Made Up Story - T1342418288After a year of travelling the world on the back of an over rated show and half heartedly trotting out material that used to be good whilst pointing out the humour in strangers' jobs, Daniel is bored of every word that he has ever spoken. In an attempt to keep himself interested, annoy his agent and lose ninety percent of his audience he is creating a new show. A show he can take pride in, a show to relight the fire, a show to make people's hearts explode. | |
| 6 Nov 03 | Gulbenkian Arts Centre, Canterbury :: V673 listing details L01441688155 |
| 30 Jul 03 to 24 Aug 03 | The Pod, Edinburgh :: V01401625820 listing details L286907752 |
Something - T02016574493Last years winner of the Edinburgh Perrier Award, Star of Phoenix Nights and recently had the audience in stitches at the theatre's comedy club. | |
| 5 Jul 03 | mac birmingham - Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham :: V146 listing details L02129438819 |
| 4 Jul 03 | De Montfort Hall, Leicester :: V430 listing details L1905807938 |
| 18 Jun 03 | OFS Studio (previously known as Old Fire Station Theatre), Oxford :: V800 listing details L1444218410 |
| 11 Mar 03 | Theatre Royal Wakefield, Wakefield :: V979 listing details L01570732605 |
| 6 Mar 03 to 7 Mar 03 | Brighton Dome, Brighton :: V655 listing details L81009840 |
| 2 Mar 03 | Swan Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon :: V136 listing details L584596725 |
| 23 Feb 03 | Burton Taylor Studio, Oxford :: V799 listing details L2129421702 |
| 5 Feb 03 | Victoria Theatre, Halifax :: V969 listing details L01786015062 |
| 2 Feb 03 | Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry :: V156 listing details L1689248809 |
Something - T0119984980 | |
| 4 Nov 02 to 23 Nov 02 | Soho Theatre, Inner London :: V1035 listing details L61553975 |
| 6 Oct 02 | His Majesty's Theatre, West End :: V397 listing details L02026503131 |
T01283087220 | |
| 4 Jun 02 | mac birmingham - Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham :: V146 listing details L1818616437 |
| 10 Mar 02 | Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry :: V156 listing details L717316247 |
Other listings | |
| 10 Jun 07 | Open Air Theatre, West End :: V403 listing details L0376609438 |
| 8 Jul 05 to 9 Jul 05 | Soho Theatre, Inner London :: V1035 listing details L1983830514 |
| 28 Jan 00 | South Hill Park Arts Centre, Wilde Theatre, Bracknell :: V731 listing details L0569862804 |
| 26 Nov 99 | South Hill Park Arts Centre, Wilde Theatre, Bracknell :: V731 listing details L01229807227 |
