In 2013, Daniel Kitson wrote a play for two people (himself and (the mighty) Tim Key) to perform for a week or two at the (also mighty) Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. In 2015 that play was restaged at the (again, mighty) Old Vic in London for something like 28 performances, in total. This is one of those performances, in real time, start to finish.
An eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island tries to make his fantasies come true by getting his favourite musicians to perform at his home.
Shares 3 cast members
London, 1953. Mr. Williams, a veteran civil servant, is an important cog within the city's bureaucracy as it struggles to rebuild in the aftermath of World War II. Buried under paperwork at the office and lonely at home, his life has long felt empty and meaningless. Then a devastating medical diagnosis forces him to take stock, and to try and grasp some fulfilment before it passes permanently beyond reach.
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Young William Shakespeare is forced to stage his latest comedy, 'Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter', before it's even written. When lovely noblewoman Viola de Lesseps auditions for a role, they fall into forbidden love — and Shakespeare's play finds a new life (and title). As their relationship intensifies, the comedy soon transforms into tragedy.
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William Thatcher, a knight's peasant apprentice, gets a chance at glory when the knight dies suddenly mid-tournament. Posing as a knight himself, William won't stop until he's crowned tournament champion—assuming matters of the heart don't get in the way.
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During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.
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In 2010, or maybe 2011, it’s hard to be certain about these things, I wrote and performed a show called It’s Always Right Now, Until It’s Later. I originally performed it in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at the Traverse Theatre every morning at 10.30 before restaging it at St Anns Warehouse in New York, The National Theatre in London and The Royal Exchange in Manchester. This film was made on one single night towards the end of the Manchester run and is the entire show, in real time.
Shares 3 cast members · Same director
Jamaica, 1973. When a young boy witnesses his brother’s assassination, a powerful Don gives him a home. But 10 years later, when he’s sent to London, his past catches up to him.
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After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society.
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At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.
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After an accident, Tom wakes from a coma to discover that fragments of his smart phone have been embedded in his head, and worse, that returning to normal teenage life is impossible because he has developed a strange set of super powers.
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Unlikely hero Mickey Barnes finds himself in the extraordinary circumstance of working for an employer who demands the ultimate commitment to the job… to die, for a living.
After spending the night together on the eve of their college graduation, Dexter and Emma are shown each year on the same date to see where they are in their lives. They are sometimes together, and sometimes not.
In the West End of 1950s London, plans for a movie version of a smash-hit play come to an abrupt halt after a pivotal member of the crew is murdered. When world-weary Inspector Stoppard and eager rookie Constable Stalker take on the case, the two find themselves thrown into a puzzling whodunit within the glamorously sordid theater underground, investigating the mysterious homicide at their own peril.
After a quick courtship, two lovers hastily decide to tie the knot. As their first year of marriage unfolds, temptation and incompatibility put their relationship in jeopardy.
An awkward office drone becomes increasingly unhinged after a charismatic and confident look-alike takes a job at his workplace and seduces the woman he desires.
When the denizens of Littlehampton – including conservative Edith – begin receiving letters full of hilarious profanities, rowdy Irish migrant Rose is charged with the crime. Suspecting something amiss, the town's women band together to investigate.
An eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island tries to make his fantasies come true by getting his favourite musicians to perform at his home.
While trying to make his sister's wedding day go smoothly, Jack finds himself juggling an angry ex-girlfriend, an uninvited guest with a secret, a misplaced sleep sedative, and the girl that got away in alternate versions of the same day.
A group of twenty-somethings, one of whom is a single father with a precious daughter, have been unsuccessful in getting into a certain club so they can have a chance to DJ there and start a career out of it. A series of events has lumbered them with a dog napping scheme gone badly wrong, ending up with them owning a particular pooch belonging to a dog-loving local drug dealer.
A recording of a show called The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church, which Daniel Kitson toured for around six months in 2011, having written it initially for a run at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in 2009. This film was recorded at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol on one night in 2011 and edited over two months in 2020.
Recording of Daniel Kitson’s show "After the Beginning. Before the End" at the Battersea Arts Centre’s Grand Hall in July 2013, produced by and for the British Library.
A live recording of Daniel Kitson’s 2002 Edinburgh Fringe show Something, later performed at Soho Theatre. Capturing the early rise of one of Britain’s most distinctive stand-ups, the set blends self-deprecating humour, sharp observation, and moments of surprising tenderness. The recording was slightly edited by Kitson to remove minor asides and polish pacing, offering a snapshot of his creative voice during a defining year in his career.
