Daniel Kitson latest show is a playful take on performance, story telling and a self indulgence. The entire show, comprising of three strands of stories, is recorded on 46 different vintage recorders delivered by Kitson: one is a director commentary about the show, another is about Thomas set in 1977 on an old garage and his recorders and lastly, a story about a lonely woman Trudy set in 2013. These story are as usual about life’s triviality of yoghurt, baked potatoes and how to go from one end of the garage to another but told with Kitson’s wit, observational skill and fine use of vocabulary.
The director’s commentary gives Kitson the opportunity to explain why he wants to do a show without having to perform it in the usual sense. So he set himself the task to move each of the recorders one by one from the far upstage and setting them up around the stage and playing them at the appropriate time. This plays with the idea of performance and story telling, whether a recorded piece is still a live performance and question the delivery that is already pre-set and has an ending. It is an interesting study though one that could do with a stronger thrust of story as concentration can drift with the trivialities in Thomas and Trudy’s stories.
As a form interrogation and a typical idiosyncratic project from Kitson, it works well. Perhaps a deeper emotional connection and some truly memorable moments is what is lacking.
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