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Post by talkingheads on Jan 12, 2019 18:33:52 GMT
I'm seeing this tomorrow, can't believe I actually managed to get tickets, at this stage Kitson has attained a near mythical status, so trying to temper my expectations. Has anyone here seen it? Or is going in the next few weeks?
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Post by theatrelover123 on Jan 12, 2019 18:42:41 GMT
I used to love Daniel Kitson and his work but the Roundhouse gigs a couple of years ago were crude, unfunny, racist, overlong and self-indulgent and has put me off seeing him again.
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Post by floorshow on Jan 12, 2019 18:53:57 GMT
I do love some Kitson but BAC is a swine to get to so prob gonna have to wait until his inevitable Regents Park show during the summer.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 12, 2019 19:13:34 GMT
I'm seeing this at the end of the month - I have seen a few things online with people saying it was far too long so I'm hoping Kitson has cut it down a bit before I see this : I've enjoyed everything I've seen him do before but I'm a little bit mystified as to why people think he is one of the best stand ups going, to tell the truth.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2019 19:24:45 GMT
I used to love Daniel Kitson and his work but the Roundhouse gigs a couple of years ago were crude, unfunny, racist, overlong and self-indulgent and has put me off seeing him again. I hate people who quote and say “this” but This Hope Keep is a return to form |
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Post by floorshow on Jan 12, 2019 19:31:54 GMT
His WIP nights upstairs at the Hob were some of the best stand up I've seen - very free range, just fishing for ideas and working a small room. So much more fun than the more intricate stuff he's been producing.
Didn't see the Roundhouse shows, think Tree was the last show we saw.
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Post by audrey on Jan 13, 2019 8:52:45 GMT
Saw it on tuesday and it was just over two hours without an interval. I've seen a lot of Kitson - but didnt enjoy his Roundhouse gig a couple of years ago - and thought Keep was way too long and rambly - the other Kitson shows I've seen before have done this much better. Its a mix off stand-up and story telling and if it was honed down then it would work for me. I lost interest about half way through and couldn't get it back. My son though , also a big Kitson fan, really enjoyed it and liked the over long rambling. Lots of people nipping out to the loo during the performance!
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Post by theatrelover123 on Jan 13, 2019 9:25:55 GMT
I used to love Daniel Kitson and his work but the Roundhouse gigs a couple of years ago were crude, unfunny, racist, overlong and self-indulgent and has put me off seeing him again. I hate people who quote and say “this” but This Hope Keep is a return to form Well this made no sense  |
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Post by talkingheads on Jan 13, 2019 10:43:44 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2019 11:05:30 GMT
I used to love Daniel Kitson and his work but the Roundhouse gigs a couple of years ago were crude, unfunny, racist, overlong and self-indulgent and has put me off seeing him again. I hate people who quote and say “this” but This Hope Keep is a return to form Seconding that 'this' can you second a 'this'? anyway I just have. Self indulgent particularly, and a kind of 'in-crowd-in-joke' feeling that fully put me off for a bit. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2019 11:36:10 GMT
Kitson is one of the least racist comedians you can find, his whole act is a personification of white liberal guilt and self-flagellation (not literally, just in case anybody goes along hoping for a bit of whipping). I’ve seen pretty much nearly all his shows for over a decade and, whilst some are brilliant and some just pass the time, they are always worth the effort. Shows like It’s Always Right Now Until It’s Later (which best shows off his warmly evocative worldview, his wordplay and command of storytelling structure), being a particularly representative example. For those who don’t know him, you can spend three quid to watch it here. video.danielkitson.comHe splits time between storyelling and comedy shows and, whilst Keep seems to be getting very average reviews it will be, typically, work in progress for a while; the show will develop and be different by the time most people see it. He doesn’t do TV, which might make him appear cliquey, but that isn’t why. Partly the commercialisation but, also, I personally think his sometimes obvious and occasionally prolonged stammer make him stick to the relative comfort of the live gigs that he knows. The repetition night after night might add to this (although his often lengthy digressions suggest maybe not). This stammer can be offputting at first to those who just go along on spec. but he always weaves it into his act if needed. He also goes out of his way to get different audiences by visiting out of the way places (I saw his recent work in progress, nearby me, in Hebden Bridge, which barely anybody goes to!) He keeps his ticket prices at rock bottom too, so that he isn’t exclusive (and he doesn’t do ballots........) |
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Post by talkingheads on Jan 13, 2019 17:47:13 GMT
Well that was glorious. Room for editing but I'm glad it wasn't. Two hours in his company flew by. The astonishing turn of phrase is ever present and though I can remember six or seven of my favourites there must be half a dozen more that I won't. No heckling as such but somebody sneezed at a crucial moment and he weaved it in seamlessly.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 15, 2019 9:13:31 GMT
I'm seeing it on Thursday, having seen two of the work-in-progress shows at the Bill Murray - an early one for which he had about 4 pages, then a later one where he had a much more complete version so it'll be interesting to see how the finished show compares. As per Sinha's piece, my recollection of that Roundhouse show was that DK described hearing racist comments as a child, in which people used the word p**i, and that he clearly criticised this. It stuck in my mind as it resonated with my own childhood experience especially as the son of Anglo Indian immigrants and being a target of that word, as were other members of my family, as well as seeing it used against others. Like Sinha, I don't see how that show was racist (and I thought the Guardian piece referred to was distorted and misleading). While others may have found it crude, unfunny and self-indulgent I personally didn't. Plus it seemed less intentionally comedic than most of his other works I've seen. I think given the way Kitson works there is always a degree of self-indulgence in his shows, but so far it's not been an off-putting factor for me. Except for a 2012 Edinburgh show As Of 1.52 GMT which consisted of him sitting reading out a script about him sitting reading out a script. It was a characteristically quirky idea but remains probably the least satisfying show of his I've seen. Usually though I like his use of different approaches - I especially enjoyed Polyphony, Tree and Mouse - but it can be hit and miss and I didn't get on so well with the one at the NT where he didn't speak at all (Analog.Ue). I second the recommendation of It's Always Right Now, which is possibly my personal favourite, apart from maybe the very first one of his I ever saw, 66a Church Road. I went away marvelling at how someone could stand on stage for 90 minutes talking non-stop about a flat he used to live in and make it so entertaining and touching. All that said, I can definitely see how after a while the self-indulgence that so often forms the basis of his shows could become quite wearing and eventually off-putting for some. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2019 9:21:11 GMT
The above is the best summary of it from me as well (I wasn't referring to the racism comments in my post having actually missed that entire thing) but yes- while it's clear there's an element of self indulgence as part of the 'bit' as it were, and that's fine, after a while it has just grown a bit wearying. That and feeling like it's very much an 'in crowd' who goes to his shows, or the 'cool kids' which obviously we can all say 'f*** it' and rise above...but also life's short, there's lots to do, why bother if as an audience member it makes you feel that way? which is where I'm at now with him....maybe in a few years I'd give him another bash.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 15, 2019 9:52:40 GMT
That and feeling like it's very much an 'in crowd' who goes to his shows, or the 'cool kids' which obviously we can all say 'f*** it' and rise above...but also life's short, there's lots to do, why bother if as an audience member it makes you feel that way? which is where I'm at now with him....maybe in a few years I'd give him another bash. Again that's something I can see but as yet it hasn't put me off. In fact it's something he's occasionally picked up on and extracted some humour from. But I'm very aware of it. It reminds me of queueing for early GA entry to certain bands' gigs so I can get on the front barrier, initially this was mainly to get an unobscured view and also I like being at the front of most things - eg theatre and cinema too, whereas at standing gigs it's become more about having something to rest my ageing limbs on! It usually means queueing early, and in turn that means being there with the other early queuers who are often really dedicated fans, many of whom go to every gig on the tour and consider themselves a sort of elite group of 'proper' fans and behave as such. They'll often recognise me and chat, but I'm really conscious of not wanting to be inducted into their clique and considered by others as "one of them"! They can be perfectly nice but not so much when the mega-fan attitude kicks in. You see similar in some dayseat queues and I'm guessing stage door ones as well but that's something I don't tend to do. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2019 10:44:43 GMT
I liked this one. It was a bit meandering, very plot-light, and far too clearly constructed, but as most Kitson shows need to come together at the end before you can fairly come to a conclusion, it didn't affect my overall enjoyment in the end. It's great though, the conceit of the show is that he will literally just be reading 21,000 index cards listing the contents of his house and he was very upfront about this at the beginning in case people wanted to leave before he got going. I hope it's not a spoiler to say you shouldn't believe a word of his lies, as people *did* leave the night I went and he did *not* literally just read 21,000 index cards listing the contents of his house. Stick it out. This probably isn't the show to convert any non-believers, but if you're already a fan, it's a worthwhile use of two hours and twelve pounds.
Much as I am increasingly losing patience for people who insist on there being two equal sides in *every* argument (for instance, 97% of scientists concur that climate change is real and caused by people, there is no reason for the 3% to be given equal air time as though it's an actual debate, and yet people do), I do see both sides of the racism complaint re: the Ovalhouse show. Yes, I think he was speaking critically against racism but at the same time, it wasn't a point so integral to the piece that it even needed to be brought up in the first place, and more importantly there are other voices better positioned to actually tackle the subject than that of a straight white man. Also I suppose there are some contexts where you would say the slur itself rather than a "polite" euphemism (such as "the n-word", though do we have any "polite" verbal euphemisms for P**i?) but I'm thinking more playing a racist character in a play, or using the word in an academic paper, or a member of the group in question saying it as part of a discussion, rather than using it relatively casually in a show you yourself have written; even if you feel uncomfortable about the racism involved but are still comfortable enough to say the word, maybe because it was in such common use in the playground when you were a kid, that's still a problem.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2019 11:55:56 GMT
I think the problem I had with that element of the previous show was that he used the term over and over again in that section, far more than was necessary to make the point (at least, that's how I remember it). Fully agree that it was not racist in intent.
Bigger problem I had was that the show was 2.5 hours with no interval which felt very self-indulgent! I do admire his commitment to accessibility with ticket prices, and also I like the fact that he attracts a very different audience than most theatre I go to - atmosphere for the thing at the National a few years ago was appreciably different.
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Post by Backdrifter on Jan 22, 2019 13:04:34 GMT
Some thoughts on this, having now seen it. I generally find his shows enjoyable on some level even when they're not among his best work, and this was the case with Keep. It's good, but it's not up there with 66a, It's Always, Polyphony, Mouse and Tree. On the 17th it ran to 2 hours, which was too long. It could've lost 20 minutes and not suffered, and in fact given that 90 minutes always seemed to be a standard Kitson show length I don't see any reason he couldn't have limited this one to that.
Irksome though it would no doubt seem to many, I actually thought he could have been bolder with the index card concept. Having the very handsome filing cabinet as the centrepiece of the set and the story, it would have made more sense to me for there to have been more card-reading than there was, and it would also have been more in line with his penchant for oddball show concepts.
Perhaps it was a mistake to have gone to two of the work-in-progress shows as their more loose, chaotic, chatty style was somehow more enjoyable. It might also be that those shows set up the idea of the card index to more of an extent in my mind than was helpful, if that makes sense - it might've heightened my expectations. Oh well, maybe a lesson there - don't go along to the work in progress shows just because I managed to get tickets in the mad scramble. The trouble is, because he makes them so skilfully unstructured and his ad-hoc audience interactions are so damn enjoyable, the shows are usually great fun. They also don't usually tend to bear much resemblance to the finished article but this time it was closer and that threw me a bit.
This was my first time back in the BAC Grand Hall since it re-opened and I was quite moved by it. A real triumph of spirit and perseverance. Two and a half years from it being a smoking ruin to re-opening in fine fettle - not bad going at all.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2020 8:39:08 GMT
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Post by talkingheads on May 14, 2020 9:38:00 GMT
I absolutely adore Kitson so will queue up (virtually) for tickets and hope for the best! |
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2020 10:04:27 GMT
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Post by talkingheads on May 15, 2020 17:42:59 GMT
Did anyone have any luck? What a shambles! |
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2020 19:43:31 GMT
He will be releasing tickets again on Sunday via a different provider www.danielkitson.com/But it does also look like the show (but not the live intro) will be streaming on Vimeo later too. |
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Post by floorshow on May 18, 2020 8:23:53 GMT
Just got mine for next weekend. The much-missed rush of buying tickets for a new show and putting something in the calendar |
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2020 13:51:03 GMT
Ha, yes! Booked mine too - the UK dates have sold out but the weekend matinees for the New York shows are not sold out yet - these are 11AM New York time on Sat and Sun, which if my maths is right is 4PM here.
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