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Friday, January 28, 2011

“The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church”

"Daniel Kitson’s sentences are like fast-growing mutant super-vines, sending out sticky tendrils that dig into your attention and snake themselves all over it" writes Ben Brantley in the New York Times. It's not a bad description, but I would say that Kitson's sentences are more like those of an excited Brit with a speech impediment, spitting into the air every so often and gesticulating maniacally as he proclaims his discovery of the life of Gregory Church.

 Actually, we (that is, the audience) are entirely unclear as to whether or not Kitson has anything to do with Gregory Church at all. He begins his one-man show by disclosing that "only the beginning is true," but then never distinguishes the beginning from the rest of the production. As he spews on, telling a story that might be entirely false, it's impossible not to be engaged. Because Kitson is hysterically funny, because he's incredibly creative (we must take for granted that at least some portion of the show is fiction) and because he's a wonderfully talented story-teller, by the time he announces at the end of the play that he was once a stand-up comic, the audience has long known that he is a comedian at heart. It's a must-see if you love fiction, nonfiction, or enjoy laughing even at the unknown.

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