Tree, The Old Vic

Daniel Kitson has long been the most reclusive and most revered of stand-up comedians. He refuses to appear on television or give interviews, and communicates with his army of devoted fans via a personal newsletter. You are lucky to catch him doing stand-up anymore, as he sticks to a 40-seater room above a pub in Forest Hill for warm-ups, and appearances at festivals sell quicker than the hottest of cakes.

Comedian turned actor / playwright

But die-hard fans have been given a new cause for swooning and manically refreshing their online-sales windows over the last few years, in the form of a series of minimalist theatre shows. We still get the punchy one-liners and dirty humour of the stand-up, but the philosophical musings, eccentric characters and beautiful narrative sketchings are more sustained. He also enjoys messing with form; ‘Analog.Ue’ at the National last year employed 46 tape-decks to tell a pre-recorded story, without the man himself uttering a word.

With ‘Tree’ the main conceit seems to be given away in the title, as Kitson spends the whole play up a tree. He’s talking to his friend Tim Key, also a star of the stand-up circuit and recent collaborator with Alan Partridge on film and television. We know that 90 minutes spent in the company of these men will be as uproarious, wistful, and profoundly surprising as any Beckettian masterpiece; if you want to know what all the fuss is about, bookmark the ticket page in your browser now!

Tree, Old Vic: Tickets 

Due to popular demand and sold out shows more dates have been added: there is now an extra week of shows from 16th to 22nd Feb with plenty of availability so get booking fast.