Stories For The Wobbly Hearted

The owner of The Phoenix Club is the wheelchair-bound Brian Potter, who has presided over two clubs in the past: the first (The Aquarius) flooded, the second (The Neptune) burned down. His ambition (with the help of Jerry St Clair) is to see The Phoenix Club become the most popular in Bolton and thus outdo his arch-nemesis, Den Perry, owner of rival club The Banana Grove.

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.

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.

A MiniDV recording of Daniel Kitson’s "It’s the Fireworks Talking," filmed over two nights from opposite theatre boxes at the Athenaeum Theatre during the show’s final run. The footage includes the short films that bookend the performance, shot in either Coney Island or St Kilda, along with variable sound quality and a brief on-camera moment before the show begins.

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.