Tom Lloyd

So the weekend was a fun one, pretty much how I like then to go when we’re not off visiting people. Lots of rugby on the saturday, lots of cooking in the evening and out for a good pub lunch. There was only one thing I didn’t feel like doing much – heading into town after lots of food and wine to go and watch something I couldn’t even remember why I’d booked it. The title? The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Church. Not exactly sounding light-hearted eh? Not really something you want to leave the sofa for and head out into the blustery evening?

Fortunately, sense prevailed. I knew nothing of Daniel Kitson or the show other than it had sounded interesting a month back when we block-booked five shows at the Oxford Playhouse, and while I frankly couldn’t remember the description we decided to head along and see what it was all about. As it was, it’s a very simple show – not stand up certainly, just Daniel Kitson relating a story (in some ways his story of the last three years) over the course of an hour and a half. No props beyond his notebook and his beard, which wasn’t so much a prop as just right there in front of his face while he talked.

Now while I rarely have the time for biographies, one of my favourite books ever is Any Human Heart, the story of a fictional life. Clearly I’m a bit of a sucker for a life’s story told in snapshot, certainly when it’s brilliantly done. I’m reminded of the opening section of UP, which I really hadn’t been expecting when I watched what I was expecting to be a clever but silly comic cartoon, albeit one for adults. I’ve never before found a cartoon so sweet and affecting before, and that’s rather the effect Interminable Suicide had on the both of us. I wasn’t sure what to expect when it started, but I was quickly sucked in and left feeling stunned. It’s quite brilliant, and if you can find it in a city/country near you on this list I wholly recommend going. Seriously, go have a look now, you’ll thank me.