Daniel Kitson

It’s 4.52pm on Wednesday the twenty fourth of December when Pollyanna Plunket, briefly distracted by opening a bag of toffees – glances away from the road for no more than a second only to find, upon looking back that an old man, , from nowhere made his way to the middle of the street. She hits the horn, the man turns, she stamps hard on the brakes and whilst the vehicle, a mid sized motorhome – does slow down, it does not stop.

Skidding on, over glistening black tarmac, careering into the old man –making no visible attempt to move – rooted to the spot, bent over under the weight of a battered red bag – the inevitable impact flips him up over the bonnet and into the windscreen – his eyes oddly calm as they meet hers for a moment before he slumps down the glass, rolling back off the bonnet and out of sight.

A story about possibility and magic and grief and hope and tradition and toffees.

Which is to say, Christmas. Basically.

In 2014 Daniel Kitson was asked by Shelley Hastings at the Battersea Arts Centre if he wanted to write a Christmas show and, much to his surprise, he did. This is that show. It was performed that Christmas for five nights, in the Grand Hall at BAC and for fourteen nights the following Christmas at the Connelly Theatre in New York.

This year, throughout December he’s taking it on tour to a handful of venues around the UK, including here.