After selling out Londons Regents Park Open Air Theatre for a series of three special midnight storytelling shows this summer, Daniel Kitson returns once again to the Traverse Theatre for a feature length story, borne out of a small discovery that would go on to take over his life.The show The Interminable Suicide of Gregory Chuch' is Kitsons response to innocently finding a letter in an old typewriter in the loft of a house for sale he was viewing. The letter is a suicide note of said Gregory Church, who we find has kept a copy of every letter he's sent and received.Kitsons standup skills come into fore at the beginning of the show, with his tale of discovering the letter, and dealing with the estate agent. However it's storytelling mode tonight, and it begins when Kitson takes ownership of the letters (over 30,000 of them). Using all the investigative stills of Sherlock Holmes, Columbo and a little CSI, he pieces together the life of a man who he'll never meet.It's a mammoth task to combine 20 years of letters into 90 minutes. There's a lot of detail to get through, but Kitson does a great job of carving out a narrative. He tells of his initial organisation, and then eventual obsession with the project punctuated with excerpts from the letters (highlights including the funny exchanges from the local newspaper editor, and some genuinely moving advice to a bullied schoolboy).With only a small chair and simple table for company, Kitson passionately delivers the story at breakneck speed (which he acknowledged and apologies for), only slowing down a handful of times when the needs of the story demanded so.Warning: Watching the show is quite exhausting. It requires your full attention (difficult in a hot room at the end of the night); however if you manage to keep up with it, you'll be rewarded with a tale both funny and sad that will in some small way restore your faith in humanity. I've never before left a theatre wanting to read a letter on growing onions!
