Venue:
The Tabard Theatre. Chiswick
Date: 18/03/2026
David Visick is better known here as Chiz, and it was his comment on the Shameless Self Promotion thread that alerted me to the play – and I’m very glad he did.
Imagining a meeting between the old king Hamlet & Yorick the fool, it was a fast paced, witty exchange between the two of them. The King’s pomposity punctured by the down to earth fool.
Tim Marriott (the King) is best known for his role as the Deputy Manager in the Brittas Empire and is a stalwart of the Tabard theatre (a friend told me “he dies at least two shows a year”) The play opened with his death, before emerging in purgatory.
Nicholas Collett’s fool reminded me of a taller version of David Rappaport in Time Bandits.
The Waiting for Godot premise was that the pair was stuck in this “non world” together, and even when given the chance to move on, they remained.
It’s ages since I read Hamlet, but it’s so much part of general culture, I didn’t feel that I missed any references, nor did it stick solely to Shakespeare. The laughs were frequent, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and at 70 minutes, it didn’t outstay its welcome.
The audience:
An appreciative audience. A mix of those taking advantage of the reduced price preview and those that regularly attend Tabard shows.
It made me think..
Describing it to friends, I said a comedy mix of Shakespeare & Godot as written by Terry Jones.
Thank you Tim for going and writing this! It’s been a busy month with two separate productions in two continents. This is a revival of an old piece which I thought had had its time, and now suddenly it’s in demand. No complaints about that, obviously.
Any plans for more @chiz ?
Touring in the autumn and possibly another crack at off-Broadway. But I’ve learned not to expect too much from that kind of talk.
Hats off @chiz…impressive stuff!