The Part Of Bob Kingdom
Will Be Played By An Actor

  • Written & Performed by Bob Kingdom
  • Directed by Brian Cummins

All the world's a dressing room...

Fringe First-winning doyen of the solo show world, Bob Kingdom, plays Bob Kingdom, doyen of the solo show world and Fringe-First winner, playing Bob Kingdom... what is this? Is this the stage or the dressing room? Who are all these people? Who am I, come to that? I used to be Dylan Thomas; or was it Truman Capote? I'm sure I was someone. Can yourself be the hardest role to play? Can you be yourself without playing a role?

After 3 award-winning, world-touring hit shows illustrating the genius and frailties of such personalities as J Edgar Hoover, Truman Capote and Dylan Thomas, Kingdom's attention is drawn inexorably inward. Turning the performer's role inside-out, Bob Kingdom reveals the inner machinations and manipulations of acting; a cleverly constructed self-analysis examining a man who has given his entire self over to the representation of others. What is left when he comes off stage?

Casually post-modern, deeply funny, and emotionally affecting at the same time, this new show is the natural culmination of Kingdom's solo expertise. The Part Of Bob Kingdom Will Be Played By An Actor is a fascinating addendum to any of Kingdom's other shows - indeed, to any performance. Kingdom is performer, impersonator, personality and philosopher in one.


Top of pageReviews:

"...a highly perceptive analysis of the art of the one-man show. Kingdom is a natural and knows his audience inside out - a rapport is struck immediately and the resulting intimacy is tangible." (The Stage)

"When is an actor not an actor? What if he's playing himself? Bob Kingdom's breezily cerebral monologue grapples with this existential riddle, like a postmodern 'An Evening With', mixed with a heartfelt jouney into childhood... His one-man shows are Fringe staples... a mercurial collage of impressions, tales, and tangents upon tangents... The depth of Kingdom's talent keeps all this sombre navel-gazing compelling. The gaggery is droll, the flitting from one voice to another simply virtuosic, the tugging at heart strings firm and subtle." (The Scotsman)

"A mix of straight talk, theatrical asides and chaotic, schizophrenic dialogue with his other halves, entertaining quips - as he says, 'you can be as rude as you like in someone else's trousers'" (The List)

Biographies

Bob Kingdom grew up in Cardiff, South Wales. Like Dylan Thomas he lived in an Anglicised Welsh environment marked by a tension between two cultures. From here comes a reworking of the English language under the rhythm of Welsh cadences with which Thomas himself was able to colonise the words of the English to surprise, startle and hypnotise. From an early age Bob Kingdom was himself captured by words and language. As a small boy he won literary competitions and distinguished himself in amateur dramatics (amazing adult colleagues with mimicry and an ability to play exceedingly old gentlemen with uncanny conviction.)
In adulthood he quickly established himself in the world of advertising copywriting (pleading guilty to a number of catchphrases and images of the seventies!) Confused with a multiplicity of talents he found himself involved in television voice-overs, poetry readings and as a writer/performer of radio comedy shows (an early member of the satirical Week Ending team, where his Neil Kinnock remains unsurprassed!) In addition to all this he found time to mount his own London art exhibitions.
Few people who saw an early incarnation of Bob Kingdom's Dylan Thomas at the Chelsea Arts Club would have realised the international critical acclaim which would follow, to demand that the show should run seemingly for ever and everywhere. It has been seen in Britain, the United States, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Indeed it has gone beyond the English speaking world to France, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. On Christmas Day 1990 the Sky satellite network brought Kingdom's Dylan into numerous parlours.Top of page