Kit Lambert is an award winning writer for theatre and television.  His play GULLIVER toured the UK with Hijinx Theatre Company and he wrote for Red Planet Pictures on their recent BBC Wales TV drama CRASH, created by Tony Jordan.  He has written for BBC’s DOCTORS and is currently under option for a new ITV drama series with Jellylegs Productions (LIFERS) and a new sitcom with Hat Trick (LIMELIGHT).

Kit has previously written plays for Paines Plough, Sherman Cymru, Likely Story and Wildcard Theatre Company, and collaborated with four other writers on True Fiction’s production of THE EXQUISITE CORPSE (Edinburgh Festival 2008 & Southwark Playhouse). His play INCIDENTAL was read as part of the recent Catalan-Wales Drama Festival.  Kit was the winner of the inaugural Script Slam competition at the Sherman Theatre in 2005 with his first play, THE CUSTOM HOUSE, which was subsequently shortlisted for the Kings Cross New Writing Award.  His most recent play, ONCE UPON A TIME, is touring this Christmas with the Arts Council of Wales’ ‘Nights Out’.  Kit has a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Exeter.

Kit’s Hotbed play is called THE ODYSSEY OF DIMITRI AMIRAS.  Dimitri sits in his holiday trailer on the edge of an eroding cliff and dreams of floating home to his native Greece.  Combining poetry, mythical imagery and the visceral, broken English of a broken man far from home, this will be an original, thought-provoking and funny ten-minute monologue.

Interview with Kit

What was the inspiration behind your play?

In November, a cliff collapsed at a holiday park near my home in South Wales.  The image of trailers teetering on the edge was set against the worsening economic crisis in Greece and protests on the streets of London.  My idea came out of a desire to combine these images.

What is your greatest ambition?

To run the London Marathon whilst reciting the whole of Hamlet from memory.

Who is your favourite writer(s)?

Roald Dahl, Harold Pinter, Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

When was the last time you laughed out loud and why?

Yesterday, when my wife put my six month old son in a particularly silly Christmas hat.

See below for reviews of Kit’s work:

REVIEWS

Previous theatre productions by Kit Lambert

1. 1. DELUGE (Sherman Cymru, 2010)

Review by Michael Kelligan, Theatre in Wales

“There was no doubting the verisimilitude of the setting of the second play, a magical and fascinating piece of poetic writing by Kit Lambert, a very bright young star on the playwriting scene here in Wales. The loft at Chapter, not yet having received the attention of the renovating experts does have the feel of a derelict building ready for demolition. This is where the smelly trolley-man has holed himself up along with his vast collection of treasures, useless objects he has collected off the streets of Cardiff. Russell Gomer as Noah gives us a very colourful and well observed performance. His first visitor, the street-wise teenager Rhea, is also given a strong performance by Katy Owen that is both sincere and very funny and Simon Nehan is very convincing as the security guard sent in to evict Noah.

This latter day Noah had only rubbish to fill up his ark ready for the rains to subside, but now he has furnished it with a man and a woman, there is a whole new future and he leaves his old home with Rhea and Woyzeck safe inside and the rains still falling heavily on the dirt stained window panes. Excellently directed by Adele Thomas, Lambert’s short piece was reminiscent of the sagas of old with an almost Homeric touch, a morality play setting out both the hopes and the hopelessnesses of the world we live in.”

1. 2. GULLIVER (Hijinx Theatre Company, 2009)

Review of Gulliver by Allison Vale, British Theatre Guide

“Young Welsh playwright, Kit Lambert’s latest play, Gulliver, has been written for the inimitable Cardiff-based Hijinx Theatre Company.

Lambert’s career was launched in 2005 when he won the Sherman Cymru’s inaugural Script Slam competition, since which time he has worked for Paines Plough, Dirty Protest and the Sherman, earning himself a reputation as a name to watch in Welsh Theatre.

Gulliver is a fascinating exploration of Jonathon Swift’s tortuous fear of lunacy, or more specifically his terror of the Asylum, and focuses on the period of his life in which he penned the biting satire, Gulliver’s Travels.

Lambert’s text is a masterful combination of the biographical, the imagined and extracts from the novel, all seamlessly combined into this well-imagined and well-crafted whole.

Swift’s satire and his battles with the ‘absurdities’ of 18th century life are perfectly embodied in Lambert’s text and brought to life by the captivating performances of Brendan Charleson’s tormented Swift and Michael Wagg’s irrepressible Dr Lemuel Gulliver.

Strong support is provided by Zoë Davies and James Ashton, and Carl Davies’ set and costume design is richly atmospheric; remarkably lavish for this small-scale touring production.

Hijinx’s Louise Osborn directs this absorbing production, with all the colour and vibrancy of Swift’s opiate-induced vision. This is intelligent, arresting theatre, brilliantly written and staged with the flare and panache that has become typical of Hijinx.”