As the song goes, time heals everything. Or as another song says, it's time after time. Yet waiting—for a moment, a minute, or even a while—can feel like a chore. In Gary Wilmot’s slightly absurd and silly While They Were Waiting, the focus is on waiting and wordplay. No opportunity is missed to find more than one meaning in what is said. A debate arises about the difference between a smidge and a whisker. There's a playful riff on how you can be here and over there at the same time, depending on your standpoint. If this piece has a point at all, it depends on what you find funny. The concept of waiting-related language is, in itself, amusing, and there is plenty to laugh about in this show. It’s currently playing at
Upstairs at the Gatehouse.
The premise is simple: Mulbery (Steve Furst) arrives for an appointment and is kept waiting. What the appointment is for, we are not clear about but he is waiting for a yellow door to open. Nobody answers when he rings. He’s joined by the mischievous Bix (Gary Wilmot), who simultaneously manages to bond with and irritate him. Mulbery is used to waiting, but Bix has other ideas.
There’s a playfulness in the exploration of this idea about the passing of time, the forming of friendships and even the idea about what constitutes a piece of theatre. Waiting for something to happen, waiting for your moment. The one-upmanship and wordplay in the first half of the piece keep things moving quickly, even if the jokes may be on the sillier side. But in the second half of the piece the waiting takes a more sombre tone. This shift in tone as the piece nears the end comes as a little suprrise given what has come before.
Writer-performer Gary Wilmot got the idea for the piece while sharing a dressing room with Furst during a complex production at the National Theatre, where they were waiting in their dressing room for long periods. The programme notes emphasise how long we have to wait for everything, to the point that there are waiting rooms for all sorts of things. I was reading this in the two minutes before the show started. I didn’t arrive too early because I don’t like to wait around for the theatre to start, so I timed my arrival at Highgate to reduce my waiting time, so I could start seeing the point...
Without giving too much away about the show, from the outset, it has an otherworldly feel, with its soundtrack of old songs and a cute set of fluffy clouds and blue skies. While there may not be too many surprises in the piece, and perhaps one ending too many, it’s an enjoyable journey into the endless possibilities for passing time. Or waiting for something to happen that may never be.
Directed by Sydney Stevenson, While They Were Waiting continues at Upstairs at the Gatehouse until 22 March.
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Production photos by Simon Jackson
