REVIEW: ABOUT BILL by Matthew Strachan & Bernie Gaughan, starring Kim Ismay at Tabard Theatre, Chiswick until 9 Sept 2023



‘a brilliant actor and singer using all the skills at her command ‘ ★★★★★

It’s hard to believe that About Bill is a one-woman show. What with the multiple characters Kim Ismay creates and the overwhelming presence of the eponymous but invisible Bill himself, this joyous skip through six decades of the man’s life told through the women who loved (and disapproved) of his rackety ways, it’s easy to feel as if this is a fully developed stage show rather than a single superb performer in varied costumes bringing a world to life. And a neglected yet vivid world it is, too, from Bill’s unexpected and not-entirely-wanted birth in 1930 to his much-mourned death in 1990 after a career as an internationally famous trumpeter.

Suitable to his career, his story is told largely through music, beginning with two pitch-perfect pastiche 1930s numbers with Formbyish cadence sung by his mother-to-be, Stella, an already failing chorus girl in her 20s for whom stardom will beckon only as far as last in the line in the pier show at Scarborough. Poor misnamed Stella will never be the star-spangled gypsy goddess of her first song, and the plaintive hope of ‘Be A Girl’ almost inevitably condemns her to a boy named Bill.

Between the dozen songs spanning and spinning through the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s come spoken interludes with Ismay playing the Aunty Dot who brings Bill up, while her sister continues to chase the fading limelight.  Then come girlfriends, lovers and a daughter who all follow Bill’s progress through cheeky childhood to international stardom as a trumpeter.

The whole thing’s brilliantly written, funny and touching throughout, but Aunty Dot pretty much steals the show in each of her three appearances. She’s a fearsome northern matriarch –‘I said, you slice that bacon thin, young man’ – in a coat and hat not to be removed even when sat in a deckchair with the kind of pink cocktail that comes with a little umbrella. Ismay’s transformations are remarkable – she’s playing characters who range from 16 to 79 here and all she has is a wig and a coat or a dress plus a spectacular vocal range. Her comic timing’s as good as her singing, and that’s saying something, in both directions.

There are a few minor flaws – the gold-digging 29-year-old Mexican chambermaid’s a caricature that might have been a bit iffy even when this show premiered back in 2011, and, on opening night at least there were some microphone feedback and rustling problems (prompting the thought that an auditorium the size of the Tabard possibly doesn’t merit a mic).

But overall, the show’s a triumph – a brilliant actor and singer using all the skills at her command – and the kind you can’t leave without grinning and humming at least one of the unknown but cleverly familiar tunes from six decades (which leaves just enough space for a quick word of praise for Paul Crew’s unobtrusively excellent piano). 

Read our interview with director Keith Strachan here.

Photography credit: Anthony Sajdler

ABOUT BILL by Matthew Strachan and Bernie Gaughan,

starring Kim Ismay,

directed by Keith Strachan

at Tabard Theatre, Chiswick

30 Aug - 9 Sept 2023

Box Office: https://tabard.org.uk/whats-on

Reviewer: David Weir’s plays include Confessional (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Better Together (Jack Studio, London). Those and others performed across Scotland, Wales and England, and in Australia, Canada, South Korea, Switzerland and Belgium. Awards include Write Now Festival prize, Constance Cox award, SCDA best depiction of Scottish life, and twice Bruntwood longlisted.