While They Were Waiting by Gary Wilmot at Upstairs at the Gatehouse 8 - 22 March 2026
'playful and assured ... Wilmot and Furst are superb stage actors' ★★★★
Well, we do all spend large parts of our lives waiting, don’t we? For his theatre writing debut the great Gary Wilmot has taken inspiration from a lifetime of waiting, not least when he and co-star Steve Furst were indeed waiting together whilst in rehearsal for a show at the National Theatre. In many ways the concept of waiting is in itself faintly absurd and here we are presented with the theatre of the absurd in, what is, a playful and assured debut.
The team at Upstairs At The Gatehouse are on a fine run of shows and, as ever, the small stage is presented and lit beautifully. So, there are clouds and a big bright yellow door with Furst’s Mulberry (nb the mulberry tree symbolises ‘patience’ - no coincidence I suspect) pretty much marching onto the stage, addressing no one in particular and we immediately get to understand a man who is formal, a thinker and slightly chaotic in his ways. He rings the doorbell, nothing happens and, of course, he waits.
He is soon joined by Wilmot’s Bix who is a good deal more twinkly (with a touch of Clarence in It’s A Wonderful Life……) and the strangers become ‘friends’ over the next hour or so through verbal sparring, put-me-downs, puns and challenges (my favourite of these is about a sausage sandwich - very smart). At times the sprawling conversation feels like a collection of things that Wilmot has heard and collected through his esteemed career - but that’s just fine.
There are nods of course to Waiting For Godot and at times the chat runs a little flat - a tad repetitious and not seemingly going anywhere. There is a point to all this and why the two men are waiting by this door and, whilst the reveal feels like too much of a sudden gear change, the final 20 minutes or so include a bravura ‘fake ending’, some deep and meaningful observations and a denouement that is touching giving the whole thing a higher ‘meaning’ which the material deserves I think.
The creative team have done a super job with the piece essentially set in Cuba so we have a bold Wes Anderson-esque colour palette and sounds of holidays and the vibrancy of life - special mention here to Simon Jackson for set and costumes. The writing is undoubtedly elevated by the fact that Wilmot also stars and, indeed, both he and Furst are superb stage actors, consummate pros who play to the audience (or ‘flies’ - you need to go and see the show) and to each other with a warmth and ease.
Whilst I really hope that Gary Wilmot returns to the Palladium panto, this show deserves a longer life and I hope to not have to wait too long for his next piece of stage writing……
While They Were Waiting
Upstairs at the Gatehouse
8 - 22 Mar 2026
Production by:
Chromolume Productions
WHILE THEY WERE WAITING
A New Comic Play by Gary Wilmot
Starring Gary Wilmot and Steve Furst
Photography credit: Simon Jackson
