His Name is Tim

Apologies for the length of this review. Regular readers will know brevity is not one of my trademarks. This one-man show from Experiment68, however, has me struggling to meet my demanding editor’s word count guidelines. Not that it’s bad. Written by Thomas J Millington, it is a very simple tale about conquering one’s shyness, phobias and personality to achieve happiness. The device employed is to allow us to meet Tim at two periods of his life. Firstly as a gauche, nervy, hormone–driven fourteen-year-old, and then ten years later as he lives out his days in a dull job as the office lackey. We flit between these time zones, and the actor playing Tim is compelling, marking effortlessly the difference in voice and physicality between a teenager and a young man. Try as I might I can’t find out who this talented performer is - there was no program and searching online revealed nothing. It may be Thomas J Millington himself, as the piece feels very autobiographical. Anyway, he’s damn good.The problem with the piece is it’s really all much ado about nothing. It’s just a tale about growing up and finally getting the girl, the only theatrical twist being that twenty-four year old Tim gets to talk to his younger self before the play’s resolution. There’s some lovely writing along the way, but the songs are not strong. The day I saw it there was a tuning issue with the guitar, and though the actor was funny and engaging in the way he dealt with the problem it did mean the piece never climaxed in the way I suspect it was meant to.This was not helped by the fact the piece was well short of the advertised running time. This is the third show I’ve seen this year (though the first at this venue) that was under the advertised length, and if, unlike me and my press pass, you’re paying for tickets you would be right to be infuriated by that. Not fulfilling the time slot is similar to a critic suddenly finishing his review in mid