Introducing: The Critical Fox

and his irascible takedown of a wildly overrated London play

My friend Tim Fox is a very specific London type — an Oxford-educated corporate lawyer by day (he specialises in something brain-breaking to do with international aviation disputes, don’t ask) and voracious consumer of new theatre, art house movies, comedy and indy music gigs by night. He’s one of those people everyone asks, “Hey Tim, what should I watch?” His recommendations are reliably excellent but he’s even more entertaining on the subject of what not to watch. Like most natural critics (and litigators come to think of it) he’s at his hilarious, silver-tongued best when viciously and ripping something apart.

So because I can’t be bothered with links pages or what-are-you-reading/watching-threads (which I know, I know, everyone LOVES), instead I’ve asked Tim to write the occasional review for your enjoyment here on Juvenescence. Because many of you don’t live in London, let alone the UK, we’ll keep the West End theatre to a minimum and make it mostly stuff that’s available to stream everywhere. But I couldn’t resist starting him off with a good old fashioned hatchet job — a form of critical writing that, in the current all-you-can-eat-content tsunami buffet, is becoming something of a lost art. It’s a shame too because as you’ll see from Tim’s review, there are acute cultural insights to be found in an intelligent, funny evisceration of a play/show/film that the whole world seem to inexplicably love.

So here’s Tim’s takedown of a hit show we both recently rushed out to see and to our immense surprise hated¹ — god how we both loathed it! — Liz Kingsman’s One Woman Show, just finishing a sold out run at the Ambassador’s Theatre in the West End.

I give you…. Tim Fox. Enjoy! And be grateful for what he sat through it so you don’t have to.

(I’m afraid it’s for paid subscribers only because Tim’s hourly rate is more than my last tax return. The fact that he’s doing this pro bono is irrelevant, he’s very entertaining, plus there’s a 20% off deal til the end of this month, so do think about it folks.)

One Woman Show

Review by Tim Fox