I now know it is possible to spend an hour wondering whether someone looked like David Tennant or not.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Rob Lloyd does not look like David Tennant.
Except sometimes. Sometimes Lloyd looks so much like Tennant that you’ll wonder what just happened.
Who, Me is best thought of as an entertaining and Doctor Who centric story of a geek growing up is Australia. Sure, there are jokes and flashing lights, but to me they seemed to be the decoration to a far larger story about becoming comfortable with oneself and going on to have a positive influence on others.
Who, Me is told via the concept of a trial. Is Doctor Who guilty of ruining Rob Lloyd’s life? In a very Doctor Who style the whole trial happens in his brain, with Lloyd playing all of the characters, including himself as Defence asking himself questions as a witness.
The tale of Rob Lloyd growing up in Australia and finding identity in geekdom will certainly resonate with many. It just so happens he grew up with his Doctor Who obsession at a time when Doctor Who wasn’t popular (I swear that never happened to my geeky friends and I) and in a place where Whovian loot was rare.
Rob Lloyd is no criminal mastermind but we do discover just how far his obsession drove him. There’s also swearing in the show. It’s rated 14+. I’m pretty sure some of the kids in the crowd were younger than that and I’m pretty sure Rob Lloyd made appropriate adjustments for the kids. That’s a shame. I would have preferred to have had all the swearing.
Who, Me also feels a bit rushed. It would be ironic if there wasn’t enough time. It may be because it took a while for the audience to shuffle in. It may be because Rob had to take some time to warn of the strong language in response to families bringing youngsters in. Whatever the reason for the rush was it had the effect of making some of the court scenes a little hard to follow. After all, this is one man playing the role of many and sometimes himself talking to himself.
I appreciated the occasional pictures and slides we were shown. They both acted as a nice slowdown in the pace of things and were either funny or had proper Whovian geekcred.
I don’t think Who, Me would appeal to all Doctor Who fans. This isn’t some history lesson for the show. This is a far more personal story. This is storytelling. This is a show for Who fans who want to broaden their appreciation of theatre (easy theatre, at that, since this is a comedy with plenty to giggle at).
Tickets are about £10 and for a show on in the centre of town (at Just The Tonic at Bristo Square) and in the middle of the day I consider that good value for money.