Not Stalking David Tennant (aka Having It All)

Like Jerry Springer before him, David Tennant probably won’t have time to come to Edinburgh and see the show bearing his name, after all it’s very busy being the Time Lord. Louise won’t mind though because she’s definitely NOT stalking him.

Not Stalking David Tennant is a four-part, one-woman play written, directed and performed by Emma Hutchins. The show follows the lives of four different women, exploring the modern obsession with "having it all," and how it can lead us to taint the beauty of the things we do possess.

First there’s Helen, a workaholic whose career has swallowed up any chance she once had of having a family – a fact she realised far too late. Next we meet Jen, a footballer’s wife who looks good and isn’t ashamed to admit it: “I bloody should do after all the work I put in,” she tells us. Two-women down, two-to-go and just when we’re lulled into the pretence that Not Stalking David Tennent is simply a Bridget Jones-style monologue piece, Hutchins brings Isobel into proceedings.

Isobel’s story has no words. Instead, using Butoh—the Japanese physical theatre/dance form which posits that each movement on stage must come from an emotional truth—she portrays a grotesque beauty. Lastly, comes Louise, our non-stalker, David Tennant fanatic who leaves her best friend’s engagement party early to watch Doctor Who, and who has even named the children they might have together. Living in fantasy is wonderful, and who needs reality when the alternative is perfection?

Hutchins is certainly a talented performer and the central theme of "having it all" (or the lack thereof) works well, providing a solid common denominator to four distinctly different tales. But, in truth, this is all a bit like watching David Tennant in Doctor Who: it’s an enjoyable experience but nothing spectacular.