Journalists live by our by-lines; it’s what differentiates us from each other (apart from the quality of our prose and reliability of our opinions). So how confusing is it going to be now that there’s not one but two Tim Walker’s writing theatre reviews?
The first Walker - who is also the Telegraph’s Mandrake columnist - has been writing theatre reviews for the Sunday Telegraph for a couple of years now, with lots of (sometimes misplaced) enthusiasm and even more regular factual blunders. And on Wednesday, the Independent published an overnight review for the new Ray Davis musical Come Dancing at Stratford East that was also by Tim Walker - a feature writer on the paper who shares the same name as the man from the Telegraph.
It may, of course, be a one-off - the Independent haven’t sent their columnist Deborah Orr to review another play since she reviewed Under the Blue Sky for them back in July. But is the serious business of theatre reviewing really to be farmed out to the nearest available features writer or columnist in this way?
Of course, one of them may yet become a regular, in which case they would build up a track record in going to the theatre for (part of) a living; but if the second Tim is to continue doing so, we really do need to find a way to differentiate between them. (Apart, that is, from the reliability of their facts).
Another, of course, is the by-line photo, which are robbing an increasing number of us of our anonymity. The longer I do this, the more I am finding that people are recognising me, or at least know what I do even if they don’t know who I am! Just last night I was at the Landor in Clapham North, and a final year student from the Italia Conti school next door whispered to his friends as I walked in that I was a critic. (Maybe the notebook I was carrying gave it away, but he then told me that he’d seen me at a West End first night). And a few days ago another young man turned to me in the queue at Cafe Nero in the Cut and said, “You’re Mark Shenton, aren’t you?” He turned out to be director Jamie Harper, whose production of A Lie of the Mind I had seen at BAC in 2006.
I suppose theatre practitioners make it their business to work out who we are - and of course doing things like hosting platforms at the National are not exactly a way to stay hidden. I also meet lots of theatre people as part of my job doing interviews and news stories as well. So I shouldn’t be too surprised that my face is getting well known now.
At least people have stopped mistaking me for Mark Steyn, who used to review musicals for the Independent in the 1980s, but is now better known as a right-wing political pundit - or, as his own website puts it, is “the one-man global content provider”. (He’s also an online merchandising opportunity; you can buy mugs with his mug on it, tee-shirts and mousepads on his site, too. I may have to ask The Stage to start investigating whether there are commercial opportunities for this blog….). Partly because we shared a passion for musicals - and the same first name and initials - but also because we both have reddish beards, I would regularly be asked if I was him. I wonder if the same thing ever happened to him!
But he’s not the only one: a few weeks ago, Ian Shuttleworth told me that a Scottish critic at the Edinburgh Fringe asked if he was me! Mind you, I have also been congratulated for my performance in Much Ado About Nothing — someone thought I was Simon Russell Beale!
Oh, the Scottish guy didn't ask, he just started talking about the number of comments he'd posted after "mine" on blogs. As I'm an inveterate guerrilla-poster on other folk's sites, I didn't think anything was strange for a minute or two until it became apparent that he was talking about the blog "I" regularly wrote for The Stage!
As for the two Tim Walkers, well, how many people are confused by the two Tom Sutcliffes, one criticising music, the other principally television but also a general cultural gun for hire at the Indie? Mind you, the latter is now generally billed as "Thomas".
I've experienced this myself. Having grown up in Belfast and then moved to London and become a reviewer, I found my path crossed that of a Yorkshire-born Ian Shuttleworth who's now on the faculty at Queen's University of Belfast, and writes occasional book reviews. However, he's an economic geographer and most of his reviews are of scholarly tomes, so not much scope for confusion there... although, a few years ago, I did get a phone call meant for him, inviting me to play bass tuba at Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Mandelson's garden party! Alas, I was far too honest...