Ruby Wax: Losing It

Ruby Wax is the definition of a Marmite comic: you either love the brassy Yank in London shtick or you can’t stand it. It’s surprising, then, that this new show about her struggles with depression is such an ambivalent affair.

Early doors, the diminutive American informs us that Losing It was initially performed in mental institutions after she left the notorious Priory, where she received treatment for cyclical depression. Perhaps this rather unusual lineage explains the show’s format: accompanied by singer-pianist Judith Owen, Wax offers up a 70-minute confessional about the conditions that led to her mental illness followed by a couple of minutes for a Q and A session before the curtain closes.

Wax’s desire to highlight mental illness as a serious social issue is laudable—and the bulk of the sell-out crowd cheer her along every step of the way—but, as a performance, Losing It suffers from a terminal identity crisis. There are nowhere near enough gags for a comedy show, while the material is far too earnest and unsophisticated to pass as theatre.

At times the show feels like a gigantic self-help group, albeit one staged in an upside-down, inflatable purple cow. Wax bounces around the stage in a headset like Tom Cruise’s character in Magnolia, turning over flipcharts of the human brain and incanting in her trademark nasal voice that "life has no manual."

Although Wax’s motives do seem genuine enough—and its feels deeply churlish to criticise a show with such a commendable goal—Losing It lacks the subtlety or finesse to pull off its noble aim.