A Canadian Bartender at Butlin's
A habitual fringer with a high recognition factor is the gifted storyteller TJ Dawe. Usually, he is everywhere, helping out and encouraging other companies. Not only is the man instantly likeable, he brings us shows that make us laugh, touch our hearts, and astonish us. This year, he's everywhere again. He's doing a one-man show, directing another show, and has written a play put on by yet another group. But it's his one-man show that has folks excited, as usual. In A Canadian Bartender at Butlin's, he tells about overseas employment in a deteriorating British holiday camp.
This piece may not break your heart like, say, his earlier Labrador. But it will make you laugh - a lot. And it will take your breath away when he knits together the seemingly irrelevant stories he has told along the way (like his escape from death in the staff sleeping quarters). And on the way he does some amazing things. He takes you to the subsidized staff pub on payday (Tuesday, because it's a slow business day) and on to the crowded dance floor. You get the wall of sound that hits you in the face as he exits the hated toilet after vomiting up all that cheap beer. He shares his amazement about children in bars. He makes affectionate fun of various English accents and vocabulary, reproduces a documentary about Butlin's in about one minute while giving you more detail than you will ever need, and gets a Cockney comedian down cold.
All of this - and more - without making it seem like any kind of travelogue. The staff sleeping quarters and its denizens form the centre of his story. The silly practical jokes, the fascination with his Canadian accent, the betrayal and heartbreak, the kindness of guys that will occasionally roll a joint without tobacco for his sake. It's all vintage TJ.
To those who have not yet had the experience - go! To the rest of you - go! Don't wait this year to line up hoping to get in for his extra performance at midnight after the Fringe has shut down; in fact, there is no guarantee, really, that there will be such an extra performance. There's only history to give us faith that such a thing will occur.
There are performers who have become too big to bring their shows to a Fringe venue. And to work for such low prices. While we all want the best for TJ, we hope that he doesn't outgrow us soon. It's starting to feel as though it wouldn't be a Fringe without him.
Janet Couts
montreal.com
June 24, 2003
