In disarming 'Labrador' tale, Dawe plays a not-so-pat hand
TJ
Dawe will tell you his monologue Labrador is not about a dog.
But don't let this young Vancouver-based actor tell you that Labrador is just a performance piece about touring a children's theater show through one of Canada's most far-flung provinces. It is, and it's not.
What Dawe's one-man show is really about is the process of doing a one-man show - and if you chuckle a little at his descriptions of snow and ice and "bearded, chesty, Lord-of-the-Rings tree-stump men" drinking strange potions at a remote tavern in the dark of the night, well, so much the better.
Dawe has an utterly normal, artless way about him, but every word and movement is planned, from the way his tone turns fast and mechanistic when he's talking about working an assembly line to the way he places a solitary banana peel at the center of the stage.
If you let yourself, you'll be drawn in by his disarming tale of discovering danger and beauty in the hamlet he calls Lab City. But make no mistake: There is more to Labrador, and Labrador, than Dawe will have you know.
Elizabeth Maupin
Orlando Sentinel
Saturday, April 28, 2001
