Hobo tale on right rail
Fringe veteran TJ Dawe shows off his natural storytelling gift in Tracks
If
there were an award for the Fringe show that sells out the fastest, Tracks or
anything else by TJ Dawe would be a lock. But the fastidiously democratic festival
reserves half of all available tickets to put on sale at the door an hour before
the performance starts - so get to the top draws like this one early.
At age 28, Dawe has been a Fringe circuit vagabond for nearly a decade and displays a deep affinity for the material in the latest solo show, his own rewrite of Jack London's narratives glorifying the hoboes who rode the rods in the 1890s.
Costumed in the railway bum's uniform of long coat, cloth hat and fingerless gloves, Dawe uses a baggage cart with moveable shelves as a prop in spinning tall tales about eluding rail-company bulls and bartering plain moxie for food and shelter.
Like the young hobo-prince hero in his script, Dawe also knows a few tricks about singing for his supper. A road-tough veteran at his fifth Montreal Fringe, the Toronto-based performer brings plenty to the table - a natural and prodigious gift for storytelling, an easy literacy as well as quick acrobatic skills he flashes like a shiv.
Matt Radz
Montreal Gazette
Thursday, June 20, 2002
