Tracks
Four Stars
TJ Dawe does equally invigorating monologue work with this string of stories by legendary hobo and writer Jack London. Dawe doesn't stray from a single characterization, and a very good one at that, of London as a practical-minded master of how to hop a freight train and beat the "shacks" (brakemen) and "bulls" (railyard cops). With Jason Overy providing snippets of sound to evoke trains and tracks and mid-night whistles, Dawe's only prop is a small cart on wheels as he jumps aboard and delivers, in a deadpan that's faithful to both the era and London's marvelously dry humour, stories of high adventure from Winnipeg to the banks of the Susquehanna. Old-fashioned bliss for those who remember how folk were entertained before the idiot-box arrived to enslave us.
Peter Birnie
Vancouver Sun
September 10, 2002
