Tracks
Rating: Five Stars
Make tracks to see this latest creation by a master of the monologue. Toronto actor TJ Dawe (known for a string of Fringe hits such as Labrador and The Slip-Knot) returns with a new show this year, an adaptation of author Jack London's account of his brief life as a hobo riding the rails across North America in 1894.
This one is as crisp as ever. In his coat, cap and fingerless gloves, Dawe tells his stories with gusto. He is accompanied by a percussionist who creates the whistles, jangles and clackety-clacks that enhance Dawe's spoken word like a well wrought radio play.
At 75 minutes, Tracks is a shade long for a Fringe monologue, but Dawe splices his tale into shorter vignettes to make it work. With his typical rapid delivery style, he has the momentum of a runaway locomotive, recounting how he outwits railway officials bent on throwing the freeloading hobos off the train or how he enthralls elderly ladies with his amazing tales in return for a free meal. With only a rolling metal scaffold for a prop, he manages to create the most vivid images in the Fringe.
Dawe appeals to that half-forgotten aural sense that made bedtime stories and campfire tales so deliciously dramatic once upon a time. Best of all, Dawe doesn't have a political or sexual identity agenda. He delights in the sound of words and the thrill of the story itself for its revelations on human nature. That is enough.
Susan Down
Victoria Times-Colonis
August 29, 2002
