Burn Job

Big Sandwich Productions—Bandwidth Theatre

TJ Dawe, formerly of Burnaby but now of Vancouver, is a Fringe lifer. Not only is this his 105th Fringe festival (as he tells us in the Fringe guide) but he also directs two other shows at this very festival (as he tells us at the end of this show). In this production he sits at a small desk facing the audience, with a swing microphone, a laptop computer and a small control panel for occasionally modulating his voice. In this setting, he looks like a radio DJ, and for a brief segment, he is, as he plays excerpts from the top songs of 1985, when he was in his early teens. He tells tales of growing up, his changing musical tastes (top 40 to rock to classic rock to prog rock to classical), performing pranks in his neighbourhood with his best friend, and eventually dropping acid as a young adult.

Dawe is a good storyteller, honed I suppose from years of performing. His stories are clear and he never flubs, as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, there is also a palpable lethargy to his present show. Even though he sometimes gesticulates at his desk, Dawe never stands up until the show over. He also talks about rejecting a career in conventional theatre after getting a BFA and I remember hearing him talk about this very same thing at a completely different show he did a few years ago. Furthermore, for some reason, he spends a lot of time detailing the action of the film A Clockwork Orange, and then after changing topics for a few minutes, he spends a fair amount of time detailing the action of the book A Clockwork Orange. Show, don’t tell, anyone?

Konrad Antony