a solo
comic monologue by TJ
Dawe
performed by Alex Eddington
directed by Laura Anne Harris
Appearing at the REGINA, WINNIPEG and EDMONTON Fringe festivals - July/August 2010!
Fringe favourite TJ Dawe’s first hit comedy returns!
What at first seems to be a scattering of unrelated thoughts – about graveyard shifts, traffic lights, and how gracefully cats vomit – soon becomes a story about a young man working the nightshift who gets caught up in a bizarre chain-reaction of events. Dawe’s hilarious script weaves jokes and stories into a multi-character whirlwind that all ties together... in a way you’d never expect.
Performer Alex Eddington - known to Fringe audiences for his own shows including WOOL, The Fugue Code and Old Growth - marries TJ’s unique storytelling style with high-energy physical theatre, toy instruments, absurd prop comedy, and sleight-of-hand magic...
"Fantastic!" – Indyish.com
"Phenomenal!" – SEE Magazine
"Magical!" – NOW Magazine
Grade: A
(aka. FOUR-and-a-HALF STARS)
- Anthony Augustine, Uptown Magazine (Winnipeg)
"[Eddington is] a whiz at the breathless free association that marks Dawe’s observational humour."
- Morley Walker, Winnipeg Free Press
[FOUR
STARS]
...
"While Eddington
doesn't have Dawe's geeky boyish charm, he does display many admirable
qualities in his own performance style: he's quick, intense (to the
point that he borders on frightening sometimes), and - as you might
expect from a composer - he has a great ear for the rhythm of
language.
There's nothing clichéd about his performance or Dawe's writing."
- Joff Schmidt, CBC Manitoba
READ MORE REVIEWS!
SEE MORE PHOTOS!
WATCH VIDEO EXCERPTS!
Writer, comedian and monologist TJ Dawe first performed Tired Clichés on the international Fringe circuit in 1998 and 1999, and brought to selected cities in 2005. The play won a 1999 Jessie Richardson Award (Vancouver) for Best New Play or Musical, and TJ Dawe himself went on to more than a decade of fame and acclaim, including a Just For Laughs Comedy Award in Montréal for The Slipknot. Alex Eddington is one of the very first people to perform Dawe’s solo scripts, other than TJ himself.
Praise for Tired Clichés:
1998 Jessie Richardson Award for best new play!
One of the TOP 20 SHOWS of the last 20 years of the Toronto Fringe! - Now Magazine (2008)
“Tired Clichés is one of the most original, tightly conceived and well-performed comedy acts I've seen"
- The Georgia Straight (1999)
“Part monologue, part sketch comedy, part storytelling and part beat poetry.” - Saskatoon Star-Phoenix (1999)
“★ ★ ★ ★ ★... Dawe reinvents the genre.” - Vancouver Sun (1999)
Five performances only, between Friday July 2 and Tuesday July 6!
Tickets only $10 - at the DOOR or in ADVANCE as described here: http://www.reginafringe.com/index.php/tickets
VENUE #2: Royal Saskatchewan Museum Theatre, 2445 Albert St. (at College)
Air conditioned!
Fri. July 2 - 9:30 pmSat. July 3 - 8:00 pm
Sun. July 4 - 3:00 pm
Mon. July 5 - 5:00 pm
Tues. July 6 - 7:30 pm
Tired Cliches is a 60-minute show.
Warnings: coarse language, overanalysis. Recommended for ages 11+.
Nine performances only, between July 14 and 24!
Tickets only $10 regular -- $8 for students/seniors/unemployed
Available at the DOOR, or in ADVANCE (after June 21st):
- at the Fringe box office (174 Market Ave.)
- at (204) 942-6537
- at http://www.winnipegfringe.com
VENUE 21:
Aqua Books (2nd floor) - 274 Garry St.
http://aquabooks.ca/
Air conditioned! Licensed!
Wed. July 14 - 7:45 pm
Thu. July 15 - 9:30 pm
Fri. July 16 - 7:45 pm
Sat. July 17 - 9:30 pm
Tues. July 20 - 7:45 pm
Wed. July 21 - 9:30 pm
Thu. July 22 - 6:00 pm
Fri. July 23 - 9:30 pm
Sat. July 24 - 7:45 pm
Tired Cliches is a 60-minute show.
Warnings: coarse language, overanalysis.
Under 11 years not admitted.
Age 11-18 with a parent/guardian (licensed venue).
(this venue is not wheelchair accessible)
A BAR will be open before the performance!
Nine performances only, between August 13 and 22!
Tickets only $12!
Available at the Fringe box office(s) (during the festival) or ONLINE at http://www.fringetheatreadventures.ca/
Strathcona Library (2nd floor) - 8331 104th Street NW
Air conditioned!
Fri. August 13 - 12:45 pm
Sat. August 14 - 5:45 pm
Sun. August 15 - 10:30 pm
Mon. August 16 - 8:00 pm
Tues. August 17 - 2:00 pm
Thurs. August 19 - 5:15 pm
Fri. August 20 - 10:45 pm
Sat. August 21 - 8:00 pm
Sun. August 22 - 12:00 pm (noon)
Tired Cliches is a 60-minute show.
Warnings: coarse language, overanalysis.
Under age 11 not admitted.
The venue is wheelchair accessible.
Through his theatre company, Acky-Made, Alex Eddington has created three original plays for himself to perform on the Canadian Fringe theatre festival circuit: two solo shows - an autobiographical monologue (WOOL) and a multi-character “musicological comedy-thriller” (The Fugue Code) - and a two-person play with live music (Old Growth). He is the recipient of the 2008/09 Urjo Kareda Residency Grant at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, through which he created and workshopped a full-length play (Emily C.) and was an apprentice to three professional sound designers. In summer 2009, Mr. Eddington traveled to Calgary to participate in One Yellow Rabbit’s Summer Lab Intensive.
Alex Eddington has created music for theatre and dance that has been presented by Mile Zero Dance, Nextfest, The Works Art and Design Festival, the InterFEAR festival, the Expanse movement festival, and the University of Alberta Department of Drama. In 2005 Mr. Eddington was the recipient of a SSHRC grant for a project exploring new intersections of music and theatre/dance. He is the composer and sound designer for Psycho Bitch by Tamara Lynn Robert, appearing at the 2010 Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton Fringe festivals.
Alex is also a choral singer, conductor, music educator, concert narrator, curator of experimental music, and freelance arts administrator who has worked with Tafelmusik, the Toronto Consort, soprano Mary Lou Fallis, and the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra. His poetry has been published in Carousel magazine.
★ ★ ★ ★” - Eye Weekly (“The Fugue Code” 2007)
SEE Magazine Top 10 list (Alex Eddington’s “WOOL” at Edmonton Fringe 2006)
“Exponentially more sophisticated and original than most Fringe fare...
★ ★ ★ ★”
- Winnipeg Free Press (“Old Growth” 2008)
“A must-see... superb... ★ ★ ★ ★” - Edmonton Journal (“The Fugue Code” 2007)
TJ Dawe (playwright) is a Vancouver based writer, performer, director and dramaturg. He's been making his living by creating his own stuff since 2001. TJ got a Bachelor's in Fine Arts (in theatre) from the University of Victoria.
TJ went on to tour the Canadian Fringe circuit (82 festivals so far) with a series of highly successful solo shows, including Tired Clichés, Labrador, The Slipknot, Tracks, A Canadian Bartender at Butlin's, The Curse of the Trickster, Maxim & Cosmo and Totem Figures. He has brought various shows to venues outside the fringe, and was named the BC and Alberta Touring Council's Artist of the Year in 2004. Bravo Television and CBC Radio have nationally broadcast A Canadian Bartender at Butlin's. He's performed at the Adelaide Fringe, the Edinburgh Fringe, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, the Victoria UNO Festival of Solo Performance and the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival. His plays have been published by Brindle and Glass Press and 13th Tiger Press.
Along the way he was involved in a variety of capacities (co-writing, directing, adapting and/or dramaturging) in a bunch of other shows: 52 Pick-up, The One Man Star Wars Trilogy, Toothpaste & Cigars, The Power of Ignorance, One Man 80s Blank Tape, The Doctor Is Sick, One Man Lord of the Rings, Teaching As You Like It, Dishpig, Local Celebrity, Teaching the Fringe, Mr. Fox, Elephant in Zulu and Sev.
His latest project is the Totem Figures Podcast Project, in which he interviews various people about who and what has help shape their lives and their views. These interviews can be heard at www.totemfigures.com.
TJ Dawe’s main website is www.TJDawe.com.
Laura Anne Harris (director): Born and raised in Victoria, B.C., Laura trained at the University of Victoria’s Acting program. There she performed Dourine in Moliere’s Tartuffe, Isabella Bird and Win in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, and within the ensemble of a Butoh inspired movement piece entitled Riyorku Butoh. Since graduating in 2007, she has appeared at the Belfry Theatre in Theatre Bombus’ production of The Josephine Knot written by Meg Braem and directed by Amiel Gladstone. Also, she acted and coached inmates at William Head Institute as a part of a theatre outreach program within their production of Waiting For Godot.
Laura first performed Pitch Blond at the 2007 Victoria Fringe Festival where she won the 2007 Critic’s Choice Award for ‘Best Fringe Production.’ Since then she has performed to a sold-out run at the 2008 Uno Festival in Victoria, B.C., at the Sunset Theatre (Wells, B.C.) and the Calgary Fringe Festival. She has recently premiered this play, in Vancouver, at the Chutzpah Festival and will have her American premiere at the Orlando International Fringe Festival.
Laura is very excited to be a part of Tired Clichés, which is her first directing project. She is also the director of Psycho Bitch by Tamara Lynn Robert, appearing at this year's Toronto, Winnipeg and Victoria Fringe festivals.
SEE MORE PHOTOS!
"Closing Theme" by Tom X. Chao
