[2015110] Marathon
TJ Dawe @ Bakehouse Theatre – Main Stage
7:30pm, Wed 4 Mar 2015
After the wonderful Medicine earlier this year, TJ Dawe has three-from-three in my eyes… so there was no arm-twisting required for me to slot Marathon into The Schedule.
As with his other shows, there’s no real staging to speak of: it’s just Dawe, spot-lit, standing on an empty stage. And whilst his monologues all tend to be personal, Marathon feels a little bit more intimate… because Dawe digs deep into his childhood and teenage years to investigate his own personality traits, with references to larger psychological concepts.
That sounds pretty dry… but, as usual, Dawe brings it to life in creative and unusual ways.
The central narrative thread is based around Dawe’s high school track involvement, which (in turn) yielded a humorous and astute analysis of walking as a competitive sport; the detour into steeplechase – and a formidable opponent – leads to a hilarious denouement that challenges the nice-guys-finish-last stereotype… but only for awhile.
Marathon continued TJ Dawe’s perfect hit-rate with me: it proved to be yet another wonderfully entertaining monologue. There’s literally no down-side to his performances: they’re funny, they’re thoughtful, and his blending of scientific fact and stranger-than-fiction personal stories yield brilliantly engaging theatre.
(110) Marathon: Hugely enjoyable introspective wander through personality types and instincts, wrapped up with an 80s bow #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) March 4, 2015