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Tired Clichés | Old Growth | The Fugue Code | WOOL | Adieu, Friedrich Lips | music
Tired Clichés (by TJ Dawe) (short runs in London ON, Toronto and Edmonton; the Montreal Fringe Festival) [visit the site] [audience reviews]
I love one act plays, especially ones that can grab you and hold on to you for the full show (and it’s been a while). Eddington’s performance was able to keep me grounded throughout the full show. While this piece does have a more serious undertone, the show is quite funny and well put together. What surprised me more is that Alex Eddington doesn’t have a large acting background, he’s a musician and composer first.
Tired Clichés has a series of different monologues that seem quite unrelated but come together at the end, in a fantastic way. Each monologue describes the life of a person who is looking for simplicity more than anything else, but needs something higher just to achieve it!
A very well performed piece that you should see before the Fringe Festival comes to an end!
Old Growth (Ottawa, Wakefield, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Victoria and Vancouver Fringes 2008) [visit the site] [audience reviews]
[FOUR STARS]Old Growth is the kind of shocking, sophisticated and thought-provoking play that makes Fringe theatre edgy.
Two idealistic eco-warriors from Toronto travel to Haida Gwaii territory in the Queen Charlottes to pay tribute to an ancient golden spruce. The tree was cut down by Grant Hadwin, an unemployed, vengeful logger, in 1997. His act is also the basis for the award-winning book The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant.
In Old Growth, writer and composer Alex Eddington is "Alex," a troubled young artist whose disillusioned view of a world overwrought with consumerism, greed and destruction descends into preachy rage and violence.
The role of his timid counterpart Aura was originated for flautist Aura Giles, who could not be part of the Victoria performances.
Director and dramaturge Alison Williams stepped into the role brilliantly - with a week's notice - holding up a ghettoblaster with Giles's flute music that is usually played live. The effect was endearingly pathetic, the perfect balance to Eddington's frightening diatribe.
[FOUR STARS]Set in 1997, Old Growth is the story of Alex and Aura, two enviro-activists who have made a pilgrimage from Ontario to visit the felled Golden Spruce of Haida-Gwaii. Retracing the steps of Grant Hadwin, the man who felled the mighty tree, the young couple hope to perform a ritual that will infuse Alex with shamanistic powers. While Alex and Aura’s self-righteous, naïve environmentalism is really in-your-face (particularly during the climax, which ran a little long), watching the dynamics between them takes this far beyond preachy environmental fodder.
Part history lesson, part magic show, part
cautionary tale, part love story, all compelling.
- A.F., Monday Magazine (Victoria)
[FOUR STARS]Don't just look at the stars. Read this review. This show is wonderfully fringey, but it's not for everyone.
It's the story of Alex (Alex Eddington) and Aura (Aura Giles), two Toronto eco-warriors who make a pilgrimage to an ancient Haida redwood on the Queen Charlottes that was cut down in 1997. There they make a bumbling, self-important attempt to tap into the tree's soul so they can fight the consumption and waste that threaten to destroy the planet.
Throw in some amateur magic and some haunting flute-playing by the mopey-faced Aura and you'll have just barest elements of this complicated, challenging and quite masterful show.
It's a little preachy and a bit hard to follow at times. Eddington's performance gets overwraught near the end when Alex descends into naked, self-flagellating mental anguish.
Old Growth is a new thought provoking production composed and performed by Alex Eddington. It now features Alison Williams who replaces Aura Giles.
The play is set in 1997, when two musicians, Alex and Aura (Williams), go on a pilgrimage to the Queen Charlotte Islands. While there they visit the site of the fallen Golden Spruce Tree, which was cut down by a deranged logger named Grant Hadwin. Alex wants to become a shaman who can heal and bring the spirit of the tree to other parts of Canada. Adding levels of complexity to the piece, Alex effectively recites ‘envirologues’ which are musical and magical monologues to demonstrate the environmental and economic issues. Eddington does not make these speeches preachy, rather they are both artistic and informative. While the pilgrimage Alex and Aura experience might be fictitious, the logging event itself was documented in John Vallant's non-fiction novel, The Golden Spruce.
Old Growth is an eloquent, intense piece of textual composition. As part of their ritual, there are moments when Alex and Allison chant making the piece lyrical and engaging. Eddington has a raw presence on stage. We see his character become overwhelmed by his mission for change to the point of self destruction. Meanwhile, Williams, who is also director and dramaturge, (and stepped into the role of Aura only a few days before opening) brings an intense warmth and humour, as well as courage. Eddington and Williams complement each other as performers. Drumming percussion instruments as well as recorded samples of Aura Gile’s flute playing are used as part of the ritual. I also appreciated the unique use of other, mostly wooden, musical instruments, such as the train whistle and wooden blocks.
Because of the strong sense of ownership to a destroyed natural treasure, this production should be seen by West Coasters. This is not an easy show to watch. It’s intellectual and intense but if you want something other than the normal fluffy confection - then see Old Growth. In fact, see it twice, because you will leave the first time wanting more.
[non-starred review:]
Apparently in 1997, a fellow on the west coast felled a sacred Golden Spruce tree, one of the last of its species, and the world changed. Moved by this event, these two young musicians are touched by the need to spread the word that growth on this earth is not eternal.
So Alex becomes a shaman, actually, as an actor. He’s inspired by west coast Haida traditions, and he goes on an anger-driven pilgrimage. And he begins this onstage in the middle of this transcendental circle, where he calls up the spirits of the earth. And it’s quite amazing to watch him – you really get carried away.
He doesn’t preach, he communicates his passionate relationship with nature, and he hopes it will rub off on us, and it was actually quite moving. And it seemed real, really real.
So that’s “Old Growth” at Academic Hall – be prepared to be carried away.
[THREE-and-a-HALF stars (out of 5)]Is this a lecture or a play about a lecture? Some audience members may be slightly put off after being berated by Ontario playwright Alex Eddington, whose very insightful script about humanity’s connection to nature includes strong accusations of ignorance and neglect.
Playing a would-be Toronto shaman, also named Alex, Eddington and flutist partner Aura travel to the Queen Charlotte Islands to offer forgiveness and understanding to a fallen golden spruce (although Aura isn’t quite as committed to the cause as Alex).
One is left to wonder, which Alex is teaching us, yelling at us, and entertaining us? And if it really matters.
After this show, the person beside me said it was the fringiest show she'd seen yet. I can see why she said that, but I would have used the adjective "complex" instead. I've become a big Alex Eddington fan, because his works offer a rare blend of artistic ambition and accomplishment, while being both a deeply personal exploration and a generous invitation to the audience to explore his world.
The title, Old Growth, reflects both the forestry term for centuries-old trees and the outdated notion of continuous economic growth based on unfettered consumption. On the surface a performance by two idealistic young people to honour a murdered 300-year-old tree, the play uses a variety of strategies to try to get its point across: metaphorical folk tales, narration, and from-the-heart raving at the audience.
The production also features some of Eddington's music, and some fine work by Aura Giles on the flute. The two performers complement each other well on stage, and the time passed very quickly for me.
Playwright/performer Alex Eddington has to be given credit for putting it all on the line – both artistically and in a Full Monty sense – with this wildly experimental piece of theatre. Alex (the character, that is – who may or may not be the playwright) wants to be a shaman. It’s his way of connecting with the Golden Spruce, a magnificent tree felled as a protest against clear-cutting by a misguided (or maybe not-so-misguided) environmentalist. He and his castmate, flutist Aura Giles, engage in a series of ritualistic “envirologues,” which use a heightened, poetic style of writing to deliver their ode to the fallen tree – and address the broader issues of environmentalism. Growth is the central theme here. “The world hurts because we keep growing,” Alex says. “We keep growing because the system demands it.” If that sounds like a “people bad, hurt environment” message – well, it kinda is. Then again, it’s also hard to dispute the issues brought forth here. I think. The message of the show does get pretty muddled in the highly stylized writing and performance (directed by Alison Williams). It’s a bold, well-performed, and visually striking piece – but given the importance of the environmental theme, you’d wish it were just a bit less confoundingly abstract.
[FOUR STARS (out of five)] This was... hmm... hard to really sum up, actually. The story is about two young musicians... okay, hippies, really... and their forest pilgrimage. The actors put on a powerful performance. The play itself was meaty, and unsettling. I'm not sure the male nudity was truly necessary, though. Definitely the most FRINGE show I think I've ever seen, and is absolutely perfect for the festival. And I most definitely concur that the environment is not David Suzuki, but we wish it was.
- The Paladinian's Retreat (online review) [July 18, 2008]
Old Growth by Alex Eddington (Acky-Made, Toronto): Everywhere you turn these days there is something about the environment. It’s in politics, in our schools and places of work, it’s on the Net, and it’s in our art. But this play asks what is environmentalism? It’s not a political platform or a religion, but rather, it is us. This play asks us to stop consuming the world around us because we are in fact consuming ourselves. Overall, I did enjoy this production. It was a little scattered, much like me and my hippie friends were back in 1997 (when the resurgence of hippiedom hit my then-home Fredericton), when the play is set. But I think that signifies and reflects our needing to process the state of the world in which we live and how big of an issue were are trying to come to terms with with respect to our existence and our home.
- MelissaHK (online review) [June 21, 2008]
Based on a true story, the play features hauntingly beautiful original music played on the flute by Aura Giles and composed by playwright/actor Alex Eddington.
The Fugue Code (Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Vancouver Fringes 2007) [visit the site] [audience reviews]
[FOUR STARS] "Brilliantly theatrical
and manically precise, Alex Eddington performs his own high-speed,
multi-character mystery with hypnotic speed. It’s potentially confusing — one
man, four main characters, a sophisticated plot rooted in the arcane history of
J.S. Bach, his wife and his organ. But Eddington makes it work through
economical writing (the way he introduces his characters would make a great
lesson for many wayward Fringe playwrights) and through his utter conviction. He
commands the stage. Eddington, also a composer, makes nifty metaphysical
allusions to the four-note fugue. But as the da Vinci–esque title suggests, it’s
also played for laughs. The only caveat — and the moral of the play — is that
you have to listen." [FOUR STARS] "I’ve never heard
J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier referred to as “slapstick comedy,” but that’s
the kind of irreverent approach that makes The Fugue Code work. In this
intriguing spoof of that other Code thingy (you know, there was a movie with
that guy with the big forehead), a musicologist, organist, conductor, and singer
must band together to unravel a centuries-old riddle based on the works of Bach.
Along the way, there are preposterous murders, secret societies, and an awful
lot of math. It all (mostly) works because the show never takes itself too
seriously. At times it veers from silly fun to just silliness, and you will
probably wish there was a bit more of a comprehensible plot. But performer Alex
Eddington brings tremendous energy to the show, playing multiple characters
fluidly thanks to some fantastic, dance-like physical theatre and superb
direction from Alison Williams. While it doesn’t all hang together perfectly,
The Fugue Code is a compelling piece of work – and is probably the most fun you
can have with stuff like 'fugal counterpoint.'"[FOUR STARS (out of 5)]
"Alex Eddington is mad. There's no other explanation for writing and performing a show this demanding.
His affliction is, however, to our benefit, since we get to see one of the most physically, verbally and mentally taxing shows at the Fringe.
Eddington plays 10 characters in this break-neck thriller based on what may be a secret message in one of Bach's fugues. The dialogue is rapid-fire, from start to finish, and Eddington somehow managed to keep the pace, to remember who was whom and to avoid all but a couple of tiny tongue-stumbles at Sunday's show.
His background includes a Master's degree in composition and, apparently, a reading of The Da Vinci Code. The result is a mystery that doesn't take itself too seriously ("Bach up," an armed man says) and whose mind-blowing complexity is itself part of the joke. This is nothing less than an entire novel squeezed into an hour.
What it comes down to is the possibility that a Bach fugue, played on a new organ that was too complex to be built in J.S.'s time, will either change us in profound ways, make us see God or destroy us.
Eddington's task as an actor is itself a fugue, playing many voices competing against and complementing each other. Give in to it, don't worry too much about the daunting complications or narrative shortcuts, and it hits all the right notes."[FOUR STARS (out of 5)]
"Buried deep within this review is a
secret code -- one which will unlock the key to a successful Fringe experience,
if not happiness in general.
Avoid plays about zombies -- Eat My Brain, for example.
Clever one-man shows about Johann
Sebastian Bach, on the other hand, are must-sees.
Hilarious, crazy and ridiculously
complex, actor/composer Alex Eddington's The Fugue Code is a smart send-up of
Dan Brown's The da Vinci Code.
Revealing the mystery behind Bach's
fugues is at the heart of this 60-minute production. "One into Four / At
the end of the Cycle, He will return," is only a fraction of the code, which
four main characters, all played by Eddington, are trying to decipher. Can
they do it before time runs out?
Kidnapped wives, supernatural organs,
awkward musicologists and number games are all part of the
madness.
[FOUR STARS (aka. "Daniel
Craig") (out of 5 ("Sean Connery"))] "He will rise again, if Alex Eddington has anything to say about it. There are many folks who would love to see Johann Sebastian Bach return to our realm, to compose again; Eddington’s one-hander aims to tell us why in this send-up of The Da Vinci Code. With the kidnapping of composer Augusta Miriam Barnes, musicologist Sinclair is thrust into a world of intrigue and secret incantations, a world that finds us wondering if Bach’s wife Anna Magdalena was more than just muse in the great composer’s work—even if you had only the vaguest thoughts about the man before. The show is complex, but not incomprehensively so—Eddington gambles wonderfully with our intellect and our notions of what we think we might find interesting. ..."
"There was a firestorm in the letters section of the Free Press recently caused by Guy Grant’s opinion that the Fringe is not a welcoming venue for experiments in form. I think Grant would have approved of this production if he had seen it.
Like Grant’s work, The Fugue Code is rich in content and sometimes bewildering. If you stay with it, though, it offers rewards. Alex Eddington gave me confidence that he had thought his production through, so when I couldn’t find the trail I was willing to ride it out.
As might be expected from someone with a post-graduate degree in music, Eddington uses the fugue as a basic structure on which to build a suspense-thriller. My music education is much more limited, so I imagine I missed some references, but I enjoyed Eddington’s performance, which required him to switch characters rapidly.
The Fugue Code offers humour, suspense, great music and even a moral."
- Kevin Longfield, the Jenny Revue (Winnipeg)
"The Fugue Code is billed as a musicology comedy-thriller. It’s impossible to understand exactly what that means, unless you’ve seen the show, but it’s a completely apt description. Contemplation of Bach’s fugue suites; humour that’s funny, even as it makes you groan; and a giant, undead Bach are all featured in this one man show by Alex Eddington. You have to see it to believe it, but it was one of the best plays I’ve seen all year, and probably the best one man act I’ve ever seen. This one is a must see."
[THREE-and-a-HALF stars (out of 5)]
"I think I missed a lot in The Fugue Code, but
when you’re dealing with a 60-minute one-man show that veers with breakneck
speed between nine characters as they try to break a centuries-old code embedded
in the baroque masterworks of Johann Sebastian Bach, a little confusion is to be
expected. (No musicologist myself, I’m just glad the program
explained what a fugue is.)
Alex Eddington’s manic performance,
embodying each character with a different bit of characteristic body language or
flawless accent, almost makes the plot irrelevant. He’s just
so much fun to watch. But if you insist on
paying attention to the story, it concerns a shadowy cabal of musicologists who
have spent the last 257 years keeping secret the mathematical perfection in
Bach’s work, which when revealed, will allow listeners to know the face of God,
or resurrect Bach, or something like that. If you detect
similarities to a certain best-selling piece of airport-lit, good on
you.
- Matthew Halliday, SEE Magazine (Edmonton)
"A kidnapping. Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier. A secret society. A "perfect" temperament pipe organ designed by Bach but not built until present day technology made it possible. A code hidden within Bach's music. These are the ingredients for this remarkable one man musicological comedy-thriller.
Actor/writer Alex Eddington performs the large cast of characters at a breakneck pace. His characterizations are well distinguished which is fortunate as concentration is required to follow the convoluted plot.
The play is an intricate puzzle-box based on Bach's Fugue No. 24 in B Minor. Everything from the structure of the play to the cast of characters is drawn from the music. Numerological secrets abound like the number 14 (B=2 + A=1 + C=3 + H=8 = 14).
An organist's wife is kidnapped by a secret society known as SMW. Her release can only be secured if he can solve the Fugue Code. He enlists the help of his colleagues a musicologist, a conductor, and a singer who is a descendant of J.S. Bach. What they discover as they unravel the code reveals a plot more sinister and earth-shattering than a simple kidnapping.
Highly recommended for music fans, conspiracy theorists, Dan Brown fans, and everyone who likes a funny, fast-paced thriller."
"...deserves an A major for ambition..."
"...Eddington is obviously a talented writer, and his over-the-top physicality is compelling to watch..."
- Carolin Vesely, Winnipeg Free Press
"Alex Eddington, creator and performer of Fugue, is obviously a frighteningly clever guy...
the appearance of a JS Bach as a sort of demonic Arnold Schwarzenegger in a silver afro was hilarious"
"... Like a Bach fugue, Eddington’s play just keeps coming at you in layers. ... I suspect the breathless complexity is part of Eddington’s great in-joke...the auteur expends enough energy in this show to raise the shade of Bach.
"I take it we’re not supposed to take this all too seriously because Eddington pulls off some groaners – mostly based on the composer’s name. “Bach up,” one character demands."
"Switching with dizzying speed from
character to character, each with his own characteristic voice and eccentric
movements, Eddington piles detail upon detail on to the plot...
“Imagine for a minute that Umberto Eco, Herman Hesse or some similar author of high-brow, enigmatic mysteries decided to turn one of his books into a slapstick stage show. The result might look something like The Fugue Code, a one-man effort, billed as a musicological comedy thriller, by Edmonton's Alex Eddington. It's a show with buzz at this year's fringe. It has developed many enthusiastic fans. ...”
- the Ottawa Citizen
WOOL (Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton Fringes 2006)
“[This] charming
performer…obviously has a love affair with
language.”
“Eddington's delivery…is
capable and potent, his careful cadence flowing along…[with] colour and
vigour”
- Winnipeg Free Press
“Eddington is a engaging fellow with…a way with words and…[an] eye for detail.”
- Edmonton
Sun
“sharp wit and a first-class
delivery…"
- Uptown Magazine,
Winnipeg
Adieu, Friedrich Lips (Edmonton Fringe 2005)
“Alex Eddington has sat through a few too many
pretentious music lectures, and he’s out for blood.”
“The lanky, golden-tressed
composer/playwright/actor has cooked up a show that
delights.”
“Eddington throws himself into the role…with delicious over-the-top abandon.”
- SEE Magazine, Edmonton
“we will surely hear more of him, for…[he] shone not just with wit and assurance, but with subtlety and truthfulness.”
"delightfully silly, but at the same time capture[s]...the primal anxieties that lurk beneath"
- The National Post [Eight Poems of Dennis
Lee, 2002]
Bad Press
The Fugue Code | WOOL
The Fugue Code (Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Vancouver Fringes 2007) [visit the site]
"playwright/composer Alex Eddington...bites off more than those of us without music degrees can -- or want to -- chew by trying to cram murder-mystery, slapstick comedy, and music appreciation into 60 manic minutes.
...it's exhausting trying to follow the convoluted plot AND keep track of his character switches."
- Carolin Vesely, Winnipeg Free Press
"It is in the 10 or so characters, however, that Eddington acts out that it gets a little muddied. In one late-in-the-play scene, he hops from character to character at such a pace that it becomes obvious that some are far more realized than others."
"As the piece goes by,
like a drowning man, you desperately cling to some major plot developments.
...
"I suspect the breathless
complexity is part of Eddington’s great in-joke, but the performer’s words come
at you with such bewildering speed that, after a (short) while, you tend to dial
them out.
Surely, that was not his intent."
WOOL (Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton Fringes 2006)
"self-indulgent" - Edmonton Sun
"self-obsessed" - Edmonton Journal
- Roger Levesque, Edmonton Journal
Weird Press
Adieu, Friedrich Lips | The Fugue Code | Old Growth
Adieu, Friedrich Lips (Edmonton Fringe 2005)
"The Fugue Code has its silly moments, but it's pretty cerebral
to be billed as slapstick comedy. Unless you happen to get a kick out of
contrapuntal composition. Nyuk, nyuk."
"...the ugliest set at this year's Fringe..."
"...oh, and they're in love."