TJ and Dave
My family and I saw TJ and Dave at the Barrow Street Theatre in NYC this evening.
TJ and Dave walk out onto the stage, on which there are three wooden chairs, and each evening create a new story from scratch with no script, no outline, no plan.
Rather than give any further description of what they do, I can only heartily recommend you look at their website and catch a performance at the next possible opportunity.
Aside from feeling as though I was having an out-of-body experience the entire time I was watching the show, I kept asking myself ‘why has it taken me so long to see these guys?’
They are awesome performers. Sincere, connected, imaginative, quick, humble in the best sense of the word, and the work is clearly all-important. Their performance was seamless: I never saw either of them ‘come up with a great idea’ and yet brilliant moments were being forged every second, one right after another. They didn’t ever play for laughs, and yet the laughter in the house was nearly constant.
The cliche ‘pure theatre’ was never more aptly applied than to the show I saw this evening. Such an event could only have occurred in a theatre, and it played fully to the theatre’s strengths.
I’m dying to know how I could achieve the same effects with Shakespeare.
