DATES

52 Pick-up
by TJ Dawe and Rita Bozi

Winner of Best of Venue Award, Judge's Choice and People's Choice Awards at the 2005 Ottawa Fringe Festival

Honourable Mention - BEST THEATRE PRODUCTION OF 2005 from the Ottawa Xpress

Winner of the Chapters Award for Best Text at the 2000 Montréal Fringe Festival

Directed and Performed by
Natalie Joy Quesnel & Stewart Matthews

52 cards in a deck. 52 scenes about a couple's relationship. The title of each scene is written on a card. At the start of the show the deck is shuffled and tossed in the air. The actors pick up the cards one at a time, and that's the order of that performance's scenes.

The story:
Very simple... They meet, they fall in love, they fall out of love, they break up. But with the concept you might see them break up before they meet. You might see the reiteration of jokes that haven't happened yet, or apologies for arguments that haven't happened yet.

The odds of two performances of 52 Pick-up ever having the scenes in the same order are 1 in 80 658 175 170 943 878 571 660 636 856 403 766 975 289 505 440 883 277 824 000 00 000 000. More or less. Although this number is outrageously big, it is real.

The people:
“52 Pick-up” will bring together English and Canadian theatrical traditions through the collaboration of Ottawa resident actor/director Natalie Joy Quesnel (director of the bilingual play “How Nous Avons Met” from the 2003 Ottawa Fringe, Best of Venue) and West Midlands, England born Stewart Matthews (co-founder of critically acclaimed theatre company Screwed and Clued).