“Life List is a unique site-specific show that uses the quirks of a historic Toronto neighbourhood as its backdrop.”

Excerpt from press release:

From June 30 to July 10, Acky-Made Productions will bring Life List – a site-specific walking tour combining true stories, live music and actual birdwatching – to the Toronto Fringe Festival. Writer and performer Alex Eddington is a Canadian Fringe veteran who has toured his work to 25 festivals in 11 cities, since 2005. Toronto Fringe audiences may have seen him perform his own shows The Fugue Code, Old Growth and Yarn (which was also part of the 2014 SummerWorks Festival), as well as Tired Clichés by Fringe legend TJ Dawe.

Equal parts funny and poignant, Life List finds a balance between autobiographical storytelling and magical realism. Equipping his audience with clipboards and binoculars (they are encouraged to bring their own), Alex Eddington leads them on an expedition to find the White Robin, a bird with rare colouring that has been spotted around Seaton Village. Along a winding route through back alleys and secret pathways, spurred on by clues that might point to the bird’s whereabouts, Eddington tells stories about his burgeoning relationship with birdwatching. Before his mother died of breast cancer in 2014, she passed on her “life list” – a book of unique bird sightings – and asked him to continue adding entries. Alex isn’t very good at finding birds…but now he’s on the trail of a bird his mother would have especially loved. The anecdotes vary depending on what real birds appear along the route, but all lead back to his mother, his pet bird Spike, and the cancer that took them both.

Life List is a unique site-specific show that uses the quirks of a historic Toronto neighbourhood as its backdrop. With the help of the local community, Eddington has planted evidence of the famous Robin – white feathers, grassroots posters, eyewitness accounts and more – that will cause the group to change course seemingly spontaneously. The group finally stumbles across a beautiful park, just as Eddington’s stories of maternal loss flow through darker passages to arrive at a contemplative conclusion. Working with co-directors Tyler Seguin (The Trial of Judith K.) and Andrew Gaboury (A Wake for Lost Time, Love’s Labours Lost (Shakespeare BASH’d)), Eddington has created an intimate, improvisatory theatre experience that invites his audience to connect with the birds – and memories of lost loved ones – that flit all around us in this lovely summery city.

Venue: 
Meet at Randolph Theatre box office

• NOTE: Please dress for walking outdoors in any weather. Life List runs rain or shine!
• There will be some brief seating opportunities along the route; plan to walk for about 25 minutes total. Everyone is welcome, birdwatchers and aviphobes alike. If you’ve got binoculars, please bring them along!
• Tickets for all Fringe productions are $10, $12 in advance. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone (416-966-1062, business hours only), in-person from the festival box office located in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s, (581 Bloor West), or — if any remain — from the venue box office (cash-only), starting one hour before showtime.
• The festival offers a range of money-saving passes for committed Fringers; see website for details.
• Be advised that Fringe shows always start exactly on time, and latecomers are never admitted.

Photo by Andrew Gaboury