Dixon's A God in Need of Help Closes at the Tarragon Theatre this Weekend Sean Dixon is a magical playwright. Writers don't always make good magicians. Sometimes we try to use mysticism or absurdist logic to disguise our attempt at a clumsy literary seduction. Instead of faltering in these complexities, Dixon relies on the naked honesty of live performance to ease that seduction and, frankly, make love to all of us over and over and over. I first learned of Dixon when I stumbled upon his list of "Things (He's) Learned from Theatre SKAM" which appears at the start of his short anthology Awol: Three Plays for Theatre SKAM (Coach House, 2002). After reading through the anthology, I fell in love with Dixon's passion for theatre as a shared experience. As he states, "The audience knows that you're the ones who are telling the story. You're sharing the performance area with them. You don't have to hide from them." This truism led Dixon to expect and appreciate minimalist productions therefore allowing hims to approach writing for the stage as though nothing is impossible. Dixon was and remains to be the first official playwright-out-of-residence for Theatre SKAM, a still existing project-based usually site-specific company from the Canadian West Coast. His past plays include: Falling Back Home (1990), Billy Nothin' and Aerwacol (1999-2000), The Gift of the Coat (2008), and many more. His latest novel, The Many Revenges of Kip Flynn seems amazing and magical just like his shows. Dixon is charming. He writes with breath and brain. His latest show A God in Need of Help opened at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto in April to beautiful reviews. In support of his show, we've made him the Playwright of the Day. Go check out the run this weekend to learn a little more about one of Canada's literary gems. Shout out to friends of Newborn who remind us of Dixon: Kyle Capstick and Alexandra Simpson.
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