Globus Theatre is bringing something a little more edgy than its usual fare to the Lakefield Arts Barn in Bobcaygeon on Thursday (June 15) with a one-night-only performance of fringe veteran Alex Dallas’s award-winning autobiographical one-woman show Horseface.
Horseface begins with Dallas’s awkward encounter on a train with a ‘manspreader’ — a man sitting with his legs so wide apart they cover more than one seat. That unwelcome intrusion into her personal space and its consequences segues into an at times uncomfortable and at times hilarious monologue where Dallas relates her life experiences with other men who have behaved badly, from the inappropriate to the criminal.
“The minute Donald Trump tweeted calling Stormy Daniels horseface, I had the name for my show,” Dallas told Debbie Fein-Goldbach of NOW Magazine in 2019. “It is the response to the last three years of not only him and his blatant misogyny, but the #MeToo movement.”
Born and raised in the U.K., Dallas began playing the fringe festival circuit in 1982 with Alison Field and Wendy Vousden in their all-female comedy trio Sensible Footwear. After debuting at the Edinburgh Fringe, the troupe came to the Vancouver Fringe and began touring other North American festivals. After performing at the Toronto Fringe, a critic described their show as “man-hating feminist diatribe.”
“We sold out every single show after that,” Dallas told Fein-Goldbach.
Sensible Footwear were regulars on CBC Radio and CBC TV’s Comics, making their debut on BBC2 in the U.K. with Gloria Steinham. In 2000, Dallas wrote and toured her first one-woman show Goddess across the Canadian Fringes and to the Adelaide Fringe in Australia (it also aired on CBC Radio’s Definitely Not the Opera). An autobiographical work about her discovery of her birth father’s identity, Goddess set the stage for Dallas’s subsequent shows, Nymphomania and Drama Queen, the latter being broadcast on Bravo TV.
Having performed at more than 150 Fringe festivals worldwide since her debut with Sensible Footwear, Dallas has earned the moniker “Queen of the Fringe.”
“I toured the fringe festival circuit with Alex for many years and she was always hugely popular with audiences and a real treat to watch,” says Globus Theatre’s artistic director Sarah Quick in a media release.
“Alex performed in Globus’ first season 20 years ago and it is a great privilege to welcome her back again to entertain the audience we have today. This is provocative, compelling, entertaining storytelling at its finest.”
Since the premiere of Horseface in May 2019 at the Orlando Fringe, where it won the best in show in venue award, Dallas has toured the show across North America to critical acclaim.
“The show doesn’t feel heavy as she infuses her take with humour and insightful commentary,” wrote MK Piatkowski after Dallas performed Horseface at Toronto Fringe in July 2019. “She’s such a strong storyteller and presence that you’re just taken along with her as she invites you into her world.”
“Dallas is furiously funny in her observations and insights — delivered with that signature dry British wit — but she’s also a master of the one-two punch, swinging from hilarious to harrowing,” wrote Jen Zoratti of the Winnipeg Free Press in July 2022. “The most powerful moments of the show are at its sharp edges, where Dallas really gets to the heart of what it means to be treated like prey in a world full of wolves.”
“Part of what makes the show hilarious is the juxtaposition of Dallas’s elevated and refined British accent tackling such low and raunchy subjects,” wrote Jim Beard in the Calgary Guardian in August 2022. “But there’s another layer that makes this show a wonder. As the performer and the writer, Alex Dallas deftly manages to ride humour seamlessly into the darker moments. The balance of self-deprecating comedy with moments of felt danger is particularly impressive.”
Dallas will perform Horseface at 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 15th at the Lakeview Arts Barn in Bobcaygeon. An optional dinner is available at 6 p.m. Tickets are $35 for the show only, or $80 for dinner and the show, and are available by calling the Globus Theatre box office at 705-738-2037 or online at globustheatre.com.
The show will be followed by a question-and-answer session led by Quick where audience members will have the opportunity to ask Dallas about her career, her creation of Horseface, and the topics discussed within it.
