A Heartbreaking Walk of Staggering Genius – 2010 Summerworks Review

By Amber Landgraff

A Heartbreaking Walk of Staggering Genius

With a title like A Heartbreaking Walk of Staggering Genius I must admit that I was expecting Daniel Sadavoy’s walking tour, one of three walking tours offered as part of this year’s Summerworks Theatre Festival’s Summerwalks, to border on the sublime:  something so painful that it is beautiful.

I like the concept of a walking tour around the sites of someone’s breakup history.  The idea that a person’s experiences in sites around the city can imprint a history onto those locations is a beautiful thought.

It is a theme that everyone who has ever been in a relationship that has ended can relate to.  As Sadavoy so shrewdly observed, every relationship ends, until you find yourself in the relationship that doesn’t.

The tour starts out in the courtyard of the Factory Theatre.  My friend Sarah and I joined a group of about 15 people for the walk.  Sadavoy began the tour by telling us a little bit about himself.

He broke down the total number of relationships he’s been in over the course of his life (37) explaining how many of those have ended with him being dumped, with him being the dumper, or ended with a mutual decision to break up.

Sadavoy then invites the group to follow him on a tour through his relationship history, telling us about the relationships that occurred over a three block radius around the Factory Theatre.

Both Sarah and I agreed that we felt like Sadavoy could have gone deeper into the details of his breakups.  Many of the stories left us wanting more information (in fact we even stayed after the walk ended and tried to pry some of those details out of Sadavoy over a beer in the courtyard).

We were both ready to be charmed by Sadavoy.  He is a very charming guy.  But we felt like the stories ended up just scratching the surface.

Details

– Tours leave from the Factory Theatre courtyard Aug 6, 8, 10, 12 & 14 at 6:30PM / Aug 7 & 15 at 4PM

– Tickets are $5.00 each or $12.00 to see all three tours

– Tickets are available in advance online here or at the Factory Theatre

– Photo of Daniel Sadavoy by Nicolett Jakab