ROOM TO SWING AN AX - A SOUTHERN GOTHIC SONG CYCLE & MEMOIRISTIC MONODRAMA at PhilaMOCA
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From the team that brought you last years's "spellbinding!" (Kevin Smith, Dogma), "absolutely stunning" (Reactor), "weird and wonderful!" (Daniel Kraus, Angel Down, winner of the 2026 Pulitzer Prize), "BADASS vaudeville show!" (Rue Morgue Magazine), The Devil & Daisy Dirt, comes a brand new feverdream hoedown, featuring the critically acclaimed writer/performer Alex Dawson (The Devil & Daisy Dirt, Welcome to White Hart) and the award-winning folk singer Arlan Feiles (Come Sunday Morning, Diaspora).
Like Waylon Jennings' memoiristic "Man Called Hoss," Alex and Arlan use spoken word and ten biographical ballads to pull you through the mud and blood of Dawson's harsh but magical life on a haunted horse farm in rural Alabama. Beginning with the morning his stepdad, a rancher named Doc, hit him in the head with a 5-pound Fireside Friend; ending with the old man dead, buried by bucket loader, among his horses, whose legs had to be chainsawed off before they could be dug in. There are witches in the woods, snakes in the lake, ghosts in the barn, and trapped in every bent tree is the soul of someone who died wrong. Big Fish meets Blaze Foley. Memoiristic monodrama. Southern Gothic song cycle. Audio-biography. Book/Lyrics by Alex Dawson. Music by Arlan Feiles.
"There is no one like Alex Dawson. A riveting, one-of-a-kind storyteller." - Joyce Carol Oates
"Dawson's head is full of ghosts, and he summons them with a poet's precision. Gather round, believers, Room To Swing An Ax is a beautiful and brutal séance." - Clay McLeod Chapman, Ghost Eaters
Run Time: 1.30
Like Waylon Jennings' memoiristic "Man Called Hoss," Alex and Arlan use spoken word and ten biographical ballads to pull you through the mud and blood of Dawson's harsh but magical life on a haunted horse farm in rural Alabama. Beginning with the morning his stepdad, a rancher named Doc, hit him in the head with a 5-pound Fireside Friend; ending with the old man dead, buried by bucket loader, among his horses, whose legs had to be chainsawed off before they could be dug in. There are witches in the woods, snakes in the lake, ghosts in the barn, and trapped in every bent tree is the soul of someone who died wrong. Big Fish meets Blaze Foley. Memoiristic monodrama. Southern Gothic song cycle. Audio-biography. Book/Lyrics by Alex Dawson. Music by Arlan Feiles.
"There is no one like Alex Dawson. A riveting, one-of-a-kind storyteller." - Joyce Carol Oates
"Dawson's head is full of ghosts, and he summons them with a poet's precision. Gather round, believers, Room To Swing An Ax is a beautiful and brutal séance." - Clay McLeod Chapman, Ghost Eaters
Run Time: 1.30
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Where is it happening?
PhilaMOCA, 531 N 12th St,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherPhilaMOCA
