EXXY, EIF dance and physical theatre review: 'funny, empowering'

EXXY | Andrew Perry

EXXY ★★★★

King’s Theatre

Run ended

In a show with loud music, bright lights, and a huge billboard hanging from the rafters, nothing in EXXY feels quite as big as its message. Namely that waiting for society to offer you acceptance and love is a fool’s errand, you’ve got to give it to yourself.

Navigating the world with cerebral palsy, Dan Daw knows more than most the challenges that can arise. As he points out towards the end of this funny, empowering show, “I can tour the world but I can’t butter my own bread”.

For this follow-up to the equally impactful Dan Daw Show, Daw takes us to his grandma’s garden in the Australian outback. There, as a child, he could trip over his own feet and drool as much as he needed, without fear of judgement. His body, he says, hasn’t felt as rested since.

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But although EXXY is essentially Daw’s story, he’s brought three friends along for the ride. Tiiu Mortley, Sofia Valdiri and Joe Brown also have bodies that are in some way compromised and, like Daw, are unafraid to share how that feels.

It’s during these moments, the show pulls us close. Brown’s false excuse for limping (“sports injury”), Valdiri’s tale of a date only realising post-coitally that her arm never stops shaking, and Mortley’s anger at poor ‘corrective’ surgery, are all fascinating. Daw has his fair share of stories, too and this enigmatic frontman holds the piece together with honesty and confidence.

Much of the movement is given over to walking and running, rather than dancing, a visual metaphor for being over-stretched by life. When they do dance, each step feels loaded with memory and emotion.

At the risk of demanding yet more of them, and missing the whole point of the show, an increase in that would make EXXY very special indeed. Kelly Apter

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