In EXXY (Australian slang for “that’s expensive, mate”), Dan, a queer, disabled artist, takes the audience on a journey to the rural Australian outback where he grew up in a working-class environment with very little, to explore the root of his imposter syndrome.
The largest-scale work to date by the groundbreaking disabled-led company, EXXY, explores the quarrel between Dan’s ambition to create the disabled-led work that is currently missing from large stages and the self-doubt that has been imposed on him as a working-class, disabled artist.
EXXY follows the critically acclaimed The Dan Daw Show, which played at BAC in 2022 and toured worldwide for four years due to popular demand, most recently at the Edinburgh International Festival. The Dan Daw Show presented Dan’s own relationship to his ‘cripness’ and kink under the lens, examining its connections to power, pride and shame. He returns to turn the spotlight inward once again in his new show, this time to look at his beginnings.
This is an epic journey in which the Dance Award-nominated artist uses deeply personal experiences to tell his story on stage. Dan is joined by three performers who walk and talk like him, finding comfort and resilience in the possibility of finally blending in after a lifetime of standing out.
“I’m always keenly aware of how little art there is by disabled artists that’s being programmed for our big stages, so when I was asked to step in and fill some of that gap, I didn’t know if that could or should be me. When we made ‘The Dan Daw Show’, I was blown away by how much it resonated with audiences, and that surprised me. I wanted to use EXXY, the biggest piece of my career, to try and work this out in my relationship with imposter syndrome and what it means to go before I’m ready. The piece asks the question: “How do I continue to value myself when society doesn’t value me?”, exploring the tension between being two things at the same time; the constant dichotomy of being a queer disabled working class person – doing brilliantly, while existing in a world where Government policies and regimes tell you you are not. It’s important that the work acknowledges that although I benefit greatly from Capitalism – by receiving an opportunity like this, for instance – it is also causing me harm”.
Dan Daw
EXXY will be performing at BAC (London) from October 2 to 10 before embarking on a UK tour.
Ticket Price: Pay What You Can
EXXY by Dan Daw Creative Projects , Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TN, United Kingdom.
All performances of EXXY will be creatively captioned.
The EXXY tour schedule:
– Tramway, Take Me Somewhere Festival (Glasgow): October 15
– Leeds Playhouse, Transform 25 International Performance Festival (Leeds): October 22-23
– Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (Brighton): November 6-7
