EXXY
Battersea Arts Centre
★★★★★
“beautiful in its simplicity”
‘Exxy’ starts us in a quiet, dusty South Australian garden. Saltbush scattered through the trees, plastic garden chairs patterned with flowers, corrugated iron (set design Kat Heath), and a kindly unseen character ‘nan’ create a safe playground on stage. Dan sets a similar tone, encouraging us to tic, stim and relax; we should be unapologetically ourselves, setting an environment to go on some self-exploration.
Dan Daw, a queer, crippled artist, transports the audience to the rural Australian outback where he grew up, working class and with very little, to explore the route of his imposter syndrome. 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. Sofía Valdiri, Tiiu Mortley and Joe Brown together with Dan wonderfully bring raw and honest characters to their engaging performances. They show us the world full of competition, capitalism, and drive, where your worth is measured against a pre-conceived idea of success.
The world says you’re too disabled, or not disabled enough, fighting to show you as a fraud, demanding, “¿Quién eres? qui es-tu?” but not waiting for an answer. The show forces the audience to listen to the performers talk about themselves, and to see them. To see them as they dance and move and show us the pain they’ve endured by being forced to fit in and “corrected”.
However, not only do Dan and the performers reject this world, but they also tell us how they burst through it. The saltbush winds its way through the story and the stage, resilient like the performers, “not because I need to be”, but because it’s beautiful to be.
The show matched whimsy with wailing. Punchlines with pain. The characters took us from smiling, jokey and bashful, to showing us disabled bodies moving and dancing and unflinchingly professing their true feelings. Dan and Sarah Blanc’s rousing co-direction keeps us on our toes right from the start. They, along with Nao Nagai’s lighting and Lewis Gibson’s sound, make cohesive choices from a range of theatre tech and effects, all the way down to the tennis ball machine firing right at the audience. Through it all, however, we’re always encouraged that we’re in a safe space. The surprises are gently packaged, and everything is done with a glint in the performers’ eyes.
Exxy is beautiful in its simplicity. The performers made the audience see them for what they are: disabled and beautiful. They showed us the difficulty they had faced from the world, but then how they rejected it. They remind us what they are not, and what we are. An excellent performance all round.
EXXY
Battersea Arts Centre then UK Tour continues
Reviewed on 7th October 2025 for thespyinthestalls.com
Photography by Hugo Glendinning
Previously reviewed at this venue:
BLUE BEARD | ★★★★ | April 2024
SOLSTICE | ★★★★ | December 2023
LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD | ★★½ | December 2022
TANZ | ★★★★ | November 2022
HOFESH SHECTER: CONTEMPORARY DANCE 2 | ★★★★★ | October 2022
