Scotland

EXXY – King’s Theatre

It’s quite something when the safety feature at the start of a show is for the audience’s health rather than the performers, and EXXY from Dan Daw Creative Projects continues to be quite something throughout this highly physically accessible production, with its built in text and sign language throughout, as well as being set up as a relaxed performance, with warning cues for more extreme lighting and sound.

EXXY is labelled dance-theatre. It seems more heavily theatre, but with that dance quality which places the work of understanding movement onto the audience itself. Spoken word aspects (live and recorded), along with text and images projected onto the corrugated back wall, and strong soundscapes, all provide context – including Daws’ nan’s backyard and hospital settings – in which highly strenuous movement sequences can be understood. These sequences are embedded in and lightened by direct address to the audience that mixes dry humour and raw vulnerability, rooted in exploration of surviving / thriving.

The term “EXXY” comes from Dan Daw’s home country of Australia and refers to something being expensive. We see cost in the demands on the four performers’ bodies, mirroring the tolls taken in their lives, living with disability in a world that pushes them outside society – that ‘ex’ part of expensive, meaning out or away, where community is found in each other – those that are similarly disabled. The energy spent also comes with mental and emotional exhaustion, pushed and pressured under the weight of expectations that try to reshape their bodies. Weight is actually the root of ‘pens’ in the word expensive, as money used to be weighed rather than counted, and EXXY examines value, in society and as a person: self-value, self-belief, and social / capitalist ranking when – in one memorable illustration used – you can tour the world but not butter your own bread.

Curiously, despite driving rhythms, musical contrasts, strong phrases, deft audience-charming, and thought-provoking and emotion-inducing sections, EXXY leaves a slightly flat feeling, as if something is missing from the story arc, a way of sharing a full journey. Yet a powerful finale brought most of the audience to its feet for a standing ovation that reflected what the show does deliver: real insight into struggle and resistance to find a way back to self, and – in Daw’s case – a place of rest that allows him to be as he is when his body is allowed to be as it is. This feels like a huge achievement in a world that places such weight on physical disability.

EXXY had a single performance on 23rd August, and the company has no further events listed for the UK in 2026. The Edinburgh International Festival continues until 30th August – full details and tickets are available at https://www.eif.co.uk/

Some of the Creatives involved:

Lead Artist / Co-Director / Performer: Dan Daw

Performers & Collaborators: Joe Brown, Tiiu Mortley, Sofía Valdiri

Co-Director: Sarah Blanc

Dramaturg & Co-Writer: Brian Lobel

Set & Costume Designer: Kat Heath

Lighting Designer: Nao Nagai

Composer: Guy Connelly

Sound Designer: Lewis Gibson

Video & Creative Caption Designer: Sarah Readman

Sign Language Interpreter: Karen Forbes

Reviewer: Danielle Farrow