Queerguru’s Robert Malcolm reviews the final performance of ‘EXXY’ at the Edinburgh Int. Festival

EXXY is Australian slang for “that’s expensive mate”. It is used here to describe “class, value and the cost of success”.

Dan Daw is a working-class queer artist with cerebral palsy.

In EXXY he takes us back to his roots in the bush near Adelaide, where he grew up in poverty with his Nan.

His Nan let him be himself at home, but as soon as he had to venture into the world outside, he was forced to conform and act in ways acceptable to society. This required a huge physical effort. He gained inspiration from the saltbush plants growing up through the cracks in the concrete of his garden. They were not pretty like flowers, but they were strong and resilient.

The staging of EXXY is impressive. The proscenium backdrop is a wall of corrugated rusty steel on which words and images are projected. Cheap garden furniture and saltbush plants in troughs are scattered across the floor, and a giant poster for the show hangs at an angle above the stage.

Dan is joined on stage by Tiiu, Joe, and Sofia, who all have physical disabilities of different kinds.

The performance begins with a slow introduction containing information on trigger warnings and signing for the deaf. Then there is a long amusing prologue. Dan introduces himself and the other performers follow. Before any movement has begun, the scene has been set verbally. This avoids misinterpretation and makes the dance accessible to everyone. The descriptions of sexual rejection are particularly poignant.

Dan Daw challenges the tradition which implies that dance is about perfect bodies performing in perfect motion. You can see this ethos in both classical and contemporary dance. Dan makes us view things differently.

These dancers put as much effort into their performance as classically trained ballet dancers do. Every limited and strange choreographed move is painful for them. By the end of the performance, the audience is prompted to encourage and cheer the dancers who are, by this time, exhausted by their efforts.

EXXY is unique, entertaining and thought-provoking.

With original music composed by Guy Connelly EXXY is produced by Dan Daw Creative projects and is part of the Edinburgh International Festival. I attended its final performance at the Kings Theatre.

Edinburgh He is a trained architect and interior designer who relocated from London to his home town of Edinburgh in 2019. Under the pen name of Bobby Burns, he had his first novel, a gay erotic thriller called Bone Island published by Homofactus Press in 2011.          queerguru.com/tag/robert malcolm