Dan Daw, Cherish Menzo and More Set for TAKE ME SOMEWHERE Festival

Take Me Somewhere has unveiled an early look at its programme with the announcement of three powerful performances that will be presented this Autumn from Wednesday 15 - Sunday 26 October 2025.

In anticipation of Take Me Somewhere's full programme announcement on Tuesday 29 July, the international biennial festival of radical performance is thrilled to announce the presentation of new work EXXY by queer, disabled artist Dan Daw, The Last Supper by internationally acclaimed Brazilian collective MEXA, and high-intensity genre-defying work FRANK by choreographer and dancer Cherish Menzo.

EXXY is an epic and tender new performance interrogating imposter syndrome, crip-queer desire and working-class ambition. Created by acclaimed Australian artist Dan Daw, whose previous work includes The Dan Daw Show, EXXY marks a bold new chapter in Daw's ongoing exploration of risk, intimacy and representation.

Featuring an all-disabled cast, including performers selected through auditions held in Glasgow, the piece takes us on a journey as Dan finds comfort in the possibility of finally blending in, after a lifetime of standing out.
The Last Supper is an intimate, immersive banquet-performance inspired by Da Vinci's iconic image, reimagined. Collective MEXA was founded following outbreaks of gender specific violence in shelters for homeless people in São Paulo. This performance, set around a long table shared by cast and audience, confronts ideas of death, resurrection and grief with joy and communion.
A UK premiere, FRANK is the latest genre-defying work from acclaimed choreographer Cherish Menzo; a high-intensity, large-scale visual and sonic experience that confronts monstrosity, horror and the origins and meaning of the ‘Other'. A performance between ritual, apocalypse and carnival, the title refers both to frankness, speaking plainly, and to Frankenstein; the archetypal figure of the constructed monster.
Menzo investigates how we manufacture monstrosity: how we project fear and difference onto bodies, identities, and geographies deemed “other.” In FRANK, the monster becomes a mirror: a way to examine the violent logics of exclusion and the borders between self and Other.

EXXY is the first work commissioned through New Dimensions, a pioneering partnership between five UK organisations: Battersea Arts Centre (London), Take Me Somewhere (Glasgow), Tramway (Glasgow), Transform (Leeds) and Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (Brighton), allowing artists in the UK to ambitiously create and upscale and work for UK and International main stages.

In a further partnership, Take Me Somewhere will collaborate with Leeds-based performance festival Transform to co-present EXXY by Dan Daw and The Last Supper by Brazilian collective MEXA. This shared presentation reflects a growing movement of UK organisations working together to create sustainable conditions for ambitious, high-impact work to reach audiences across the country.

Reflecting the organisation's commitment to cutting-edge international collaboration, radical imagination and bold live experience, this year's festival summons artists and audiences into a shared act of dreaming, daring and transformation.

Together, these works and partnerships lay the foundation for a festival that continues to position Glasgow as a key destination for contemporary performance, bringing together groundbreaking artists from Scotland and across the globe.

Talking about Take Me Somewhere, Artistic Director LJ Findlay-Walsh said:
‘We are delighted to announce the first of our main stage spectaculars from across the globe. Whether gathering at a communal feast, facing the monstrous within, or standing in the fire of ambition and desire, through these works audiences can explore what it means to want better and more.'