EXXY Comes to the Grand Hall of Battersea Arts Centre Ahead of a UK Tour

Dan Daw Creative Projects will return this autumn to present the World Premiere of their new show EXXY in the Grand Hall of Battersea Arts Centre ahead of a UK Tour. 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. Awarded the New Dimensions Commission for 2025, EXXY opens at BAC 2-10 October and then tours to Glasgow, Leeds and Brighton.

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 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. 

In EXXY (Australian slang for “that’s expensive, mate”) Dan, 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. In this epic journey 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.

Dan Daw said: "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. To my relationship to 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”.

EXXY is co-commissioned by Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, Battersea Arts Centre, Transform, Take Me Somewhere and Tramway for the New Dimensions Commission 2025. 

Launched in 2023, New Dimensions is a commissioning programme with five UK partners who have come together to support UK-based artists who are ready to dream big and create a new work of scale that can tour nationally and internationally.

EXXY runs at BAC (London) 2-10 October before the UK  tour: Tramway, Take Me Somewhere Festival (Glasgow): 15 October; Leeds Playhouse, Transform 25 international performance festival (Leeds): 22-23 October; Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (Brighton): 6-7 November). All performances of EXXY will be creatively captioned.