Part dance, part comedy, 100% emotion, EXXY is a new play exploring the disabled experience through artistic representation, social commentary and the rallying cry of just yearning to exist as you are. Presented in the welcoming space of the Battersea Arts Centre, this 75 minute play uses movement, self expression and visual media to express in unflinching honesty the reality of existing as a disabled person in the world today. Rather than trying to present a narrative for external change, EXXY instead encourages a message of self-change – that we all have to come to terms with who we are and the limits of what our bodies can do, and once that utopia has been reached maybe we will all live in a better place.

For those not in the know, ‘exxy’ is slang for expensive in Australia; the country known for dropping syllables and straight-talking is home for the co-director and lead performer Dan Daw and the setting for the play, with a rusty corrugated iron backdrop and scattered saltbush plants subtly evoking the Aussie outback. Complementing their set design, the costumes by Kat Heath hit just the right balance of accessibility and staging, clearly catering to the performers’ own personal style with a glittery grey scale that doesn’t detract from the action.

Daw is joined onstage by three other artists who “walk and talk just like him” — Sofia Valdiri, Tiiu Mortley and Joe Brown — and together through spoken monologue and exhaustive dance they lay out their own experience with disability for our entertainment. Never straying into explicit politicization of the issues or becoming the butt of their own jokes, this perfectly balanced performance is a lesson for all in its handling of what can be very sensitive topics. Jumping from discussions on drool to who can win at the game of cerebral palsy or what happens in the bedroom, no topic is off limits and this unfiltered conversation is a profoundly refreshing and fascinating expression of disability.

Lighting designer Nao Nagai and video designer Sarah Readman prove that you can make a show visually appealing and still entirely accessible. Subtitles should be the standard, and when done in stunning coherence with the strobing party atmosphere it adds to every moment. Layer on top Lewis Gibson’s pulsing sound design and new musical compositions by Guy Connelly and you get an extraordinary level of stage craft that actively elevates the onstage story. With their co-director Sarah Blanc, Daw manages to direct perfect beats of comedy yet still elicit extreme emotional responses, this is someone at the absolute peak of their artistic pursuits who has such a clear understanding of what they are trying to say to the world.

A must-see play, and one that has been staged in a way that enables it to be enjoyed and understood by everyone, EXXY is a raw, honest, and unforgiving portrayal of what it means to be disabled and the physical and mental cost it takes.

Review by Eva Tilley

EXXY is on at Battersea Arts Centre before it continues its tour. You can find out more on their website.

If you like this review of EXXY you might also like my review of Clarkston, Born with Teeth and Sabrage.