Photo credit: Emma Sheldrick

Daniel Oliver has been building and presenting calamitous, participatory performance worlds since 2003. They are wilfully dyspraxic, indulging an ecstatically awkward and disorganised approach to storytelling, audience immersion, and theatricality. Here he talks to co-collaborator Mazvita on the Egg Show:

I am a 41-year-old performance artist who makes calamitous participatory performances. I call these performance neurotransgressive because they indulge and affirm the chaos and clumsiness that is inherent to my identity as a dyspraxic. I like to think of them as unabashedly dorky in their approaches to pretending and fantasy and in the awkward social interactivity they gently but stubbornly inflict upon audiences. They are usually made with and for adults.

In July 2022 The Yard Theatre contacted me to ask if I wanted to make a show with a 10-year old girl named Mazvita. Mazvita, I was told, is a member of the Yardlings, the theatre’s drama club for 8-11 year olds, who insists on pulling her jumper up over her head and saying that she is an egg.  She describes herself as ‘the most chaotic child you will ever meet.’ 

I had previously worked with a group of Yardlings on a show about being in the woods and having too many ideas. Audience members who had experienced my performances before were impressed by how much this felt like a ‘Daniel Oliver’ show despite the fact it was performed by and for children. Audience members who had not experienced my performances before were impressed by how clear it was that the children were in charge - that I hadn’t tried to discipline it and them in relation to adult ideas of quality and craft. I went into the Egg Show project with the aim of maintaining a fidelity to this apparent contradictory feedback on authorship and compromise.

We are now around 5 weeks into the project. It’s half term so we are working every day and have a low-key sharing tomorrow.  We are excited and nervous – ‘nercited’ as Mazvita calls it. We have sat down to reflect a bit on the show and its themes.

Daniel: What is it like to be an egg? 

Mazvita: It’s comfortable and it makes me feels like it’s a whole different world. It’s a world of fun and random things. In the non-egg world things are just in order and quiet and stuff, and in the egg show, things are mostly loud. In the egg world it is hard to get bored. It’s boring if it’s quiet and nothing really happens. I find doing this interview boring because we are just sitting down and talking about stuff. I’d rather be doing something that involves lots of energy … or drawing. 

Daniel: Do you think it’s ok for a performance to have people doing drawing in it?

Mazvita: Yes. Because when you are making your own performance, you can include anything you like. My friend who is in the show prefers drawing to running around so in the bits where we run around, she does drawing.

Daniel: What was it like when you found out that The Yard wanted you to work with me to make the Egg Show?

Mazvita: When they told me that you were interested in making a show with me about eggs it was very exciting because I could tell my friends and I could show off. 

Photo credit: Emma Sheldrick

Daniel: Do all your friends like it when you are an egg?

Mazvita: Yes, and sometimes they do it with me. But sometimes my teacher tells me to put my jumper down, but I say I’m doing it because my ears are cold. My teacher thinks it might distract other people but it won’t distract other people because they can just ignore it. 

Daniel: Do you do you want the audience to ignore you when you put your jumper over your head?

Mazvita: If they want to, they can. But it would be nice if they experienced how it feels. Can I go and paint the set now?

Daniel: In a minute. Can you ask me some questions first? 

Mazvita: OK. Does it feel different working on a show about food?

Daniel: That’s a good question. I’ve worked with food before. I’ve even worked with eggs before. Me and my friend Luke made a big scotch egg gun out of pipes and a bike pump that we could use to shoot scotch eggs at each other for a performance we made for Easter.

Mazvita: …..

Daniel: I think Run Riot might also want to know a bit about who we are. Don’t you want to know anything about me?

Mazvita: oh. Ummmm. Why did you want to make a show about an egg with me? Can I go now?

Daniel: yes … but don’t you want to hear my answers? 

Mazvita: ….

Daniel: Don’t worry I’ll write up my answers later. I might make up some more questions too. 

Mazvita: OK. 

Daniel Oliver & Mazvita - The Egg Show runs from April 21-22 7pm & April 23 at 3pm as part of NOW festival at The Yard. To find out more and book tickets, click here.