From the maker of The Price of Everything and Going Viral, Instructions for Border Crossing is an exposed gearbox of a political thriller. Blending Daniel’s trademark storytelling with a series of live interventions from the audience (don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to!), the show itself is as unstable as the world it describes.
A twelve-year-old girl sneaks across the border of her own country. Her parents watch her on a computer screen. The works of a half-forgotten performance artist seem to hold the key to bringing down a brutal system operating on our behalf and under our noses. Do you join in? Or do you look the other way?
“A fascinating and in some ways remarkable piece of theatre.” – Quiet Man Dave
“A highly disparate piece merging elements of performance art, dramatic monologue, lecture, and audience involvement… An intriguing piece.” – Manchester Theatre Awards
★★★★ “Bye takes the opportunity to cleverly create a world that mediates on global and personal anxieties that forces a subtle reconsideration of your fragile place in the world.” – North West End
“Fantastic.” – Within My Locket
“Impressively directed by Alex Swift… I was in awe of [Daniel] Bye’s ability to relate to an audience made up of such different people, uniting us with his performance.” – Mancunion
“The recurring conceit – in which [Daniel] Bye invites an audience member to play Jenga with him while he interrogates them about aspects of their personality and how they believe they would behave in certain situations – is compelling.” – The Times (behind paywall)
★★★★ “A deceptively mild-mannered show… If [Daniel] Bye seems too gentle a figure to take us on such a challenging and at times beautifully written journey – well, it is one of his strengths as a writer and performer to catch us off guard, and hold us there, until we begin to change.” – The Scotsman
“A pleasingly equivocating look at activism and resistance… It doesn’t offer any packaged conclusions, but it does needle and niggle.” – What’s On Stage
“A layered and intriguing piece… [Daniel] Bye [is] an engaging performer and storyteller.” – The Stage
“A bold, experimental piece of storytelling… A fascinating examination of authority, consent and complicity.” – British Theatre Guide
“[Daniel] Bye is afraid of not making a difference in the world… A show that carves out space for thought, for questioning… Best approached with as little foreknowledge or expectation as possible.” – Exeunt
Co-commissioned by ARC Stockton, Harrogate Theatre, HOME, Norwich Arts Centre, Oxford Playhouse, Unity Theatre Liverpool & West Yorkshire Playhouse. Funded by Arts Council England.
Want to know more about Daniel Bye?
Middlesbrough-born Daniel Bye is a theatre-maker, writer, director and performer. He creates new work for theatres and other spaces, wrestling with questions of how we all live together in this world. His work juggles comedy and tragedy, fact and fiction, roughness and polish.
Daniel’s recent touring work includes Going Viral, The Price of Everything, which has been performed over 100 times in the UK and internationally, and the award-winning How to Occupy an Oil Rig.
- Follow @DanielBye on Twitter
- Visit Daniel’s website
Orbit is sponsored by:
