Q&A: Talking all things Edinburgh Fringe with Only Bones creator and performer Daniel Nodder

Ten years after The Only Bones Project first captivated Edinburgh Fringe audiences, Daniel Nodder is bringing their own extraordinary take on the minimalist physical theatre phenomenon to the festival. We caught up with him to discuss cosmic storytelling, creative constraints and why sometimes one lightbulb, one body and one square metre are all you need.

You create an entire universe using just your body, one lightbulb, and a single square metre… where do you even begin?!

We start small, at the beginning of it all: The Big Bang, and then go forward, expanding the scale and ridiculousness from there. Stars, atoms, light, evolution, life, dinosaurs, a meteor that killed them, fire, humankind, icebergs, global warming, outer space, a crash-landing, inescapable magnetism and then the black hole that will eventually cause the universe to collapse in on itself and start all over again… pretty straightforward stuff, really.

The Only Bones Project first premiered at Edinburgh Fringe a decade ago. How does it feel to bring your version back to where it all started?

It’s definitely big shoes to fill! Thom’s original version (Only Bones v1.0) was a hit and gained a bit of a cult following at the time; it feels like every artist I’ve talked to who was in Edinburgh around then absolutely loved it. To me, it feels like a really full-circle moment to finally be bringing my version over. I saw Thom’s version back in 2019 at the New Zealand Fringe Festival when I was still at uni, right before he took it over to Edinburgh. It absolutely blew my mind and kind of began my trajectory as a physical theatre artist. To continue following the pathways laid out by the amazing artists and mentors before me is a pleasure, an honour and a privilege. I hope that I can inspire some young performers to make stranger, more boundary-pushing art in the same way that I was!

You describe your body as moving in a "super unique, kind of weird way" — has that always felt like an asset, or did it take time to embrace?

Honestly, growing up with a lanky, double-jointed, bendy body wasn’t always the most useful thing. Especially since I had dreams of being a very serious hip-hop dancer. I often felt like I didn’t move the same as everyone else and struggled to understand why that was. But, since I have moved more into clowning, physical comedy and absurdist performance, I have been able to use all my physical quirks to my advantage! Especially with the Only Bones Project, which celebrates unique physicality and using the body in unexpected ways - I mean, where else can the ability to sing with your kneecaps be useful? It’s been the perfect environment to embrace my weirdness and turn it into wonderfulness.

The show has picked up awards at fringe festivals in New Zealand, San Diego, and Nelson. How has it evolved since you first performed it in 2023 and what do you hope UK audiences will take away from it?

The show has actually changed a lot since we premiered! We have added some things and cut other bits after our first few seasons. We removed a bit where I get hit by a meteor shower because it wasn't very funny or interesting, and added another singing body part, since the crowd-favourite kneecaps have been such a hit. Since I attended École Philippe Gaulier and started learning more about clowning, I’m way better at listening to and responding to the audience. I like to think that I now know when to repeat gags, and when to let them die. I love to always continue tinkering with the show, testing new little gags, bits of mime and movement, so that it’s always evolving and stays fresh for me as a performer!

UK audiences are definitely getting a well-practised, polished version of the show. By the end of Edinburgh Fringe, we will have performed this show 79 times! It will inevitably alter slightly over the course of the season, as I always find that it takes some time to adjust to the local sense of humour - there are certain gags that kiwis love, but aussies or americans don’t care for, and vice versa. Since it’s our first time performing in the UK, I’m excited to find out what works and what doesn’t.

The guidelines are deliberately restrictive — no narrative, no set, no props, no text. Did working within those constraints feel liberating or frustrating?

To be honest, I’ve loved the concept since I first heard about it and have only ever been incredibly inspired by the idea of such a minimalist performance. From the beginning, I had this image of a person floating through the vacuum of space, with a single little light hovering above them. That idea really fueled the cosmic theme and informed all the other elements of the show. The restrictions definitely changed the way that we approached making the show - we came in on day one with a loose set of ideas, all based around our space theme. From there, we basically locked ourselves in a dark room with a lightbulb for two weeks, trying to find every interesting thing we could do with so little. I think we spent a whole day exploring how many alien mouths I could make with different parts of my body. It would have been a very bizarre image for an outsider to look in on. It was also nice not to have to worry about words and focus on iterating music (local NZ composer Ben Kelly’s incredible original space-jazz score), nonverbal sounds and just using the body to tell the stories we wanted to tell.

With the show suitable for ages 8 and up, what is it about physical storytelling that you think crosses generational boundaries so naturally?

There’s a certain universal nature to nonverbal and physical storytelling, especially mime and dance. There’s something primordial about it - like sitting around with your cave-man buddies and watching an epic tale told only with grunts, movements and shadows cast by the light of a single campfire. You don’t really need any cultural context or backstory to understand what is happening - it’s simple, fascinating and engages the imagination, no matter who you are or what language you speak. I think people will always love performances that challenge the traditional “4th wall theatre" format because, in reality, nonverbal performance like this is actually far older than the proscenium arch or even the amphitheatre. I love it because it feels very human in a time when we as people and the world draw further and further away from simplicity.

Only Bones is at the Edinburgh Fringe at Summerhall from 5 – 30 Aug (not 19) at 8.20pm. Ticket information here: Only Bones – Daniel Nodder | Edinburgh Festival Fringe