Only Bones By Daniel Nodder (The Melbourne Fringe Festival)
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Date Reviewed: 03/10/2026
Only Bones By Daniel Nodder | Melbourne Fringe Festival
A light globe hangs in the dark. Two hands close around it and the bulb now glows red with fingers pulsing in time with an eerie atmospheric soundtrack. Within seconds the audience is hushed and wondering what on earth the next hour holds.
Daniel Nodder, the New Zealand dancer and clown, performs within the strict rules of Thom Monckton's Only Bones Project: one light, no text, no set, no props, no narrative, all within a single square metre. It is a punishing brief and Nodder treats it as an invitation. The result is enigmatic, energetic and wonderfully out of this world.
The show moves through a series of small skits, each one a fresh surprise. Free-flowing dance, slapstick and physical comedy blur together as Nodder's body takes shapes you would not think a body could take. There are moments when you wince and wonder how a spine or shoulder could possibly bend that way. However, the sound effects come and vocal clown gibberish, which reassures you that he is perfectly fine and the long-running battle with the light globe is still on.
What makes the work is its precision. Nodder's movements land exactly on his sound cues and that is what sustains the suspension of disbelief. A twitch, a snap or a squelch arrives at the right instant and a limb becomes a creature or a face becomes a landscape. Nothing is spoken and nothing needs to be. The humour travels without translation, so anyone can walk in and be carried along.
The one-metre square keeps the focus laser tight, intimate and stage center. It makes the audience lean in. So I would urge you to take the front row as much of the action happens low to the ground and depends on Nodder's rubbery, expressive face. From further back you will enjoy the physical comedy, but you may miss the small, funny details that make it special.
My reservation is a small one. Because the show is so absorbing and the skits so loosely stitched together, a few segments feel like variations on a theme rather than a build towards something larger or towards mainstream narrative climax. The mood is one of quiet awe.
Best for those with an open mind and recommended for ages twelve and up, for you are required to sustain close attention to push through absurd dance and abstract physical comedy. This is a disarming, delightfully strange hour of theatre that proves how much story can live inside one body and one bulb.
Review by Sandra Lee