By Derek Schlennstedt
Daniel Tobias grew up in a Jewish-atheist household.
In 2004, he found out he had stage-four testicular cancer and went searching for God.
Any God.
Enter Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France and legendary cancer survivor.
Reflecting on Daniel’s real life experiences, The Orchid and The Crow is a solo performance: part storytelling, part cabaret, part theatre, featuring original songs from the award-winning writers of Die Roten Punkte.
Segueing between rock, pop, and contemporary opera, Daniel effortlessly draws the audience into the inspiring tale of his almost-death experience, and despite it’s macabre topic, manages to keep them in hysterics.
“In 2004 I was diagnosed with testicular cancer and I had to go through treatment so I was looking for some kind of way to get through it and someone handed me lance Armstrong’s book … it wasn’t about the bike,” he joked.
“So it started off me writing a show about my experience with cancer but it really became a show about faith, because without his book I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through it.”
The tragicomedy aptly called the Orchid and the Crow — named after the Greek name for testicle, because of the shape of the orchid plant’s bulb, and the symbol of death in many cultures — picks like a magpie from every musical genre with Daniel performing a range of hilarious original songs.
“There’s I think seven original songs in there, and some of it is like 90s indie rock, there’s also more cabaret theatre style songs some mellow acoustic and even an aria in Italian,” he said.
“My aim was to create a show that was a really fun night out, the last thing I would want to do, is sit in a dark room and listen to a really sad story.”
Orchid and the Crow will play at Burrinja on 27 April at 8pm, the Warburton Arts Centre on 28 April at 7:30pm, and Montrose Town Centre at 8pm.
