Who is Dani Cabs? is a one man show that is part theatre, improvisation and stand up. From the suburbs of Western Sydney, Daniel Cabrera is a second-generation immigrant from Uruguay.  Cabrera delivers an hour-long monologue, with musical interludes and “commercial breaks.” He takes us to his neck of the woods and shows us his mistakes, dreams and ambitions. Finally, to a tender epiphany he realises his relationships have fallen apart and he is “never happy with himself.”

Adequately representing your personal story is a daunting task. Cabrera attempts to strip the artifice associated with theatre and tell himself straight, as he is. He is entertaining, energetic, and has considerable flair. His obsession with the phallus is actually endearing, and contributes successfully to his deliberation on masculinity and bravado.

He builds towards an emotional crux; a realisation he feels inadequate and at odds with his brother as a role model. His bearings are shaken. This moment highlighted the piece, expressed through a reading of a private letter, and is done with skill and real emotion.

What the show lacked, perhaps, was continuity in storyline. There are moments it would have benefited from a more in depth consideration of history, family life, and his clash of cultures.

He dips in and out of Spanish, which is refreshing and creates intrigue but at times, the show felt like an extended list of favourite past-times, placing more emphasis on the spectacle of the telling rather than opening up a real insight into his identity. Cabrera does address several problems facing young men in Australia: culture, race, dominance, masculinity, drugs, coping with failure, and in doing so he opens up a wider discussion of our social fabric. There were moments where it was trying for too much emotional depth, and could have benefited with fine-tuning and re-distribution of his efforts to better communicate his story, because the show only scratched the surfaced.

In his farewell, Cabrera tells us he is a “new-comer” to this game. He is a dominant physical presence, in control, and his use of language is both appropriate and well-chosen. If the quality of this show is anything to go by, he has real potential.