Review by Steve Bennett

Exaggerated melodramtic spoofs have become an immensely popular staple of the Edinburgh Fringe in recent years – and this is probably the best of this year’s batch.

Not so much for the script, which is a ridiculous mess, and probably deliberately so, but for the sheer vigour of its stars Katie Lyons and Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, who make it come alive in a frenzy of orgiastic stupidity.

It’s a romp, pure and simple, starting off as some Hammer House Of Bad Acting ghost story and taking us through Willy Wonka, the Wizard Of Oz and Mary Poppins until we come to Labyrinth, with its David Bowiesque goblin king.

There’s not much point in explaining the plot - about a thwarted writer trying to submit her great play to the Script Idol contest – as it’s merely a device to move from one lunatic creation to the next, indulging in plenty of theatrical horseplay en route.

So we meet a Michael Flatley-like charmer with a bad beard, the fishwife of a publican; the suave, mysterious wheelchair-bound Romeo and his narcoleptic simpleton daughter; a perverted Oompa Loompa and countless more weirdos besides.

Lyons and Malcolm split all the roles – even sharing the lead of Sarah, in a device that could so easily have come unravelled, but, in fact, comes to make perfect sense.

They both bring a febrile energy and playful, nonsensical spirit to the near-unhinged shenanigans. It’s full of over-the-top acting, obvious pratfalls, cheap costumes and cartoony, pantomime violence. If you like Rik Mayall and Ade Edmonson, you’ll love this.

As with many a double act, there’s a simmering, ego-driven tension between the proud, argumentative pair, bringing out a raging, vicious passion in their knockabout, bitchy encounters.

The pace is manic, and the spirit almost feral, and it all adds up to a real blast of a show.

Review date: 1 Jan 2007
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett