FOUR GO OFF ON ONE! A Jolly Good Romp Through Childhood
16:30, 2nd-27th August (not 15th), Gilded Balloon Teviot
After sell-out crowds and a clutch of top-tier reviews for ‘Five Go Off On One!’ in Cambridge and at the 2016 EdFringe, a new version of this parody of The Famous Five, Swallows and Amazons, the Chronicles of Narnia and many similar children’s books is returning to Edinburgh. Thanks to intervention from the estate of one of the above (you may have seen the story in Chortle, or The Times), for 2017 we have killed off a main character, bringing our total number of ginger-beer-swilling protagonists down to four… but avoiding a trademark dispute.
Created by the creme-de-la-creme of graduating and student Cambridge comedians (including Footlights and ADC stalwarts), ‘Four Go Off On One!’ takes the adventure stories of 20th century children’s literature and uses them as the starting point for a bizarre, surrealist melting pot – swirling contemporary sketch, narrative and character comedy into a parodic farce.
‘Four Go Off On One!’ is not a tired parody of easy targets, but features multirole quick-change performers and prop-based physical comedy to achieve the sensibility of an eccentric sketch show, hung around a farcical plot poking merciless fun at Enid Blyton, Arthur Ransome, E Nesbit, C S Lewis etc etc etc. This is cutting edge contemporary comedy presented in an accessible format.
‘Four Go Off On One!’ is the only show born from the world-renowned Cambridge student comedy scene that’s coming back to Edinburgh for a second year running, and the creative team is one of the most experienced student teams operating at the 2017 EdFringe. It’s also (probably) the only Fringe show that has had the head of legal at a major European publishing house writing daily letters checking up on how many protagonists it has…
