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Fool’s Paradise - A Comedy of Cross-Continental Courting, Clowns and Catastrophes

Pleasance Courtyard

Four stars


When Britt met Otto, it was love at first laugh. Both clowns doing shows in Adelaide in 2019, the pairembarked on a delirious long distance romance that looks set to end in an on stage wedding to which we’re all invited. As it’s a clown’s wedding, plastic bananas are handed out at the door instead of confetti, and you might even end up a bridesmaid. 

 

While we’re waiting for Otto, Britt has a tale to tell, not just of long distance love, but of  lockdown, citizenship visas and festival shows without her. Britt Plummer does this with little more than a couple of coffee cups, a mop and a jacket to tell her true life story in Jess Clough-MacRae’s production for Plummer’s suitably named Frank. Theatre. 

 

Returning to Edinburgh following a run in 2023, it’s a glorious double bluff of a show 

with bags of attitude, as Plummer utilises the DIY puppetry at play to make for an exuberantly executed hour that is  funny, fragile, and, for Plummer, quite possibly purging. 

 

As for Otto, wherever he is, he really is a clown. In terms of the show, he just gave Britt the best wedding gift ever. Who’s laughing now?  

 

Pleasance Courtyard until 25th August, 3pm


The List, August 2024

 

ends

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