This show has one of the best surprise openings of any show I have seen this year, but I can’t say anything about it or I’ll give it away. It is extremely cute though. After this we have the Lady Gardeners (is this correct?) doing their best to subvert the traditional sketch show in as many forms as possible. There are sketches about Russian Dolls which evoked the true spirit of most Russian theatre, a wedding race, some minor audience interaction, a helicopter that refused to perform as required much of the time during an audio sketch, a doomed romance between one of the girls and a bearded cleric, a short scene from the nativity, some Christian singing gone wrong and a couple of other sketches before the explosive finale. Sadly, if I give too much detail, it will give away the joke, so you’ll have to be content with an overview of the range of sketches. Suffice to say, the audience enjoyed the show throughout.
The girls (ladies) are at the festival for the third year in a row and every sketch is new and almost all of them are funny and subversive. There is a slickness and professionalism to their shows that indicates that they have already been well road-tested before coming to Edinburgh. I must admit to a fondness for this group as they seem to have a similarly demented sense of humour as I, plus they are all young and attractive, with sparkly new costumes that appear to have been run up from mums old curtains (with grovelling apologies if they turn out to be designer outfits).
The audience enjoyed the show and there was rapturous applause at the end; seating is limited and is selling fast so I recommend booking early and often so you won’t be disappointed.
Visit the Edinburgh Fringe website for booking details