With a mother as demanding as Gyspy Rose, a helpless, bumbling father, and an astonishingly mediocre son, this eccentric, show-biz family has quite enough on their plate. Add the end of the world, and hilarity is bound to ensue. The Best Show We’ve Ever Done at the Edinburgh Fringe is a quick-sketch comedy written and performed by The Fish Girls playing at Riddle’s Court and does not oversell.
As the one-year anniversary of being entombed in the ever-shrinking chasm beneath their previous year’s Fringe venue dawns on them, this quirky family strives desperately to keep the festival season alive underground. They’ve instituted a cannibalistic lottery, are losing the power to their only working generator, have all nearly gone insane—and yet, they are still hell-bent on putting on their show.
The Fish Girls switch between the wild caricatures trapped along with the audience with remarkable ease and speed. The show flows together concisely without any tangents, even though it covers such a vast range of comedic vignettes. Each character produced by the show is so strikingly individual and over-the-top which causes for a vividly energetic and fun show. In fact, the Fish Girls just don’t hold back, and the audience just couldn’t ask for more!
Technically, The Best Show We’ve Ever Done at the Edinburgh Fringe is minimal, which fits well to its underground, apocalyptic setting. Additionally, costumes and makeup, wigs and quick-changes, are all just enough to unconsciously differentiate the many characters. The show’s lighting is basic yet cued effectively, and the sound mixing is strong and well paced.
The Best Show We’ve Ever Done at the Edinburgh Fringe manages to effectively weave together numerous hilarious parodies including an abysmal whodunit, a saucy vampire fanfiction, a cannibalistic town hall meeting, and some social-justice slam poetry to top it off. This wide range of sketches is clean, fast-paced, and all told through the larger narrative of a desperate family putting on a show for those they haven’t eaten just yet. Overall, the show is a self-aware, no-holds-barred approach to sketch comedy that is an absolute must this Fringe season.
