Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland became the talk of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe not once, not twice but three times, with their remarkable talent and innovative approach to theatre that draws on clowning, lighting, sound and movement. Dressed in related costumes, they wrap these elements around absurdist scripts to create shows that challenge ideas of gender and confront political and social norms.
Their finest and most challenging work.
I remember the jubilation that surrounded their Fringe First Award in 2022 for And Then The Rodeo Burned Down. To those of us who’d seen it, the commendation came as no great surprise but, there was a huge sense of relief when the quirky piece from across the Pond received the recognition it deserved. For the New York duo, making their international debut, it was a game-changing accolade.
They returned the following year with What If They Ate The Baby? It was different, yet still remarkable and performed in their inimitable style. But could it follow in the footsteps of the previous year’s triumph? It was unheard of for a company to win a Fringe First twice, but they pulled it off.
They were back again in 2024 and there was an inevitable air of excitement around their new production. Already known for the quirky titles attached to their shows their latest immediately had tongues wagging. Speculation abounded after the first few performances of A Letter To Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First.
Many, myself included, regarded this as their finest and most challenging work, with a bolder, darker, more penetrating message and a theatrically brave tear-jerker of an ending. If the other two plays had received the Fringe First, surely this one had to as well. Yet a hat trick was historically unthinkable. However, the judges had to concede that it ticked all the boxes. And so they made Fringe history for the second time, by becoming the only company to win the prestigious Scotsman Fringe First Award three times and even more remarkably to do so in consecutive years.
Their three shows have been performed at The King’s Head Theatre, London and in various locations around the US, but now the girls sit on the brink of their off-Broadway debut. Their 1960s-inspired farce, centred around LBJ, portrays an idealised American childhood that explores complex ties to life among the military families with whom they grew up. As their tale unfolds, the games and explorative fun of childhood meld into tackling issues of gender and national identity during the most controversial of US wars. Using their remarkable writing and performance skills they envelop the weighty material in humour and playfulness, providing light relief that reinforces the poignant and the tragic.
Now their show has been selected for performance at SoHo Playhouse, New York from 8-22 February as part of the International Fringe Encore Series; a showcase for some of the best plays presented at Fringe festivals internationally. Within a few weeks, using their signature style of clowning, physicality and fast pace, the girls will step back in time, don their Boy Scouts’ uniforms and directly address audiences, telling stories, playing soldiers and declaring admiration for their hero, the current president, Lyndon Baines Johnson.
They are thrilled to be performing in their home city and particularly so close to the inauguration of another controversial president. “The conversation surrounding the role the president plays in this country shaped the creation of this piece, so, especially after this recent election,” they say, “we are really looking forward to what American audiences will find in this show.”
Meanwhile, on this side of the Pond, we wait excitedly to see what New York audiences make of the show that stormed Edinburgh and wish the girls all the very best for a hugely successful home debut.
