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Fly, You Fools!

 
Ben Ludlow Review by Ben Ludlow 5 Published: 14 Aug 2025 Pleasance Courtyard Show Dates: 30 Jul 2025-25 Aug 2025

Long is my journey through the Pleasance Courtyard to the Beyond. Loud and suspiciously familiar is the music that fills the corridors of the Dame Katherine Grainger Rowing Gym. Missing is the LOTR logo from my T-shirt as I weave among the elves and orcs crammed into this chamber. I have no memory of this place, even though I was here a couple of hours ago for a one-man show.

Inventive, hysterical, and masterfully delivered

I speak in the style of The Lord of the Rings, for everything about it is grandiloquent, majestic and verbally disordered – from Tolkien’s commandingly professorial text to Peter Jackson’s scenically beautiful film trilogy. And, like anything so infused with grandeur and gravity, the temptation to send it up is irresistible. Such a temptation has produced Fly You Fools, a spoof retelling of Peter Jackson’s first Lord of the Rings movie, The Fellowship of the Ring. The critical word in this show’s title is, of course, “Fools”. Fooling is surely one of the hardest performance skills to master and, done badly, is there anything more tedious? But when done this well, good fooling is an absolute joy – and here it is done very well indeed.

Recent Cutbacks has sourced four clowns of the highest calibre and the result is spectacular and highly comic. Three black-costumed figures take centre stage with a fourth at a sound effects table. Multiple characters are quickly and inventively created to give a faithful, if tongue-in-cheek, rendition of the story. Elegant choreography sits alongside goggle-eyed goofery to create something truly hilarious. Props are simple – including a Burger King crown and two beards on a stick – and are adroitly used. Lighting and sound support the action elegantly.

The beauty of this show is that everything is offered in plain sight. This includes the remarkable sound effects that accompany the action: a recorder, crinkly paper, bells and the obligatory coconuts. The use of paper towels and cutouts, with rear projection, to create the Mines of Moria is quite brilliant. This goofery is inventive, hysterical and masterfully delivered.

If there is a drawback, it is that the films are now 25 years old – how many people under the age of 30 have actually seen them? Without seeing the films, it may be difficult to follow the plot and impossible to catch the clever references that are the comic heart of this show. This is a shame when there is so much that young people can learn from a comic performance of this quality. A family show should be for the whole family, not just for the mums and dads. Given the popularity of the recent Rings of Power series on Amazon, an opportunity was perhaps lost to hold the attention of all ages by widening the reference points.

That said, today’s performance is without question a comic joy. The best things come in threes, and this is no exception: Tolkien’s 1954 text, Jackson’s 2001 movie, and Fly You Fools in 2025 – each, in its own world, a masterpiece.

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The Blurb:

From the creators of smash-hit Hold On To Your Butts comes a new UK premiere! Three actors and a Foley artist band together – in fellowship – to perform a live, shot-for-shot parody of the most epic fantasy film of all time. A jaw-dropping blend of comedy, physical theatre, and live Foley that proves even the smallest of acting ensembles can change the course of the future. 'A perfect, sixty minute, rock and roll comedy drum solo' (OnStageBlog.com), 'A total riot' (Vulture.com). 'Every minute of the show is pure joy' (StageBuddy.com).