If this is what you get in Free Fringe, it makes you wonder how the paid gigs will ever pull the punters in! At the top end, financially, Fringe shows are squeezed by the big boys – and they are mostly boys – with their big money to chuck at shows; at the other end – but only in a financial sense – there’s this.
How on earth can the paid Fringe compete with this!
The Ruby Darlings are a class act. High class. Top of the class.
Lily Phillips (Darling, I think) and Rachel Le Moeligou (Ruby, in that case) might have started out as trained dancers, but they’ve grown into a slick cabaret act that cannot fail to blow the audience away. Which is exactly what they’re doing night after night at The Voodoo Rooms. Their material is funny, original and, crucially, entirely unpredictable. Not much makes me laugh out loud. This did. Repeatedly. And they’re proud to be called feminists.
These two talented young women developed this show alongside David Tims, about whom they cannot wax lyrical enough. Clearly a crack team. And their five-piece band under the musical direction of Jacob Elliott is terrific – not just musically, but also in the way they engage with this talented duo.
The ‘small man in a canoe’ and ‘vertical smile’ have left me grinning even as I write the review. Favourite animal? Woodland creature. (You’ll have to go see it to find out.) Favourite line? ‘Now, those are in my arse!’
Insanely happy punters.
Why? Easy: great material; great costumes; great dance and choreography.
Great god, how on earth can the paid Fringe compete with this!
