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Twonkey's Zip Wire to Zanzibar

 
Frodo Allan Review by Frodo Allan 4 Published: 11 Aug 2025 Laughing Horse @ Dragonfly Show Dates: 31 Jul 2025-24 Aug 2025

I have some terrible news: Twonkey has passed away. However, there is hope for fans of surreal humour, scruffy puppets and batty songs in the form of Twonkey’s heretofore unknown wife (now widow), Twonketta. Dressed in an outfit that screams naughty maid from a Carry On movie meets very low-budget Rocky Horror cosplay, Twonketta totters about the tiny stage at Dragonfly in fabulous heels, doing her best to continue her late husband’s legacy.

Twonkey continues to be the Fringiest act on the Fringe

All the regular gags are there, from the Ship’s Wheel of Knickers used to reveal the audience’s sexual proclivities and the play-within-a-play of the Transylvanian Finger Fantasy, to the supporting cast of fever-dream puppets – including the return of puppet Steve Martin, back to predict our future through the medium of his back catalogue of movies. We also get a couple of new characters, including Timothy Horsepiss, the fairground cat who is an inadequate ratter, and Cheeky Chips the fly, who revels in seeing all the things we do in private. All this is presented through the thick haze of some overenthusiastic smoke-machine use, which makes the show seem even more dreamlike than usual.

There’s very little plot in the first half, but when the titular zip wire is eventually introduced, it’s in the form of a popular ride at a failing funfair where Twonketta’s own rollercoaster is falling behind. Some shenanigans involving sabotage and a faked death lead to a change in everyone’s fortunes but, as ever with a Twonkey show, the plot takes a backseat to the chaos.

To say a show is ‘very Fringe’ is an easy (and often wrong) shorthand for anything weird, unusual or a bit out-there. In the case of Twonkey’s Zip Wire to Zanzibar, Twonkey continues to be the ‘Fringiest’ act on the Fringe.

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The Blurb:

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Performed in drag as the vaudevillian widow Twonketta, a lady who is somewhat late for church. This year it’s a thriller about rival rollercoasters and fairgrounds set by a smoky lagoon in a valley once owned by ex-milkman-turned-singer Shakin’ Stevens. An award-winning trailblazer of a show featuring Fringe royalty such as: the Steve Martin puppet made from sanitary towels, the pocket princess and the flugelhorn-tooting Tutti Cnutti. 'Clowning at its very best' ***** (Scotsman). 'His idiotic joy is infectious: he is a masterclass in play' ***** (NeurodiverseReview.co.uk).