At the fringe, despite the predominantly bare stages, some performers transport you to another landscape almost immediately. In cult clown duo Xhloe and Natasha’s new two-hander, we are swiftly in the US of President Lyndon B Johnson, Beatlemania and Tom Sawyer-style outdoor adventuring.
The pair portray muddy-kneed boy scouts who, against a backdrop of chirping insects and with the sole prop of a tyre, start off recounting their hijinks. Boasts, dares, codes and allegiances are the currency of these conversations as Ace (Natasha Roland) and Grasshopper (Xhloe Rice) play soldiers, go rope-swinging and anticipate the prospect of LBJ passing through their small town. The scenes of one-upmanship and wilful displays of rugged masculinity recall the pair’s earlier fringe hit, And Then the Rodeo Burned Down, but this time there is a stronger arc for the characters and an emotional impact that sneaks up on you.
The boys cling to LBJ for stability, much as the nation did after John F Kennedy’s assassination, and the social turbulence of the decade – especially from Vietnam – is felt throughout. The president is a father figure for them while their own are either absent or intimidating; Ace and Grasshopper have less to say about God but he is drawn as distinctly fearsome too.
The duo intersperse this knockabout comedy with the fable of a boy who wants to be a man and undertakes an odyssey to a lake of leeches where “even the fish held their breath” for his arrival. They are hugely likable performers and this in-the-round space suits their playful physicality, which has grown sharper since that 2022 debut. The wordplay, too, is now richer: as Ace’s confidence falters so does the language, with telling twists to their declarations (“give us this day our daily dead”).
Bursts of the Beatles are used, the rhythms matching the boys’ effervescence (Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da) and words filling in their feelings for each other (I Want to Hold Your Hand, despite their protestations that hand-holding is only for extreme situations). It is a lean show with a sweeping reach, breezily funny yet darkly upsetting, evoking a specific era while still speaking to now. The pair effortlessly tie it together like scouts who have mastered an intricate knot.
• At theSpace @ Niddry Street, Edinburgh, until 24 August. Then at King’s Head theatre, London, 4-14 September.
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