Codetta – Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Codetta continues at Jade Studio at Greenside @ George Street until 29 August 2026.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

This is a thought-provoking exploration into girlhood, popstars and an impending apocalypse with catchy new songs and strong vocals throughout.

Kismet’s new musical about girls growing up in the 21st century is set 12 years ago and follows four performers who portray members of girl band The Daffodils, as well as a group of tweens and a parent. Codetta is played by Gracie Eve; Harmony and Mum by Bryony Bishop; Sonata and Suzie by Freya de Villiers; and Crescendo by Tess Morris, who is also the lyricist and composer of the songs.

This is a group-devised show developed from training at The Wardrobe Ensemble, in partnership with Bristol School of Acting, and the performers operate as their own creative team along with additional production support (Ben Henry Lamb), sound (Kilian Lee), lighting (Amber Springett) and dramaturgy (Toby Mitchell and Jake Janaway).

While the exuberant Daffodils initially symbolise hope and joy, bringing brightness to the all-consuming pinkness of young girlhood, the show also draws a connection between the girl band’s gradual wilting into pornographic darkness and the descent of two girls’ moods into the depths of puberty. The cast rises to the challenge of articulating these complex and often painful emotions.

After a long build-up of multiple F-words and door slams, a visiting spectre literally manifests a sign that the apocalypse has occurred. As a turning point or explanation for the subtextual rumblings, arguably it couldn’t be more explicit. More might be achieved with additional red lighting or some other device to literally flood the meaning out before the mopping up of their little codetta ‘One More Song’.

As the girls stride into the afterlife, the impressively boppy ‘Supernova’ gives the audience a chance to join in the celebration of the show’s big bang, while also signalling a new beginning.

The comedy is quite culturally specific which may restrict its appeal, but its grounding in life experience and its myriad verbal and prop resonances linked to that experience is also what makes it tick. The loss and subsequent demise of beloved ‘Pig’ is almost too much, and childish dependence on a transitional love object is unifying at least across Western cultures.

This is a subtle kind of feminist performance which cries out for a greater understanding of the support needed by young girls as they launch into an unknowable future, while questioning whether reliance on the messages promoted through girl bands is the best form of education. There is much poignancy in the evocative opening ‘Do You Remember?’ and the framing of the well-enunciated monologue about the many little codettas of childhood, when it’s so hard to pinpoint the last time for anything.

It is an enjoyable, slickly performed, innocent yet knowing piece of entertainment that reflects on intergenerational relationships and the cultural connections between obsessive fandom and burgeoning sexualities. If you miss it at the Fringe, the show is going on tour to Wales and the south west of England this autumn.

Charlotte Purkis