Scream Phone – Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose

Scream Phone continues at Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose – Doonstairs, Edinburgh until 26 August 2019.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Swipe Right have developed their style and their skill from the 2 Become 1 show of 2017. This pastiche based on ‘Dream Phone’ (a ‘secret admirer’ board game) combined with the basic ingredients of any slasher movie is laugh-out-loud funny.

Natasha Granger, Kerrie Thomason and Alexandra Lewis under the direction of Tom Parry present the classic one blonde, one brunette and one redhead that are known as ‘The Beaver Babes’. A sleepover party in a lightning storm with several power cuts involved is the setting for farcical nonsense, split-second timing and a spot of highly original audience involvement.

The songs are, let’s say ‘inspired by’, massive women’s ballads, pop and rock tracks from the 80s and 90s. Martin Higgins’ arrangements are superbly clever: close enough to be familiar yet different enough to almost be original. The close harmonies from the trio are excellent, matched by tight, witty choreography.

For guaranteed laughter at teatime, there couldn’t be anything better than this show – expect earworms aplenty for hours afterwards.

Fiona Orr