EdFringe Review: Fly, You Fools!

Following up from their critical and commercial 2024 smash, Hold On to Your Butts, New York-based, Lo-Fi cinema parodists, Recent Cutbacks, are back at the Fringe with Fly, You Fools. In their own words, it’s a “…live, shot-for-shot parody of the most epic fantasy film of all time.”

Reader, that’s precisely what you get, and what a joy it is!

With only four performers on stage plus some sharp techs, they faithfully and funnily reproduce Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of the Ring from the opening credits to the final shot of Mount Doom. They do all of this inside 60 minutes but, critically, without abridging the story so much that the uninitiated won’t be able to follow and enjoy it. Director and company co-founder, Kristin McCarthy Parker, has knocked this one out of the park. Brava!

That said, knowing the films will make it so much better, so jump on that if you need to.

McCarthy Parker is also part of the performance team, most notably as the ‘butt-chinned’ Aragorn. Alongside are fellow company co-founder, Nick Abeel (Gandalf/Boromir), alongside Regan Sims (Frodo/Saruman), whilst Foley Artist Kelly Robinson provides live special effects from a nearby table.

“Director and company co-founder, Kristin McCarthy Parker, has knocked this one out of the park.“

Each is superb; they really don’t have a choice. There are no extras to fill scenes, so when they aren’t in their principal roles, they are…everyone and everything else! The show’s demanding, meticulously-timed blend of physical theatre, clowning, and affectionate caricatures doesn’t allow for weak links.

It’s one for all and all for one (ring)!

For all the technical demands of Fly, You Fools, McCarthy Parker never takes their eye off either story or comedy. The dialogue is sensational, true to the film, but timed for maximum laughs, and ‘improved’ by questions such as ‘Why not just fly the ring to Mount Doom?’

Which, of course, everyone ignores. (Tolkien nerds, e.g. me, know the answer, but it’s still funny to see it asked.)

Then there’s the lashings of physical comedy, whether it’s vogueing Sauron’s Eye into being, or simulating Gandalf and Saruman’s battle via sticks with hair. Each scene is daft, clever, and hilarious.

Elsewhere, the films’ chase and battle scenes offer bravura moments, as the performers smoothly switch between being heroes, villains, orcs, or even mounted Nazgul. Not only is it fun, it’s darn exciting! You will constantly ask yourself how they will negotiate some CGI-enhanced scene, only to be impressed by the solution.

Anyway, I won’t say much more to avoid spoiling what should be an hour of fabulous surprises. In short, this is the nostalgic Lord of the Rings parody to rule them all.