EdFringe Review: Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It

Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland’s newest production, a ‘Brechtian puppet show’ entitled Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It, is a hands-down crowd-pleaser. Presented in partnership with Soho Theatre and SoHo Playhouse, it’s a lively, ambitious creation, delivered with enormous style by the two accomplished actor-clowns and Fringe First winners. It’s such a propulsive bit of theatre that its sheer energy and polish are almost enough to paper over some narrative cracks.

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Their story, set in a remote, under-resourced 1990s Appalachian town recovering from a devastating flood, follows two teenage girls from a fateful road traffic accident through their calamity-inducing efforts to cover up their crime by faking Bigfoot sightings. What starts as a dark Boy Who Cried Wolf parable about viral misinformation escalates wildly when a neighbour’s dog is literally found torn to pieces.

Wearing classic clown face paint and striking industrial-inflected costumes, the kinetic pair perform against a stark backdrop dominated by a single STOP sign—from which Sasquatch puppet pieces hang, a constant visual reminder of the mythological spectre looming over the town.

Frame by frame, Xhloe and Natasha set about creating an entire community through a mix of deft character acting and high-octane physical theatre. It’s a huge Bravo to Xhloe, Natasha, and co-director Tom Costello for the sheer choreographic excellence marking every moment. Thanks to a punchily soundtracked sound design—spliced with nostalgic snippets of ’90s pop—and Angelo Sagnelli’s atmospheric, flickering-light illumination punctuated by projected text intertitles, the play has a slick, quasi-cinematic momentum, further enlivened when the duo assemble those hanging pieces into a monstrous, mobile nine-foot Sasquatch.

Syncopated Clowning and Appalachian Conspiracies

Narratively, however, the show ultimately suffers from trying to do too much, all at once. Strong passages, powered along by distinct characters—including a belaboured Mayor dodging town hall questions about a persistent flood-damaged municipal water crisis, a jaded Detective investigating a mangled bicycle high in a tree, neighbourhood stoners, and not least our pair of teenage Bigfoot impersonators—promise a rich, satisfactory comedy drama.

However, as our heroes’ (anti-heroes’?) journey leads to ever more outrageous acts of fakery, the narrative gets bogged down. Heavy themes of conspiracy thinking, government cover-ups, and municipal corruption compete for space alongside petty distractions—like the girls debating a proposed local Dairy Queen expansion. There’s nothing wrong with each in isolation; it’s just a lot to parse in a single show.

The result of this thematic overcrowding is an increasingly muddy story, as the performers switch rapidly in and out of an assortment of characters, and back and forth in time. Vital story threads get tangled or simply abandoned; at some point, a young man dies, and what this has to do with the proceedings is never explained. Their highly stylised, almost syncopated conversation style—where lines are broken up and completed by each other—is technically impressive, but when coupled with such a dense script, it can add to the ultimate storytelling confusion.

Yet for all these narrative stumbles, the sheer technical bravura and electric chemistry on stage keep the audience firmly on board. While parts of the plot get lost in the Appalachian woods, Xhloe and Natasha have shown once again why they remain two of the most exhilarating performers at the Fringe.

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