The Lord of the Rings parody Fly, You Fools! at Pleasance Courtyard – Edinburgh Fringe review

What do you do when times are hard and budgets cut to the bone? The American theatre company Recent Cutbacks is turning austerity into a lucrative art form. Following on from the success of last year’s Jurassic Park parody Hold On to Your Butts (still on in London), they are engaging in another bout of filmic silliness.

Fly, You Fools! – Gandalf’s last words to the Fellowship of the Ring – is an elaborate spoof of the first of The Lord of the Rings films, which sticks very closely to every aspect of the plot but does so with just three actors and one very talented Foley artist providing all the effects.

The result is good fun all round, not exactly sophisticated – the trio can raise a laugh just because one of their number falls to their knees to play a hobbit, or another wraps clingfilm over their face to mimic the distorted features of an orc  – but smart and clever, nonetheless.

As the show tracks Frodo’s travels from the homely comforts of the Shire (complete, in this incarnation, with cappuccino machine) to the terrifying mountains of Mordor, a huge array of physical theatre tricks are thrown into the mix. Actors – Ian McKellen, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean – are ruthlessly mimicked, scenery is embodied with raised arms and tiny boats on the stage beneath.

There’s a charming bit of shadow puppetry, and some strongly expressive arm movements as the adventurers rise on eagles’ wings. There are also a couple of silvery mops and a badminton racquet.

The great joy, of course, is in the act of recognition as the audience grasps each moment of movie magic recreated in this low-budget manner. But the skill of the performers – Nick Abeel, Kyle Schaefer and Regan Sims, working under the direction of Kristin McCarthy Parker – is keeping up the momentum and engagement at all times.

Their own pleasure in performance, in the pulling up and down of tracksuit hoods to change persona or adopt a disguise, is infectious. But there is control there too, nowhere more so than in the ingenious precision of Kelly Robinson providing both score and sound effects with a recorder, tin cans, a bag of peas and, of course, two very busy coconut shells.