★★★★★

“Pretty much every moment of this show is laugh-out-loud hilarious”

A part-techno-punk concert, part projector-screen-puppet-show run by perhaps the sweatiest, funniest, and unapologetically existential performers at fringe? You won’t be able to get enough of. Unless you are in the front row. Slugs by Creepy Boys is the niche absurdist fun/breakdown you have been looking for: and nothing can persuade me otherwise. This show is a deeply clever interrogation of discovering what nothing means for us in an era of an overwhelming something, everything, all at once.

Packed full of ew-inducing clowning (in the best way) and hilarious surrealist comedy, Slugs is a fantastically queer story of considering what can be done in the face of everything that’s awful and terrifying about the world right now, starting at your own front door. Performers S. E. Grummett and Sam Kruger pull together a masterclass in energetic and charismatic figuring out of what nothing really is or could be. Both are incredibly talented voice and movement actors, using and creating space that no-one else could possibly begin to dream up.

Whatever discomfort the show brings about, this Canadian duo is armed and ready with a punchline, a call-back, and a batty PowerPoint presentation to let you know you’re in safe hands. The elements of live-cinema and puppetry in Slugs create a multi-layered and frantic triumph of grit and curiosity in the face of existential dread. Pretty much every moment of this show is laugh-out-loud hilarious, giving its audience barely any chance to catch a breath before they are feeding Grummett and Kruger chickpeas out of the palm of their hands like horses. Creating such an immediate sense of trust and energy in the room, both performers captivate the audience fully with each direction the show twists into, from its moving and honest moments of sincerity to its nonsensical confrontations of nudity and googly eyes.

The vibrant and majestically queer costuming blends magically with the infectious ferocity of the performers. The lighting design, puppetry cut-aways and moving between segments are all seamless and electrifyingly engaging. Matched with the pair’s disgusting shock-comedy and impressive live audio-manipulation, Slugs raves in the face of looking for meaning in nothing, everything, and everyone.

If you find yourself a bit queasy at the sight of chewed up chickpeas…it might be worth steering clear of the Creepy Boys. Not for the faint of heart (or weak of stomach), this is a piece that depends on the buy-in of its performers and audience, to get to the gripping heart of its touching message of embracing ourselves and each other when the world tells you not to. If you like the sound of that but also don’t mind an hour of relentless crude and gross-out humour, Creepy Boys: Slugs is a must-see show for our times.

THE CITY FOR INCURABLE WOMEN

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“an informative and affecting devised piece”

The City for Incurable Women by Fish in a Dress Theatre is a trailblazing dissection of the history of hysteria. This careful solo piece explores and uncovers the murky depths of how women’s mental illness has been and is being exploited.

Solo actor, Charlotte McBurney pulls the audience in by a thread and leads them through centuries of pain and performance of women’s psychological conditions. From the moment she tumbles onto the stage, to her emotional confessional climaxes, McBurney has everyone on side. McBurney takes us on a personal journey of women trying to reckon with the abhorrent nature of lifetimes fraught with medical mistreatment and performs with a sincerity that simply could not be bottled. A particular highlight of her performance is her engaging and (somehow) hilarious Horrible-Histories-esque delivery of different civilisations theories surrounding hysteria. Perfectly balancing the light-hearted and the solemn, McBurney is a performer who can achieve it all by the click of her fingers.

The power of her performance is only amplified by Helena McBurney’s watertight script. The playwright explores the dark history of the Salpêtrière hospital, and its theatrical torment of its patients, with careful delicacy. She precisely weaves the domestic horror and peculiar beauty of small mercies in the life of women kept in the hospital for years, along with the out-of-body surrealism of their dreams, psychosis, and treatments. The poetic doubling back of lines and images, and the metaphorical hinges which the show’s fibre depends on, make for raw and direct tension.

The City for Incurable Women delivers it’s most gut-punching moments through outstanding sound design, by Bella Kear. The creative panning, layering, and disintegrating of rhythmic pop loops and voices as McBurney evokes the very personal memories and “photographs” of women plagued by mistreatment and misunderstanding, hits the target every time. Not a note or voice is out of place, disorienting the audience and the speaker in a beautifully chilling way.

Without giving too much away, one of the few criticisms for the show is its culmination of the language and sound design in its final moments, which become slightly drawn out and almost too melodic for the tone the rest of the performance had set. Generally, the show hits the mark where pauses and beats of tension should rest, but a few moments do drag before snapping back into focus.

The large and expansive pain and emotions bubbling over the pot of the play could be directed more subtly, so as not to cheapen the fantastic pressure of sound and movement earlier explored in the places like the chalk-line yoga sequence. A sequence, it is importance to note, raw enough to bring about tears, and enhanced gorgeously by Christina Deinsberger’s dynamic costume design.

Overall, The City for Incurable Women is an informative and affecting devised piece, pulling together a haunting collage of the past to lament the issues of current treatment and sentiment around mental health and gender.

Tag Archives: Edinburgh Festival Fringe

CREEPY BOYS: SLUGS

★★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

CREEPY BOYS: SLUGS

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★★

“Pretty much every moment of this show is laugh-out-loud hilarious”

CREEPY BOYS: SLUGS

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Reviewed on 25th August 2025 at Red Lecture Theatre at Summerhall

by Molly Knox

Photography by Mat Simpson

CREEPY BOYS

CREEPY BOYS

CREEPY BOYS

THE CITY FOR INCURABLE WOMEN

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

THE CITY FOR INCURABLE WOMEN

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“an informative and affecting devised piece”