Beyond at Pleasance Courtyard – until 25 August 2025
Reviewed by Claire Roderick
5*****
Awkward Productions strike comedy gold yet again with their latest ridiculous romp spoofing royal romance films. Skilfully using digital appearances, audience participation and puppets – oh the puppets!!! – The Fit Prince showcases Linus Karp and Joseph Martin’s brilliant storytelling and improvisation prowess. Beginning the show with only audience members in role onstage borders on lunacy, but fans old and new are onboard with the idea immediately, establishing a sense of community that grows throughout the madcap hour as willing victims volunteers jump up to play orphans and horses and the entire audience gasps and groans dramatically and unprompted as the plot unfolds. The possibilities for mishaps are endless with this reliance on the audience, but Karp and Martin are intuitive experts at adlibbing and building on unexpected hiccups.
The King of Swedonia is dead, and at his funeral the mourners are reminded that for Prince Ilian (Linus Karp) to be crowned, he must marry before midsummer. While Ilian unenthusiastically surveys suitable consorts, the action switches to New York. Here baker Aaron Butcher (Joseph Martin), recently dumped, is drifting through daily routines until fellow baker and pushy puppet Jenny’s badgering of Swedonian officials somehow sets him off on a journey to Swedonia.
Of course, the two bump into each other and animosity changes into love over the course of the day as they explore Swedonia. Ilian (Sorry, PRINCE Ilian – and don’t forget it!) has never left the castle before, so it all gets a little Roman Holiday as he explores with Aaron (although I can’t recall Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in the sauna…)
Like all good romances there has to be a villain and Swedonia’s security arrangements provide the perfect candidate – played by an audience member – adding an extra layer of jeopardy. Riffing on the cliché of the visually signposted villain actually being sweet and caring, Awkward Prods have outdone themselves with the character Gerta McMurder and her home for orphans. As someone old enough to have seen The Dark Crystal on the big, terrifying, screen in the 1980s, Gerta’s first entrance was slightly (EXTREMELY) traumatic, but Joseph Martin’s puppetry and characterisation soon had me howling with laughter rather than fear. Hilarious – it’s just a shame Aaron is always in the bathroom and never gets to meet her.
Leland again provides fabulously daft music: the concert by Swedonian pop megastars BAAB is genius – you’ll be singing Movement King all night. Digital cameos from many other fit princes are a delight, although it’s the stern-faced political and royal figures that often steal the show with their appearances: Tove Lo as Swedonia’s fabulous prime minister, Geri Allen as QE2, Kate Butch as Angela Merkel, Yshee Black as Michelle Obama and Linus Karp as the Diana-esque widowed queen of Swedonia are simply brilliant.
Clever, camp, charming and full of heart, The Fit Prince is fantastic entertainment and a loud declaration of Awkward Productions’ unrivalled vision and talent.
If you can’t get to Edinburgh this week book tickets for the London run – playing at King’s Head Theatre 2 December – 3 January