A quality spoof from hammy trio

This positively undreadful show spoofs Bond and Hitchcock movies, Dirty Harry and The Prisoner in a delightfully strange hour of stupidness. Set in the theme park of Beef Island, Paul (an 83/4-year-old small boy, played by the giraffe-like Humphrey Ker) must help his hardnose Northern cop friend (David Reed) crack crime, and track down the mysterious Dr Lovable. Paul’s precocious worldly-wisdom brings plenty laughs, as he announces he is ‘essentially unshockable’ in a little deadpan squeal. [...] Quality performances all round, and a script imagined up by a twisted, comedy genius make this a ruddy, bloody funny show.

Click through for the full review. Be sure to join us in the Pleasance courtyard for one of our remaining dates – we’ve added a few more 11pm performances on 21st, 23rd, 28th and 29th August.

The competition-winners are thrilled to wake up on Beef Island, the joyous themepark resort, full of your favourite beefy friends.

But there’s no way out for one man, waking up with a jolt, remembering nothing of his past. Beef by beef he starts to uncover the horrifying secret behind the island . . .

Edinburgh Festival, 5-31 August, 8.30pm, Pleasance Courtyard.
EXTRA DATES ANNOUNCED: 21st, 23rd, 28th, 29th at 11pm.

And then there’s The Penny Dreadfuls, a trio whose dramatic references between two great traditional British institutions: Ian Fleming novels and Blackadder. Their new show is set on a mysterious meat-themed amusement park, whose shadowy operator Dr Loveable (a hybrid of Walt Disney, Willy Wonka and Dr No) is hatching a nefarious, beefy plan for visitors at the grand opening. Only a disgruntled ex-cop and an eight-year-old boy can stop him. The trio make an art form of funny voices, but the genuinely exciting story, slickly timed jokes and sense that they are having a ball on stage make this one of the most traditionally enjoyable nights on the Fringe.

More reviews as they arrive in print.

The jokes in Aeneas Faversham Forever come thick and fast, and there’s no time to catch a breath between guffaws as the trio bound from one example of perfect comic character acting to another. With Hambledon remarking that his new secretary ‘looks much younger than her lithograph’ and his wife popping out to buy a six-pack of bonnets and some racist cartoons, you would need to have had your funny bone surgically removed not to howl at its brilliant sillyness.

A wonderfully twisted take on Victorian literature, Aeneas Faversham Forever is a complete and utter triumph.

Click through to read the whole review.

★★★★★ A trio of Victorian gentlemen humourists, the Penny Dreadfuls bring you the visually resplendent, aurally pleasurable Aeneas Faversham Forever, one of this year’s most scrumptious and comically edifying Fringe treats.

If you haven’t managed to book tickets for the remaining dates of our Fringe run, you can also catch the Dreadfuls – alongside the Pleasance’s other top sketch acts – at Sketchatron: Unwieldly, tonight in the Pleasance Courtyard at 11pm.

Sketchatron: Unwieldly presents the cream of Pleasance sketch comedy acts for one night only: the incredible line-up includes The Penny Dreadfuls, Tommy and the Weeks, Will & Greg, Idiots of Ants and Pappy’s Fun Club.

“An amazing night of sketch comedy from the strongest and most innovative groups around. A brilliant show.”

Critics Choice – Time Out

“A comedy extravaganza!”

Critics Choice – The London Paper

Sketchatron: Unwieldy – Thursday 21st August, Pleasance Beyond. Tickets £10.50 (£9)

Book online, call the Pleasance box-office on 0131 556 6550 or buy from any Edinburgh Comedy Festival venue in the city.

 Regulars on the circuit outwith the Fringe, their live work generally finds appreciative audiences. When they previewed a version of Aeneas Faversham Forever at the Brighton Festival Fringe in May, it won the Best Comedy Show award. It was a proud moment and one that was only slightly marred by the venue’s automatic announcing system which started each performance by introducing the group as ‘Anus Favours Ham’ in a mid-Atlantic twang.

Read the rest of the interview on their site.

★★★★★ ThreeWeeks:

How do you follow up a five-star, award winning show that took the Festival by storm last year? If you’re the Penny Dreadfuls you put on an even better show, a tour-de-force of Victorian-themed comedy that somehow manages to be even funnier than last year’s. A pastiche of Victorian adventure fiction, Aeneas Favisham Forever is packed to the bally rafters with top quality gags and whimsical buffoonery.

It would have been easy for the Penny Dreadfuls to rest on their laurels, or recycle old material, but instead they have developed the genre – the genre they created themselves – to new heights, packing in an insane number of indescribably funny and clever jokes. This is one of the Festival’s must-see events, as the sold-out room tonight demonstrated. Good show!

★★★★★ FringeReview.co.uk:

 The audience file into a simple auditorium – no frills, except for a silent oblong of blue light against a centre black flat. An empty canvas to complement the frenetic energy and character minutae that is about to burst forth onto an eagerly awaiting audience. [...] The show is liberally peppered with moments of true brilliance, not least the use of shadow puppets (from Jeremy Bidgood) to depict chase scenes and legends. These too, are hilarious and silly in equal portions. [...]

If you like Spymonkey, if you remember Newman and Baddiel’s ‘History Today’ and if you just want to have a damnable good laugh, then be (very) entertained by Aeneas Faversham Forever.

★★★★★ Broadway Baby:

An exceptional show has been created here. Not only is it at times snortingly funny, but in form, content and structure it is unlike any other sketch show that I have seen. Imagine a crime thriller inside a gothic horror which bypasses action movies and comedies of manners.

★★★★★ Edinburgh Festivals Magazine:

Since their 2007 show, Aeneas Faversham Returns, the trio have taken a gamble with their new direction. Thankfully the only thing they have lost in the move is the hit-and-miss nature of sketch shows, in favour of one that has tension, drive and comedy unlike any other at the Fringe.

★★★★★ FEST:

The banter is sharp, and nothing is spared the knife – every comic situation is, like one of the more unfortunate characters, “completely murdered.”

★★★★★ FreshAir:

The Penny Dreadfuls are set to take the Fringe by storm this year with their fantastic show, ‘Aeneas Faversham Forever’. [...] Complete with well-timed clichés and music selected from the most dramatic bits of epic movies, the performance had the audience in stitches for the duration.

Tickets are still available for week two of the Fringe: book now!

Almost more importantly – as illustrated to the left – this year’s deck of bespoke playing cards have arrived. Hurrah!

Finally, the Penny Dreadfuls will also be appearing as part of the venerable late-night comedy cabaret shindig, Spank! on Friday at the Underbelly venue on Cowgate. Join us there?