Frankie Thompson, resplendent in floor-length pink tutu, and Liv Ello, hair slicked back and wearing a tux, are frozen in pose above a giant white mound, the perfect wedding cake toppers. The heteronormative pastiche sets the tone for a show about gendered expectations placed upon bodies, forcing their owners into uncomfortable spaces.
Thompson’s Catts and Ello’s Swarm were standout shows at last year’s Edinburgh festival. Both were cross-genre adventures merging clowning, multimedia and lots of laughs. This year, the pair combine to bring their distinctive take on theatre to new heights.
Body Show explores Thompson’s experience of an eating disorder and Ello’s experience of gender dysphoria, with a looming undercurrent of existential crisis. Through snippets of popular culture – cartoons, adverts for toys and cigarettes, body-shaming TV shows, interviews with Scottish child star Lena Zavaroni and modern misogynist Andrew Tate – Thompson and Ello build a rich picture. We see the commonalities between the two threads, the trials of feeling ill at ease in your own body. “It’s great having a break from having a body,” they tell us.
They tap into the Barbenheimer zeitgeist – confused dolls and fiery explosions both feature – but that comparison undersells the complexity of this show. The pair cultivate a depth of feeling, built layer on layer through vignettes of movement, video, lip-syncing, and spoken word. They never spare us laughter, though. Ello challenges an audience member to a hypermasculine rock/paper/scissors fight. The two are charming and hilarious as five-year-olds at a birthday party. A mashup of the Last Supper and Come Dine With Me’s most famous moment is comic genius.
The multimedia elements are precise and inventive. Thompson and Ello’s performances are versatile, moving between arch lip-syncs as sassy TV stars and punchlines prompted by elastic facial expressions, to frenzied motion and quiet revelation. There’s a lovely parallel between the artists and their work – both defy neat categorisation and are richer for it.
Body Show is profoundly moving. Honesty and vulnerability permeate the whole show, but particularly the tender interactions between Thompson and Ello. It’s filled with big questions, but also hope. It teases the end of the world, but makes it feel as though even apocalypse would be bearable with the right person by your side.
• At Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, until 27 August
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