I mean, where to begin? Can absurd brilliance be a thing? I genuinely don’t know, but if it is a thing then I just witnessed it!

Last year I was convinced to see Police Cops in Space by a pal who had heard great things… this year I needed absolutely no convincing. I was scouring the program for this years show as soon as it dropped.

This clown troupe put so much energy and ingenuity into their theatrical performances that you can’t help but be impressed. Trying to bring the action movie genre to a theatre stage is nothing new, but successfully doing it with just three performers, no props, no budget and no real set absolutely is. 

Badass be thy name is the latest entry in the Police Cops saga, it follows a young man who… Oh what am I talking about, yes there is a plot, quite a good one actually, and it is packed full of in-jokes and action movie clichés but that is not why anyone is here.

The story is secondary to the performance, the brilliantly innovative “special effects”, the dance scenes, the fight scenes, the dance scenes that turn into fight scenes and the attempts that each performer makes to try and get their co star to corpse – The exchange “what’s he doing?“, “I think he’s dying on stage” whilst one of the team tried to improvise a mime probably won the battle last night.

Despite the obvious silliness this is an incredibly demanding show that must drain each performer every night. It is genuinely hilarious but I can only imagine how hard it is to make something so great actually look like it was casually thrown together.

Badass be thy Name is a worthy addition to the Police Cops franchise and I doff my tiny clown hat to each of them. I genuinely cannot wait to see what they come up with next.

Clown Stars: * * * * *

 @Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh

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