Fanny Bleach: The Nearly Naked Show at Edinburgh Fringe 2026 ★★★★
★★★★ Fanny Bleach: The Nearly Naked Show | Assembly Roxy: Downstairs
A delightfully different Geordie drag WTF freak show experience from Emma Crowley Bennett
From the poster design to the wonderfully weird set and costumes in the show, you know this is going to be visually spectacular fringe treat. And boy it doesn’t disappoint. Fanny creates a uniquely strange cavalcade of freaks. Fanny takes you to places as dark and twisted as The League of Gentlemen’s Royston Vasey, as weird as performance artist Leigh Bowery’s Taboo club and delivers comedy moments as funny as Dianne Morgan. Emma Crowley Bennett is a stand out performer demonstrating her range of skills from a mouth art video to a three minute cabaret wonder, Bag Lady.
With a use of 90s style video sketches the show creates, a deep longing for weird late night TV on channels like Channel 4 and on satellite and Fanny Bleach. Comedy on tv is saccharine, predictable and safe nowadays to get ratings, go viral and Fanny’s world doesn’t fit unless commissioners get better at challenging their audiences. She deserves a pilot BBC Three a la Smoggie Queens or the Adam and Joe Show.
There are costume change moments where the performer leaves the stage for a little too long and this gives us time to switch off. But the reveals are usually worth it and the next disturbing freak is just round the corner.
Fanny Bleach and her dysfunctional family of disturbing characters reveal a weirdness lacking from our screens
| Access Score ♿ (1/5) 🚧Access notes: No step free access. 🔥Heat: Cool with nice massive air conditioner unit 💺Seat – Folding chairs and uncomfortable high stools at back. |
I am Joint Editor at To Do List. I like free, cheap & offbeat London, especially: cabaret, art, theatre, pop-ups, eating out, quirky films, museums, day trips, social enterprise & much more.
