Comedy review: Hilda & The Spectrum

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Who wants to see an ­absurdist clown show in which Angela Lansbury is the antichrist?

Voodoo Rooms (Venue 68)

***

Only me, apparently. Which meant I was alone on the front row just a few feet away from the considerable talents of Elf Lyons and Ryan Lane.

Lyons and Lane are ­escapees from the Gaulier School and this is their first collaboration

It is a bit of a mess, to be honest. There is some stuff about a dog called Judy Dench, a conspiracy theory about an East German ping pong team and quite a lot of stuff about prosthetic limbs. Lyons, in a weirdly stretched and angled men’s suit, plays a sinister sporting ­Svengali. Lane is an East German cross-dressing ping pong player.

The play is set in an ­allotment, where the ­audience members, if there were any, would have been the vegetables.

Although most of it makes no sense, it is weirdly ­entertaining and oddly amusing – particularly when the pair, who are evidently very good friends, make each other laugh and start ­squabbling on stage.

It’s not clear what they were planning but having a few more bums on seats might help them work out what they are trying to say.

Until 28 August. Today 7:50pm.