Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

Clown queen Elf Lyons has been making some well-deserved waves with her new, extremely Elfy show, in which she examines her family history through the lens of equine history… or vice versa maybe – and most of it’s done with mime and also Medusa is there.

So there’s quite a lot going on, which is one thing that makes Horses classic Elf, and it’s performed with a virtuosic physical ingenuity which only ccasionally feels like it’s pushing too hard and paddling too fiercely under the surface.

Lyons begins, already in character, by preparing us for the entrance of the horse performing the show, her haughty announcer telling us ‘it starts with a dance piece, The Birth Of The Horse’ – it’s VERY long.’ And it’s a very beautifully-done horse, although at this point, you might be getting ready for a rather stark hour of mime. 

Luckily, this horse can not only speak, it can act, taking on the roles of famous horses, mythical horses, imagined horses and horses that Elf Lyons may have once known in a series of sketches that make liberal use of music, mime and Lyons’ homemade foley effects. 

Her mimes bring the animals to life wonderfully and infuse them with distinct characters: the stroppy pubescent Pegasus, the naïve First World War horse about to be executed by his weeping owner, and the put-upon Shetland pony who might be murdering children.

Between the sketches, she sometimes snaps back into human form to act out voice recordings taken from interviews with her real-life mother, father and siblings. The whole effect is pleasingly polyphonic – you can feel her weaving different voices, tones and narratives into a greater whole: something that speaks about imagination and the role of the horse in how she learned to perform. 

It’s a sweet entreaty to the audience and to her siblings (who you get the sense are her real audience) to rediscover the playfulness of childhood, and if it doesn’t entirely skirt triteness it certainly feels genuine. Judging by the response, there are many people in the crowd who have clearly been champing at the bit to receive this message. 

Ambitious, brilliantly performed, sometimes very funny, this is the clearest and most personal synthesis yet of Lyons’ many talents.

Review date: 19 Aug 2024
Reviewed by: Tim Harding
Reviewed at: Pleasance Courtyard