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Norris & Parker: Burn The Witch

Brass Eye meets Victoria Wood meets League of Gentlemen meets Abigail's Party
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Norris & Parker: Burn The Witch

Brass Eye meets Victoria Wood meets League of Gentlemen meets Abigail's Party

If Victoria Wood were alive, and somehow got roped in to direct low-budget synth-pop music videos for Bat For Lashes, it might look a bit like this. Katie Norris and Sinead Parker prance and pout in slinky black leotards through this sketch-character caper with cabaret songs. Grinding on brooms and wearing wigs and pointy hats, they tell the dark, nonsense tale of sex-witches taking over the sleepy northern town of Phallus Ridge.

A farm has been struck by malevolent forces, and pub singer Jean Finger (her hunched shoulders give flashbacks to Alison Steadman's character, forcing gin on her guests in Abigail's Party) is worried that her sexually repressed husband might be lured to the dark side, where doggers and sex addicts roam the cliffs. Both performers (with deadpan accompaniment from Huge Davies on keyboard and guitar) do sterling work with various accents, acting out a god-fearing farmer's wife, a pro-IRA local woman with a goat called Bobby Sands, and an American cod-philosophising nymphomaniac.

Although they make fun of their lowbrow moments, the knob / pussy / gooch / bumhole gags and weepy break-up bits are not as entertaining as the imaginary backstories of Stavros Finger or the simpering Scottish woman who turned to stripping after a breakdown. The goofy Brass Eye goes to Royston Vasey bits are best, and the occasional bit of well-recovered corpsing only adds to the fun.

Pleasance Courtyard, until 26 Aug, 10.45pm, £8–£9.50 (£7–£8.50).

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