The sun is setting over George Square Gardens. In the air, the scent of street food hovers, Alandas ice-cream dribbling onto the hands of the tourists that descend onto our city for one month of the year. And it is here I join the gaggle of people queueing in line for the latest production by Tin Can Bros, who’s faces you no-doubt recognise from the 2009 YouTube hit, A Very Potter Musical.
Edinburgh City Centre is a far cry from the hustle and bustle of LA that they’re used to. And yet, there is no better place than the Edinburgh Fringe for the arrival of an American comedy group set to perform their four-man rendition of a Scooby-Doo-like show.
In what can only be described as a musical theatre production written by college students on drugs (not derogatory, I promise) Solve It Squad is funny from beginning to end.
The beginning of the show, with a jaunty jingle introducing the characters in an uncanny manner and chasing ghosts, ghouls, and other monsters in a slapstick approach to comedy, had me wondering if the production team had fallen off. The costumes were garish, the voices high-pitched, and the seconds seemed to be ticking by incredibly slowly.
And then, the turn of the century, the grisly murder of the team’s dog – aptly named Cluebert. Finally, the first real laugh came. And thus began the less-than-child-friendly version of a much beloved cartoon.
It was comedy from beginning to end and, though the lack of mics made it somewhat difficult to hear the speech at some moments and maybe the cast could’ve done with a few extra bodies (as hilarious as watching one performer act as five different characters in one scene was), it reminded me that comedy, no matter where it’s from, can always translate well.
In the show, the much-beloved children’s characters are thrust into adult life as we look at the Solve It Squad a few decades after the murder of their beloved canine best friend. One has become an FBI agent obsessed with solving the case, another a drug addict, one is a little too fame obsessed, and the last is a personification of what we mean to have ‘peaked in high school’.
It was a privilege to watch, funny, not overly musical, and managed to achieve a many all-audience laughs that many Fringe shows fail to achieve. With the Fringe slowly drawing to a close, Solve It Squad is the perfect show to attend as a bit of light-hearted entertainment.
Solve It Squad is running until 25 August at Assembly George Square Studios – Studio Two.
Buy tickets here.
Image provided by Assembly to The Student for press use.