Fly, You Fools!
Southwark Playhouse Borough
- Opens: Wednesday, 25 November 2026 -
Booking until: Saturday, 16 January 2027
Fly, You Fools! description
Fly, You Fools! is a live, shot-for-shot parody that compresses The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring into a single riotous hour.
Three actors and a Foley artist take on every character, location and set piece in the first part of Tolkien's trilogy, carrying the ring from the Shire to the far side of the Mines of Moria. Mime, shadow puppetry, live sound effects and a good deal of imagination stand in for the budget of an epic film, and the company recreates a 178-minute picture, and the novel behind it, in about an hour of stage time.
The show is the work of Recent Cutbacks, the company behind Hold on to Your Butts, which played to UK audiences in 2024 and 2025. This is the London debut of Fly, You Fools!, following two sell-out seasons at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and it arrives in the twenty-fifth anniversary year of the film's release. The Fringe notices were warm: The Times gave it five stars and called it "Genius, sheer genius", The Stage found it "Great fun: theatrically inventive, unashamedly nerdy and ultimately affectionate send-up", and The Scotsman called it "Glorious".
The production is directed by Kristin McCarthy Parker, a co-founder of Recent Cutbacks. Foley design is by Blair Busbee and the a cappella arrangements are by Kelsey Didion. It is produced by Peter Huntley and Callum Runciman for Smart Entertainment, Heather Shields for Rigor + Ruckus, and Recent Cutbacks, in association with 2nd Row Comedy.
The London cast has yet to be announced. The production plays in the Large auditorium at Southwark Playhouse Borough, runs without an interval and is recommended for ages eight and over.
Book tickets to watch an entire fantasy epic conjured out of four performers, a handful of props and a table full of sound effects.
