Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland are bringing their award-winning comedy back to Edinburgh this year with a reprise of ‘A Letter to LBJ….’ which is playing to sold-out houses on Niddry St this month. This is the first opportunity for me to witness their Absurdist clowning in the flesh, and I confess I was completely charmed and blown away by this moving take on the idealised 1960s American childhood.
Ace and Grasshopper are two young Scouts, covered in mud and badges and on a self-proclaimed mission to see President LBJ’s train as it whistles through their town. Ostensibly this is a simple tale of boyhood, camaraderie and adventure but the setting of the timeframe in early 1960s America foreshadows the boys’ later involvement in the Vietnam War and the horrors of Southeast Asia for their entire generation.
Rice and Roland come from a clowning background, and their precision movements and deft timing are intrinsic to the mesmeric beauty of this show, Each chaotic movement, using only an old tractor tyre as a prop is crafted to feel out of control but is perfect in execution. Flips, spins, rolls, jumps meld both bodies together in a ballet choreography that entrances, whilst the narrative is kept up at a breathtaking pace taking us through their adolescent adventure. Lighting and music add further theatricality to the piece, haunting renditions of Beatles standards on harmonica bring pathos and the inventive blue lighting gives stunning reality to a scene where Rice and Roland nearly drown jumping into a lake.
This show is Fringe inventiveness at its most sublime. Reviews to entice are redundant as you will not get a ticket to the intimate 80-seat theatre, but I urge you to see this show in any future incarnation. Xhloe and Natasha are the gold standard of the Edinburgh Fringe and are sure to add further to their already garlanded careers.
Review: Paul Wilcox
Reviewed: 13th August 2025
North West End UK Rating:
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