Brighton Fringe Review: PEAR: PHOBIA, Rotunda Theatre Brighton - Squeak

“We’re going to end fear”

PEAR: Phobia makes quite the interesting promise to its audience. Patrick and Hugo McPherson, 6’7” identical twins, proclaim that, by the end of the show, there will be no more fear in the world. Take that, Fleabag. As audience members enter the tent, they are invited to write down what they are afraid of on a slip of paper, placing in a bucket that is passed around before the start of the show.

In case you worry that this is going to just be a show about facing your fears, be not afraid - this is actually only one small part. While the McPherson twins have a promise to end fear, the majority of their show is skits completely unrelated to the topic, only coming back to the main topic in between the different sketches. A few of these sketches have a recurring theme, like the very short bits about different kinds of group therapy, but most of them are utter nonsense - in the best way. 

Without spoiling all of the sketches are they are made even more fun without knowing what is going to happen, some highlights include member of airport security with interesting hands, a bit of a Western sketch and two conspiracy theorists sharing their thoughts on the world. Patrick and Hugo - if you’re reading this, please keep the Diana joke in. It was brilliant. There are also several moments in which the twins get very . . . Close . . . To one another. I, for one, will never be able to look at celery the same way again. 

If your fear is audience participation and you don’t exactly feel up to the task of eradicating that particular phobia - definitely don’t sit in the front row. While many audience members kept silent when their fear was pulled out of the bucket, there is no escape from the McPherson twins if they call you up on stage to participate. Luckily, at the particular performance I was at, everyone was happy to take part, with some audience members even going up on stage multiple times due to their likability. One audience member is also given a party popper at the top of the show, being told by the twins to use it at the most disturbing moment in the show - and yes, there is a right answer.

PEAR: Phobia is a ridiculously silly hour of comedy from the McPherson twins. While they may not have the solution for completely ridding the world of fear, they’ve done their part by helping audience members escape the chaos of the outside world for sixty minutes. 

PEAR: Phobia ran at the Brighton Fringe Festival from 21 - 26 May.

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