Review: BIGFOOT RIPPED MY DOG IN HALF I SAW IT, Soho Theatre
The Edinburgh Fringe sensation comes to London.
Xhloe & Natasha triumphantly return to London after a sold-out month at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It became an instant sensation, and tickets were near-impossible to come by. For good reason: the show is simply captivating. Back from Scotland, it's more polished, more precise, and more disruptive when it comes to what it wants to do.
Two teenagers find themselves staging Bigfoot sightings to get out of trouble until a dog is brutally killed. Their tiny Appalachian town is thrown into a frenzy of paranoia and terror as conspiracy theories grow like mushrooms. With gorgeously idiosyncratic stagecraft, the duo addresses mass hysteria and capitalistic greed in a perfectly hypnotic piece of theatre.
Movement and sound come together flawlessly to conjure the evocative village. The sheriff, the stoners, the gossipy convenience store ladies, the trigger-happy old man — they all come alive in smooth transitions and individual physical languages. The explosive pair capture the spirit of the contemporary avant-garde and bottle it up in a play that’s deliciously absurdist to its core.
The script is built on fragmentation: Xhloe & Natasha finish each other’s sentences and complete concepts in tandem, creating a beautiful structural flow. Their comic timing is as spotless as their dramatic tension, with tantalising pauses and dizzying ripostes establishing an enthralling rhythm.
Their storytelling is intuitive and creative, presenting layered scenarios where subtext thrives. It could be a production about two teens who managed to fool an entire town, or it could be a project about public distraction and governmental misdirection. By the time Bigfoot starts its denouement, we have lost sight of what’s real and what’s fabricated. The twists keep coming, and we are gaslit into confusion.
Bigfoot stands the true test of a Fringe success: the transfer to London. This run proves that Xhloe & Natasha have something really valuable in their hands. The coolest kids on the block have struck gold with this one.
Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It runs at Soho Theatre until 26 September.
Photography by Jennifer Forward-Hayter
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