Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Lil’ Miss Kate – Ward of the State
Niche Vault Productions
Venue: Greenside @ George Street
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
It’s the 1930s and we’re in lil’ old downtown somewhere in upstate nowhere at the local radio studio as they prepare to broadcast, live to whoever is daft enough to be listening, the latest gripping episode of Niche Vault Productions Lil’ Miss Kate : Ward of the State and her next adventure.
Review
It’s the 1930s and we’re in lil’ old downtown somewhere in upstate nowhere at the local radio studio as they prepare to broadcast, live to whoever is daft enough to be listening, the latest gripping episode of Niche Vault Productions Lil’ Miss Kate : Ward of the State and her next adventure.
Lil’ Miss Kate comes from humble stock, being found as a baby floating in an old whisky barrel in the Hudson River in good ol’ New York, whereupon she was adopted into a life of luxury under the personal supervision of Deputy Mayor Solomon Russell and the tutorship of Lucinda Sheraton, former heavyweight champion of the world. Yet poor old Kate’s only real friend is her horse, Fiorello, and she finds her life of luxury simply too boring, so is always looking for excitement and adventure.
Right, that’s the premise of a plot with more twists than a jolly twisty, turney thingy, with a spiffingly splendid ending in what’s a crackingly cool yarn. And if that last sentence doesn’t give you some idea of the style of this radio broadcast, then nothing will.
Our radio studio is splendidly equipped with scripts on lecterns, radio mikes and actors resplendent in 1930s costume, with a sound desk containing just about everything you need to add colour (and noise) to the story as it unfolds.
And unfold the story does. At pace, too, with a rich range of accents and enough rounded vowels to fill an elocution school. Alliteration is in overdrive as well which, coupled with some convoluted rhyming couplets, ensures that it’s pretty much laughter all the way through. This being a jolly sort of a show meant that a happy ending was guaranteed, a fitting culmination to this fast-paced silliness.
The acting is pure commedia dell’arte and top notch, with Lizzy Furey the epitome of the “gushing girl”, Kate, Sean Casey Flanagan a convincingly “dumb Deputy” in what’s a rather neat parody of a small town US politician and Anna Rock wonderfully fierce as our champion pugilist, Lucinda Sheraton. Flanagan and Rock played the remaining characters between them, except for the unseen Fiorello, an anthropomorphic horse with a penchant for opera and fine dining (don’t ask).
But the hardest working of them all was our studio announcer, sound effects provider and voice for Sal Loon, proprietor of the only hotel in this one horse town. Niche Vault Productions ringed the changes on this one by having a “special guest” each day who rocked up and sight read the script. For the last performance, however, it was Seth Finklestein, the brains behind this utter madness, who also directed the chaos.
This is a refreshingly silly show, one where you can just sit back, ignore the plot and enjoy the mayhem erupting around you. Laugh at the corny jokes, admire the impressive lexicon, enjoy the hammed up delivery. Pure gold, a piece of wacky, crazy theatre that makes anarchy look organised.
