Brighton Year-Round 2025
Do All The Things
AandE Comedy
Genre: Cabaret, character comedy, Clown, Comedy, Interactive
Venue: The Old Market
Festival: Brighton Year-Round
Low Down
A&E’s comedy chops and performance prowess is on abundant display in their new cabaret show which might literally overturn tables. The audience becomes part of the show through games, sing and dance-alongs, and optional stage invasion, like the music-hall of olden times brought bang up to date. Give them a series!
Written and performed by Abigail Dooley and Emma Joy Edwards.
Do All The Things is at Edinburgh Fringe from 30 July 2025.
Review
When Do All The Things hits the headlines, as it evidently should, brace yourself for comparisons. “Think Vic & Bob vs French & Saunders doing Taskmaster” “Think Morecambe and Wise, only women” that kind of hoo-hah. But let’s be clear, Abigail Dooley and Emma Edwards’ brand of effervescent, clever, joke-rammed cabaret is uniquely their own.
Having previously made two slightly more traditional but equally anarchic theatre shows, Enter the Dragons and Witch Hunt, A&E take their hugely popular mix of character comedy, playful interaction and strong feminist ethos to the next level.
Sitting at round tables, with friends or strangers, the audience becomes part of the show through games, sing and dance-alongs, and optional stage invasion, like the music-hall of olden times brought bang up to date. Aided on stage by two Fun Police (Jack Stigner and Polly Donger) the format jogs along through a sequence of sketches it would be cruel to divulge fully but expect hosts Suckit and See, wild(ish) women of the woods, performance artniks and more. When Emma’s wacky scientist, her voice some kind of marvel, meets Abigail’s silver, six-packed super hero the room is properly charged.
During several intervals the audience is encouraged to complete a range of jolly tasks on their ‘Thingo’ card in a collective endeavour that ends up joining everyone together. Filmed scenes, by Elsa Powell Dooley, which accompany these pauses are a show in themselves. We witness back stage banter revealing the relationship between their acting personas; Emma insisting on a ‘message,’ Abigail ever the clown, preferably in the nud. A monochrome piss-take of live art with Blixa Bargeld’s German mumble riff is ironically an art-film of some distinction. Spoof adverts are an absolute delight and pitch perfect ‘your lady reception area needs a little help’ is a keeper.
The central message of Do All The Things is just that. Yes the world maybe going tits-up, and women still face glass ceilings, but by having a go, having fun and connecting with others we can make the best of it. A&E Comedy bring joy to the world. We came. We learnt the Swedish for sheep’s testicles. We danced to The Carpenters. We did all the things. We eventually got our shoes back.
