Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Kevin!!!!!
Recent Cutbacks
Genre: Comedy, Multimedia, Puppetry, Theatre
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard Forth
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A wildly inventive, technically astonishing reimagining of Home Alone that blends puppetry, live foley, multimedia and theatrical wizardry. Producing company, Recent Cutbacks make an ambitious leap forward with Kevin!!!!! by creating a slick and hilarious feast for the eyes that genuinely has to be seen to be believed.
Review
Kevin!!!!! is playing at the Pleasance Courtyard, Forth venue throughout the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Producing team Recent Cutbacks, make a triumphant return to the Fringe with a multimedia parody of the legendary Christmas movie Home Alone. Returning to the Pleasance on the back of their utterly brilliant Jurassic Park (Hold Onto Your Butts) and Lord of the Rings (One Ring) parodies from the last few years, they do not disappoint with this third offering. Indeed, they build on the impressive multimedia and live foley aspects of their previous productions and take an innovative leap forward in technical ambition to bring something really special to the stage. It’s Home Alone, but performed with puppets and a myriad of other theatrical devices that each require astounding creativity and skill.
The actors, as usual in Recent Cutbacks shows, are brilliant and multi-talented, not puppeteering but also creating the singing and background soundscape, such as the sounds of the church and airport or ambient chatter over the dinner table. It looks and sounds easy – it definitely isn’t, either in performance or rehearsal. There are some mind-bending technological feats, with actors appearing both live and on multiple screens at once, each facet adding to the comedy and audacity of the choice to present the story in this way. At times, the film is faithfully recreated in terms of shot, scene and backdrop. At others, they go bolder by bringing puppetry into the audience or incorporating brief pre-recorded moments. A huge amount of respect needs to go to James Appleby, the technician running the live stream. There’s a lot of pressure to get that element right or risk the story falling apart, and it is done with unfailing confidence.
Kevin himself is puppeteered by Nick Abeel, whose playfulness and detailed mimicry offer a true homage to Macaulay Culkin. The same is true of Natalie Rich, as Mom, who is both puppeteered and occasionally played live by her with genuine skill and emotion. The proof is in the pudding when the sight of a woman hugging a puppet draws a genuine ‘awww’ from the crowd.
There are incredible and quirky choices throughout the piece in terms of its aesthetic, with the doll’s house size sets and the lovingly-crafted puppets. Watching the machinations of the actors as they go about their work is almost a show in itself. Director Kristin McCarthy Parker is clearly a visionary and deserves all the plaudits for pulling the strings to make Kevin!!!!! look so slick and dynamic.
Keep your eyes peeled for future work, as there has been no difficult second or third album here for Recent Cutbacks. Three hits in a row certainly comes with a bit of pressure but, like the great Led Zeppelin, their fourth offering could be the greatest one yet, and I look forward to watching it when it comes around.
This is genuinely ground-breaking work that feels very much of the now, very 2026, in its bravery and innovation, while still clearly being enjoyed by diverse audience in terms of age – proving the enduring charm of the original source material. Kevin!!!!! is a feast for the eyes and has to be seen to be believed. This deserves to be a sell-out run.
