Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Perfect Dead Girls
Audaciously Tenacious CIC
Genre: Contemporary, New Writing, Theatre
Venue: Bedlam Theatre
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Two girls, dancing to a classic song, trying to impress an unseen eye. Their attempt to impress fails to gain release, however, one of them becomes the lucky one. This is a very interesting take on what happens when you die, from the eyes of the young who never got to get old.
Review
We open with two girls singing B*witched song to get out of what seems to be a waiting room of hell. We discover that they are both dead. Attempting to get out, they are trying to impress an unseen group of people who eventually phone down to release one of them.
Perfect Dead Girls was originally performed as part of a Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Festival earlier in 2025 and was supported by Playfull in Glasgow. What is impressive is that the piece has developed, tightened and become much more of a rounded theatrical performance.
This is a mature piece of writing from a group of young performers. It is done with clarity as the story of the two girls evolves onstage. One of the two girls has been there for some time and takes the lead as the new arrival is clearly different from her new companion. It is this clash of personalities which really works well. Whilst the new arrival tries their best to dance this escape, she is not fully committed. The relationship between the two girls includes some physical theatre which is well done. Their relationship goes through several short scene exchanges including a very touching piece of eulogy for each which shows their relationship developing and ending with real connection and respect. It makes the ending difficult for one and relatively sad and obvious for the rest of us.
This works well because it is actors playing close to their ages and concentrating on the hopes, desires and emotional strength of that age. The writing takes this on, and you add in the episodic nature of the production, the physical theatre, which is really strong and powerful, technical support throughout.
It’s also well directed especially in simple things like changing places so that the phone, when it rings the third time, is able to be picked up by the person who needs it. The set is exactly what it needs to be with just enough on it to suggest a place rather than be overbearing.
The lighting seemed to be a little strange and it was the first day of the performance, so it may be that the technician was just getting their head round the new venue.
It is worth noting that the acoustics at the beginning needs to be resolved because the spoken word is slightly drowned out by the music. However, once we got into its stride, it was much better.
The costume is exactly as it should be, and it is appropriate for what they’re playing – very much a 2010s girl vibe.
Perfect Dead Girls is an impressive piece of crafted theatre, which belies the age of the performers.
