This Review is from August 2022
As part of their current sell-out, 137-date international tour, multi-award-winning musical comedy duo Flo & Joan (real life sisters Nicola and Rosie Dempsey) are back at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The piano/percussion pair mix music genres as they tell stories of relationships and personal quirks, and touch on topical matters.
I’ve followed the duo with great interest for several years and judging by the size of this capacity crowd, at the large and comfortable Assembly Roxy, they are becoming increasingly well known. I spoke to many of the audience members who bought tickets on the back of talented pair’s Amazon Prime special.
If they are an act on the verge of outgrowing the Fringe and going mainstream, they are doing so without compromising their material. In turn they perform songs about men looking for a girlfriend, to a number satirising the free speech debate. Later, A Woman’s Walk is Never Done, performed to a country music vibe, is a darker, thought-provoking number, which only mildly exaggerates the absurd lengths women need to take to get home safely.
The interactions between the two and the audience do feel more spontaneous than before, growing success appears to have given them the confidence to play around for a little longer. They find space for some lovely improvisation.
Everybody says that their show contains something for everyone. With Flo & Joan, for once this is absolutely true.
Martin Walker
New Q&A interview with Flo & Joan
Flo & Joan’s Profile and Social Media
