Patrick and Hugo McPherson took Perth by storm at FRINGE WORLD 2023, collecting awards and buckets of stars for their joint effort Pear and Patrick’s solo show Colossal. They’ve come back to try their one-two punch again of Colossal and Pear – But Braver, this time – as well as a third new solo show from Patrick, The Way Way Deep. I had the privilege of taking in the entire trilogy this year, after having missed out on the pair’s pair in 2023. I have decided to include all three shows into one review, and although I saw The Way Way Deep first in the festival, I will write about the shows in chronological order of their debut.

This means that first up is Colossal, written and performed by Patrick McPherson, directed by Susie MacDonald. This is the show that made Edinburgh and Perth Fringes sit up and take notice. McPherson plays Dan, a twentysomething about to go on a date, who decides to take us back through his dating history up to this point. He’s charming, and a curious mix of self-doubting and self-assured; we don’t understand the nature of that paradox until much much later in the story, until it’s too late. He’s got his hooks in us by then.

McPherson uses his razor-sharp intellect and humour, natural good looks, and boundless energy to get the audience on his side. Even when the cracks in Dan’s character start to appear, we don’t want to believe that he’s capable of turning his words into weapons. As he starts to bring up gaslighting in arguments with his girlfriend, Sam (whose presence in the show comes via audio track), we start to get our backs up. Who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy in this relationship?

Dan is so fully formed as a character that we wonder how much is autobiographical of McPherson, and how much is invention. Regardless of source material though, McPherson is a clever, clever wordsmith, not only with prose but with spoken-word poetry as well. He makes use of the entire stage space, with only his body a stool, and lighting to fill it, prowling and bounding like a big cat chasing its prey. He can also be still and laser-focused when the moment requires. He shows no sign of nerves at the top, and no sign of fatigue by the end.

He has 20 minutes to get changed and run to his next show with his brother Hugo.

And now, for something completely different, we visit Pear: But Braver, a follow-up to last year’s Critic’s Choice award-winning Pear. It didn’t make much difference to Patrick and Hugo what the critic(s) thought because it was an audience ‘react’ that stuck in their craw and made them want to prove themselves again with a new show in 2024. I didn’t see the original Pear, but that one audience member last year thought they should have been more ‘brave’ in their comedy. So, what constitutes being ‘brave’ these days? Should they have been more Hannah Gadsby in their bravery or more Dave Chappelle? Who knows. It doesn’t matter. The McPherson twins just want to show off their comedy chops to each other and to their audience, with good reason. They’re really funny.

They have an outline written on a chalkboard of all the bits they have to get through in the show; they don’t stick to it. They do audience participation (always risky, rarely pays off), they do prop comedy (tiny hands is never not funny), they do musical comedy (a song about Northbridge bike cops). They give up on most of their sketches before getting to a punchline somehow, but for whatever reason, the bits are still satisfying? They make an attempt to address their privilege, even though we can all tell they grew up at Saltburn.

They’re clever, manic, but never come unglued – their unspoken, psychic twin powers turn them into a ricocheting hydrogen molecule in these heatwave nights. You can’t do Tiny Hands without sleeves, so committing to the bit means working up a sweat. The McPhersons never give away their next move, so there’s plenty to keep the audience on their toes and the laughter rising right to the end. I don’t know what plans the twins have for world domination beyond the Fringe circuit, but they’ve hit the ground running like a steam train powered by Redbull.

And last but certainly not least, I’m heading back to the beginning of my journey with Patrick in The Way Way Deep. The style and format of this play is a fraternal twin of Colossal, but the content is completely unique. The show, directed by Ellie Coote, lets go of the disembodied scene partner voiceover and uses Patrick’s natural embodiment skills to portray the characters that populate the play’s world. He again uses spoken word to take the storytelling briefly into a different dimension, but not too far into the realm of musical theatre, thank goodness.

As with Colossal’s Dan, McPherson draws a complex and complete character in Ben, but one who’s a bit lost, a bit sad, a bit more self-aware of his flaws than Dan was. There is more melancholy and wistfulness here than with Colossal, pushing even further into darker places, dramatically speaking. That’s not to say that it is any less riveting, engrossing, or even enjoyable – it’s just painted with a different colour palette and takes even sharper twists. This gives us a really good sense of how fertile McPherson’s mind is, and how skilled he is at making his ideas a reality.

Overall, I am mightily impressed by the McPherson twins and the team of folks who co-create, support, and back their work. Performing two solo shows of this calibre across a Fringe season would in itself be arduous and exhausting for even the most seasoned professional, especially in this heat. But for Patrick to then be able to switch gears completely in mere minutes and shoot across the Pleasure Garden to put on a razzle dazzle comedy hour with Hugo? Well that’s simply astonishing.

Will they return blaze their way through FRINGE WORLD’s tents and adoring crowds (and critics) again next year? Let’s hope so, but don’t expect to get another chance to see Colossal if they do, because he’s retired it. Maybe we’ll get Colossal: But Massiver.

CICELY BINFORD

Colossal, Pear: But Braver, and The Way Way Deep ran throughout FRINGE WORLD 2024 at The Pleasure Garden. For more information on all three shows, visit here.