Toby: Fuzzbuzz

Flowers in the (Pleasance Courtyard) Attic, sisters Lizzie and Sarah Daykin are the intriguingly-named sketch duo Toby, back for their third Fringe outing with another twisted tale of a deeply dysfunctional family. An unhinged lass resolves to nurse her head-bandaged sibling back to health after an alleged car crash wipes her memory. Suitably clad in nurse fatigues, she plans to achieve this by staging a fundraising Edinburgh Fringe show, co-hosted by her reluctant sister, because little Edinburgh shows are such sure-fire money-spinners.

Speaking of car crashes...actually, no, that’s unfair, but this show could certainly do with some surgery. The overall, not particularly original conceit is the major problem, as the dynamic between manic Sarah and convalescing Lizzie just doesn’t work. While Sarah gets to show off her full repertoire of prancing and gurning, sometimes impressively so, Lizzie spends much of the hour just simpering, which can’t be much fun.

Little in the first half works, particularly a painful sketch about a jester, and the players don’t seem hugely comfortable with it all. Awkward pauses abound, but more in an am-dram than Pinter fashion. There are moments of inspiration—a dramatic Clockwork Orange-style brainwashing section—but it’s only late on that any consistent quality beds in, notably a high-impact skit about a new Toby-based religion, which finally lets them both off the leash.

The Daykins are undoubtedly talented, but need to conjure a better canvas for their work than this. One suspects that the buzz around Fuzzbuzz won’t be too favourable.