“This talented group reads their audience, even as they plow through their hilarious and exaggerated plotlines. As they expertly transition between a multitude of characters, hopping between dialogue and short choreographed numbers, their abilities can be overshadowed by their madcap delivery. Don’t be fooled – these guys are seasoned experts who have the chops...Superbly synchronized, absurd, physical and exuberant...Can rightly be billed as the next-gen Monty Python.”
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"A seriously silly pastiche of 70s cop shows...Whilst I’m sure we’re not meant to over-analyse the plot, I did find it hard to follow at times as the structure of the story bounces all over the time and space continuum...More than the speed and the ludicrous list of characters is the sheer physicality of the piece...Whilst the story wasn’t as slick as last year, The Pretend Men have even more energy and more moves than before."
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"The Pretend Men return to the Fringe with the space edition of their spot-on, all-American police blockbuster parody...The trio, who share brilliant on-stage chemistry, deliver hysterically exaggerated and physically mesmerising scenes with unfaltering energy levels and monumentally punchy delivery. These kids have got some serious gusto, Sergeant."
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"The piece neither surprises nor underwhelms – a good night out, but hardly something to write home about...A bizarre frame narrative promises much, but seems underused – the war between humans and aliens is touched upon, but never developed to have an impact in the plot...It doesn’t seem as new and exciting as it once might have. Silly, yes, great entertainment, yes, but ultimately parodying certain cliched art forms in a lo-tech way is quite a saturated market."
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"A mish-mash of all the best, most recognisable archetypes from cinema, all with a surreal and futuristic twist...The quick-fire humour and superb multi-roling add a lot to the mix, as each comedian jumps between countless caricatures, going on endless digressions and clearly having a great time in the hilarious, sloppy world they've created...There are some sloppier or more forgettable moments...These criticisms are minor in what is otherwise an explosively entertaining show."
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"It’s difficult to write about a show that makes no sense...A show with so many bizarre narratives, ludicrous twists and turns, and so many jokes you end up remembering none, that come curtain call, the play’s entire concept slips from your fingers like sand. You know it was funny. Very, very funny. But why! How! When!...It is farce at its most planned; at its most intelligent. What’s particularly impressive is when farce occurs on the spot."
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"It’s the same no-holds-barred physical-comedy-meets-genre-spoof, only this time with a dash of sci-fi flair...An untraditional coming-of-age story that combines cop show clichés, 80s sci-fi tropes, and sheer absurdity into an hour of top-class entertainment...They combine physicality and staging knowhow to keep coming up with delightful little moments that draw huge laughs...It’s gloriously silly, remarkably clever, and indisputably fun."
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"I hoped for something self-consciously silly. What the three young actors delivered was just that and so much more...Riffing on a number of classic sci-fi tropes, without ever becoming insufferably referential, the show remarkably managed to retain its own identity and importance as a narrative, without becoming unnecessarily parodic...For an hour of pure theatrical escapism and sci-fi indulgence, nothing can top this...Simply unmissable."
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