A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First ★★★★★

Cited by many now to be “Fringe Royalty”, Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland bring this stunning new piece of theatre, A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads this First to Edinburgh following their remarkable success with And Then The Rodeo Burned Down, which won the duo their first Fringe First award in 2022 and then 2023’s What If They Ate The Baby, which was awarded a second Fringe First award. This year’s work, a remarkable piece which combines a lyrical narrative with clowning, acrobatic movement and a brilliantly-devised soundscape, is wonderful theatre.

The skill of these performers is not to be underestimated. From the moment that their characters are revealed, dressed in boy scout uniforms, complete with badges but barefoot and covered in mud and grime, the audience is captivated. Telling a story of adventure, exaggerating their exploits, denying their fears when faced with danger, their devotion to their President and to each other (although holding hands is only ever for moments of extremis), this is uniquely compelling.

The synchronicity of movement does nothing to deflect from the individuality of the performances but it is one of the wonders of the performance. So too is the writing which is so rich as to be almost tangible – moments when they salute the president’s train at night and play their National Anthem is almost cinematic in its clarity – as is the pain of the nettle stings and thorns as they run scared back to camp.

There is tragedy in this piece as well as its humour – whilst the Vietnam conflict isn’t mentioned directly, images from it flash through the piece almost subliminally. It is hard to imagine just how much thought and skill has gone into the devising of this piece so seamless is its performance but Five Stars are well and very truly earned. Bravo.