Credit: James Deacon
FROM GRACE’S SATCHEL
Now this is the kind of chaos I like delivered straight to my doormat – with glitter, grime, and the kind of party politics you won’t find in Westminster. Imagine CBeebies and Bravo had a baby and raised it on TikTok and tantrums – and boom! You’ve got String V SPITTA.
Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Ed MacArthur are back with a birthday bash showdown that could make even a balloon artist cry into their twisty poodle. One’s slinging bars, the other’s slinging violins, and neither of them is happy to share the limelight with the other. But thanks to one very opinionated six-year-old (I’ve met critics with less bite), these rival party kings are being forced to work together for the gig of the year.
Expect beats, bust-ups and potentially a tutu. Honestly, it’s the most fun you’ll have at a children’s party you weren’t invited to – and no, there won’t be cake. Just class war, musical chairs, and a whole lot of “please stop fighting in front of the children.”
Back by anarchic demand after a smash-hit Edinburgh Fringe ‘23 and multiple sell-out Soho Theatre runs, STRING V SPITTA is the party no one asked for – but everyone’s turning up to. It’s back at the Fringe for three nights only, like a glitter cannon set to “mayhem.”
The setup? It’s Anastasia’s sixth birthday – and no pressure, but she’s the kind of child who owns a pony and a private security detail. She’s personally picked her party entertainment based on TikTok algorithms, and a total disregard for budget. And so, two titans of the children’s party underworld must join forces. Will it be a magical moment or a musical meltdown?
On the decks (or a napkin-strewn floor of a Kensington mansion):
- SPITTA (Kiell Smith-Bynoe), a grime MC turned kiddie cult hero, slinging rhymes and rewriting nursery rhymes with more fire than a Paw Patrol cake candle.
- Mr String (Ed MacArthur), posh, polished, and painfully proper. He plays Bach on a loop and has never eaten Wotsits off a soft play centre floor. Until now.
Thrown together like jam and hummus, this unlikely double-act must find a way to collaborate, all while surviving sugar-high toddlers, helicopter parents, and their own egos. And if they don’t? Well, let’s just say little Anastasia’s bodyguard has thoughts.
String V SPITTA is a musical comedy about two rival children’s entertainers, but for adults. With all the enthusiasm of a children’s party, complete with songs, games, call-and-response, magic tricks, and other silliness, it hopscotches through a minefield of class and race, asking questions with the innocence of a child. With flashbacks examining each of our hero’s backgrounds and journeys though the cut-throat business of kids’ parities, and dog-eat-dog realities of finding your feet in an everchanging world, it’s a joyous and shapeshifting comedy set between inner-city estates and the gardens of the super-rich.
Playful but socio-politically engaged, earnest but with balloon animals, String V SPITTA examines a familiar world from different perspectives. With their hopes and dreams set to music, each other’s style and lyrics intertwine and overlap as their sense of privilege, hard work and luck are tested and they look in the mirror and at each other for the first time. String V SPITTA is directed by George Chilcott (director of Edinburgh Comedy Award Nominated sketch duo Goodbear.)
Because in this world, you’re either invited to the party… or you’re hired to entertain it.
Listings information
Show: Kiell Smith-Bynoe V Ed MacArthur: String V SPITTA
Dates: 15th – 17th August
Time: 9:40pm
Venue: Assembly George Square Studios, Studio Two
Address: 40 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JX
Price: £18.00 – £19.00
Box Office: https://www.assemblyfestival.com/
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