Ensonglopedia's John Hinton and Laura Mugridge have written and now perform Light Fantastic. It is a high energy comedy aimed at 11- to 14-year-olds in which the pair play Iris and Rod, old friends who reunite to re-stage an ill-fated, science-based rock gig they did at school thirty years earlier.
Explaining light from different angles, it covers life's big questions like why is the sky blue, how can you hear light, and how do the sun's rays create the colour green?
Comedy comes in various forms from Rod's groan-inducing puns about lettuce, anecdotes about their school days and sensible Iris keeping "over excited pogo stick" Rod in order.
Some songs are ambitiously sciency, not allowing much time to let the facts bed in, and the sound balance was a bit off on their first performance, but the number explaining photosynthesis is very catchy, and there can't be many songs that engage with The Huygens–Fresnel principle, which speaks volumes about the talent behind their creation.
Both songs and book are underpinned by some excellent animations and graphics (Sam Barrett, John Hinton and Rocket Artists) including with a sunrise landscape reminiscent of the Teletubbies.
Amongst all the science factoids, there is room for messages about friendship and saying sorry, and "Eye to Eye" is a kind song about acceptance with chords Iris has borrowed from Take That. As the hour-long show closes with a singalong to "Isn't Light Fantastic?", there can only be one answer: it's brilliant!
10 to 25 May 2025 various dates at Brighton Fringe.