Edinburgh Fringe review: Jess Robinson, Legacy

Over the past few Fringes, Spitting Image star Jess Robinson has blown audiences away with her stunning voice and stellar array of impressions.

In previous years, she’s had her band in tow, but this time around she’s taking on a completely different challenge and putting on a one woman show. Mind you, with the voice and repertoire she has, it could almost be a full cast.

The audience gets a lovely welcome from Robinson herself greeting us at the door as she ushers us in to a slightly mad hour of fun which goes further than most in terms of innovation, too.

That’s immediately on display when a very convincing deep-fake video of Olivia Colman arrives on screen to brief Robinson with the task central to the storyline of the show: the world is ending, and human culture needs to be saved for posterity.

The impression and technology combine together so well, it makes you wonder if the Oscar-winner was in fact legitimately on the end of a Zoom call.

After a couple of storyline mishaps, unsurprisingly it ends up that Robinson has to recreate moments and characters from throughout history in her own unique style.

Bounding around the stage from one impression to the other, this is a raucous hour that flies by. Highlights include revamping Disney classics with Pro Evolution Soccer style name swapping to avoid copyright issues, a section celebrating some of the best female vocalists of all time (all of which Robinson nails), and there’s a nice bit where the world’s less reputable characters are jettisoned into the bin.

The show is right up to date – although Sonia from EastEnders still creeps in now and again – with Robinson delivering a spot-on Liz Truss among old favourites.

She could easily put on a live show with standing ovations without the impressions with her powerhouse voice, but with a daft (in the best possible way) storyline, some familiar faces and a whole lot of fun, this is a superb show to finish off the day with.