Director and producer Kristin McCarthy Parker talks London tranfer of ‘Fly, You Fools’: “We tell the story the way you’d retell it to a friend”

After two highly successful seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe, the fellowship behind the smash-hit Hold On To Your Butts brings their Lord of the Rings parody to London for the first time. Guillermo Nazara chats with the lead creative about the piece’s development, the challenges along the way, and how they managed to poke fun while honouring the precious saga.

How does it feel to bring the show to London for the first time?

We’ve been dreaming about London since Fly, You Fools! debuted at the Fringe in 2025, right as Hold On To Your Butts was wrapping up its UK run. It’s had two successful summers in Edinburgh and has clearly struck a chord with UK audiences, so London felt like the natural next step. The timing couldn’t be better. Our run overlaps with the 25th anniversary of Fellowship‘s release, which makes it the perfect holiday show for families, fans, and theatregoers alike. We’re also thrilled to have our Butts UK cast back, plus a couple of new faces. Honestly, we’re pinching ourselves at how the stars have aligned.

How did the idea for the show come about?

First and foremost, we love the source material. But Fools was also our second show, so we wanted to build on everything we’d learned making Butts. Where Butts has props flying in every direction, we wanted something more focused and streamlined. In Fools, every prop lives in a little circle onstage, and the entire story happens inside that ring. There’s a lot more mime too, which some of our company have studied, and it gives the show a real flow. What we landed on was being very playful inside a very self-serious fantasy world: barefoot actors creating sweeping cinematic moments with nothing but their bodies.

This parody comprises an over one-thousand-page book and 3-hour film into barely 60 min. How did you manage to do that?

We tell the story the way you’d retell it to a friend. Key plot points, iconic moments, some fun little Easter eggs, and a whole lot of impressions. Because the show is so lo-fi and handmade, we can move much faster than the novel or the film. When we reach the Argonath, for example, it’s just wooden toy boats and a couple of actors posing as statues. We set up the picture, tickle the audience’s imagination and keep moving. Having our Foley artist onstage helps enormously (and is so much fun!). With a couple of sound effects she can set a location or a mood instantly, so we never have to linger.

How would you define the show’s comedy style and what are the reasons for that approach?

It’s a blend of serious technique and very silly humor, and all of it comes from a love of the story and a love of theatre. We mix physical theatre, live Foley, puppetry and props made from household objects with ridiculous impressions and bits. We’re completely sincere about the source material and find the comedy inside that nerdy place. We’ll happily make fun of ourselves, but we’re never mean. We have a ton of fun performing the show, and the audience does too. A lot of the humour also comes from forcing ourselves to be resourceful. “Recent Cutbacks” is our ethos, so you can see exactly how we’re making every “special effect” with mostly our bodies or a simple prop, and that’s the fun. That creativity and openness is why the show works just as well for families as it does for superfans.

What has the development process been like?

We first devised the show in New York in 2016. That’s where we settled on the “everything happens inside the ring of props” idea and built our visual vocabulary. We kept hitting these huge cinematic moments and realizing we could do them with just our bodies or in mime, which excited us far more than throwing set pieces at the problem. We performed it in NYC on and off until the pandemic, and it grew a lot in those early years, but the bones haven’t changed. Since then it’s travelled to the Fringe, Colorado, Dubai, and we just played New York Comic Con to a wildly enthusiastic crowd. Every new cast member brings something fresh, from new bits to different jokes, so we can’t wait to see what our UK cast brings to it.

Has the piece been altered in any way for this London run compared to Edinburgh?

In London, we’ll open with our parody trailers, which we filmed in our classic DIY style. They make the evening feel more cinematic and set the tone, especially for anyone new to our work. A few design elements, like the lighting and the backdrop, will be a bit more fully realized than at the Fringe, where we load the show in and out every day. That said, the whole point is to keep things pared back, so we’re not piling on much more. We’re also looking forward to celebrating the 25th anniversary on December 19th during the run, and we have our fingers crossed for some excellent costumes in the audience that night. On top of that, the show has a limited run in New York at the same time, so we’ll have two companies on two continents, which we love.

Apart from the source material’s length, what other challenges have you found during the making of the show?

We really struggled with the first Nazgûl scene. We tried a floaty fabric puppet, black trash bags, and several other misfires in rehearsal. In the end we let the Foley do the heavy lifting. The audience’s imagination fills in the picture from the sounds she makes, and it’s scarier and higher-stakes than anything we could build. Moria was another puzzle. We knew the story needed a new visual language at that point, but we didn’t crack it until a day or two before tech, when Matt Zambrano (original cast) filmed a little video in his kitchen with a flashlight and paper towels. That’s how we landed on shadow puppetry. You’ll have to see the show to know what I mean! Precision is a challenge too. Everything is live, so the Foley and the physical action have to sync perfectly, with everyone being in tune with each other.

Are there any highlights that you’d like to flag?

The Foley artist. If you’ve never seen live Foley, you’ll be blown away. She’s onstage with us the whole time, bringing the world to life through sound in time with the actors, and she’s always an audience favorite.

The sense of scale. Some characters are huge, hobbits are tiny, and the story jumps from epic mountain vistas to cosy little rooms. We have some very simple, very fun tricks for creating all of that, mostly with our bodies.

Three actors playing many characters. Everyone plays multiple roles and switches between them at lightning speed. Our costume is a black hoodie, and to become an elf, you just tuck the hood behind your ears.

Why come see ‘Fly, You Fools’?

It’s a holiday night out that works for everyone: theatergoers, fans of the books and films, families, first-timers, and anyone who’s never seen live Foley. It’s an hour of laughter and some seriously impressive performances. And if you’re a fan, there’s no better way to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary than in a room full of people who love it as much as you do.

Production pictures credit to Mike Bryk.

Fly, You Fools will play at London’s Southwark Playhouse from 25 November to 16 January. Tickets are available on the following link.

By Guillermo Nazara