‘Perfect Dead Girls’ from Audaciously Tenacious Theatre is a pocket rocket of a Fringe show. Two young women are trapped in a liminal space. One is certain that if they can both perfect a perky, people-pleasing dance routine, they’ll earn their way out. The other is more cynical. Defiantly rejecting society’s expectations, she is forced to confront her own awful realisation that the thing she thought she wanted, doesn’t afford any sort of fulfilment at all.

The clue’s in the title as far as trigger warnings go. There are lots of references to death, violence and possible assault, mental ill-health, suicide, funerals and the grief of people left behind. If you’re feeling robust enough, don’t let the gloomy topic put you off as this is also a frank, funny, unflinching insight into some of the ways young women feel they struggle to meet society’s expectations.

These are powerhouse performances from show co-creators and performers Chelsea Grace and Elizabeth Robbins. Robbins is an apparently wholesome all-American all-out-optimist but the marvellously economical script leaves us wondering what her devotion to sugar-coated pop hits, really conceals. Grace is on edge from the get go, scornful at the idea that the Spice Girls might be their salvation with the reasons for her devastating disappointment with the world gradually revealed over the course of this punchy 50-minute show. The pair’s physicality and neat choreography is particularly impressive.

The set manages to convey liminal landscape with teenage bedroom vibes, drowning in a sense that something is very badly wrong. The sound design is impressive, all candy floss cheer one minute, then heavy metal and jarring, juddering self-hate the next. But the most thrilling aspect of this production is the way Grace and Robbins steer this ship with perfectly orchestrated self-confidence to make you question just why a whole generation of young adults are growing up with such a heavy weight of the world on their shoulders.

‘Perfect Dead Girls‘ is at Bedlam Theatre until Mon 25 Aug 2025 at 11:00