Lady Bolognese @ Pleasance Courtyard

Class War, the Edinburgh Fringe debut of clown duo Lady Bolognese (Matt Straker and Tanika Lay-Meachen) stages the revenge of the dinner ladies, those often unloved figures with an outsize influence on school life.

There aren’t many male/female clowning duos around and the pair’s dynamic is very enjoyable – Veronica (Straker) and his low-slung bosom and gravelly, resonant and fully irresistible voice with shades of Les Dawson, and the frenetic, wild-eyed Barbara (Lay-Meachen). Their conspiratorial relationship is unnameable: there's an episode of wildly rapacious nuzzling, their faces mashed together, which triggers a strange longing. Perhaps it’s this that is missing from our lives. It’s not that their face smearing is erotic exactly, more that it feels completely free.

On this early night of the run the pair are still finding their feet and the audience are game if more than a little scared (these Bunkers have surely seen more than their fair share of cowering audiences). ‘Mummy’ looms large. The front row is interrogated: ‘packed lunch or school dinner?’ A few brave souls admit to the former, which spurs an aggrieved chant: ‘What’s mummy got that we ain’t got?’ ‘Petit filous’ pipes up one valiant audience member.

As the witching hour of 3pm – the end of the schoolday – draws closer, things evolve into fully fledged surrealism. After frightening us, they are now the frightened ones, a reversal that could be amped up further. ‘Mummy’ has finally arrived and she sure ain’t pretty.

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Lady Bolognese: Class War, Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker Three), until 30 Aug (not 19), 11pm, £11.50-£14.50