Lil Wenker @ Pleasance Courtyard

Prince Wilfred – Willy for short – is only eight, but he’s ready to be King. The only problem: daddy (that’s King Dick) is already King, and Willy has a dozen older brothers between himself and the throne. What will he do about it? Well, Willy’s a rotten, abusive, misogynistic, homophobic little tyrant even before he develops his designs on the top job. Afterwards, he’s downright psychopathic.

That might all sound a little dark, but Lil Wenker plays Willy (and his long-suffering footman) with a bubbling levity throughout. This is a miniature tyrannical psychopath who sees in the mirror a fun-loving guy looking out for number one, with dayglo-bright subtext about a real-world leader or two. So BOYKING is a satire, yes, but it’s one written in neon. Wenker is a Clown with a capital C, and she throws everything at her attempts to turn this tale of greed and wretchedness into a big, brash, night out. Before we even enter the room, the footman greets us with a bugle call and a rallying cry: “The house is open! Let’s have some fucking fun!” Thereafter, there’ll be EDM remixes of kingly tunes, musical theatre-style numbers that (trust us) are actually good, a giant teat for our young tyrant to suckle on, and a requisite amount of clowning tomfoolery with the audience.

But while elsewhere the standard clown schtick is perhaps wearing thin (Fringegoers have probably seen enough stolen baseball caps for a lifetime), Wenker is both a smart enough clown to tether all those hijinks to Willy’s character, and a smart enough writer to package them within a propulsive story, filled with – yes! – actual material. Is some of that material overreliant on incongruity and anachronism rather than actual gags? Maybe. But here we see a clown truly finding her stride.

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Lil Wenker: BOYKING, Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker One), until 30 Aug, 9.45pm, £15.50/£14.50