Maya Ricote @ Pleasance Courtyard

Frozen in time for 70 years, Maya Ricote emerges from her ice casket into 2026, looking like an overexaggerated all-tits-and-ass starlet, with lips up to her nose and down to her chin. Visually, it’s a far from subtle parody of women’s beauty standards, but Ricote is such a charismatic presence that you’re saddled up for the ride pretty quickly.

Her opening clowning gambit, sultry and shivering, sets our scene (though lingers for a little too long) and soon we learn how she got into this mess. The disastrous audition where she’s stumped by having to cry on demand leads into a long rundown of her real-life success of being a telenovela actress, but has a very silly and very worth-it pay off.

Cut through with some fun but repetitive songs and a couple of be-wigged characters (a taxi driver and a villainous agent), it’s a real showcase of the potential Ricote has and you’re pleased to be alongside her in the sidecar. For a late-night clown show, it’s also blissfully light on audience interaction, though there’s definitely more room for play with each fresh set of willing punters.

But the biggest surprise of the show is the ending of Ay Am!, after the storyline climaxes. Undoing her clown to chants of ‘I am Maya’, the artist lurches into something more primal, verging on performance art. It screams: why do women have to choose between ‘fabricated reality’ and what’s actually here in front of us? Further to that, it cements Maya Ricote’s status as a really exciting member of 2026’s Fringe cohort who would look equally at home in comedy or theatre in the future.

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Maya Ricote: Ay Am!, Pleasance Courtyard (Cellar), until 30 Aug (not 18, 25), 10.40pm, £12.50-14.50