REVIEW: Andrew Doherty: Reviewers Welcome… TO DIE!, Avalon, EdFringe 2026 ★★★★

Two years ago, Andrew Doherty received a three star review. This was an insult that cut deep, to the point that his latest show, Reviewers Welcome… TO DIE! dissects, discusses and disintegrates the concept and the entity of reviewing and reviewers. 

It feels only fair to state the obvious – I am, structurally speaking, sitting in the role that this show targets. It wasn’t the most comfortable experience I’ve ever had watching a show, but I suspect Andrew would enjoy that discomfort. 

Andrew Doherty has taken the fringe by storm over the last two years with hit shows Gay Witch Sex Cult and Sad Gay AIDS Play. He has gathered a passionate following of LGBT+ audiences, but amongst his sell-out successes, reviews on the more critical end stick out like a sore thumb. 

Andrew’s feelings about reviewers are materialised in the character Felix Chatelier, an up and coming reviewer encapsulating the nepotism, class privilege and snobbery often correctly associated with fringe theatre reviewers. We follow the journey of Felix as he is invited to Loughborough fringe, and descends down a slasher-inspired path of mystical events, ending in the entire reviewers circle meeting their comeuppance. 

Andrew Doherty masterfully balances a relevant message with hilarious comedy, drawing from his queer identity and the horror genre. He elevates an absurd story into a non-stop laugh-out-loud experience complete with fake blood, witches, fourth-wall breaks and, of course, a song to finish the whole thing off. 

The show brutally examines one of the more untouchable institutions of fringe: the network of reviewers who visit shows and lay down their opinion on the quality of what they watch. Reviewers represent the power to bring audiences and to take them away, their opinions and decisions taking precedence over the average viewer. Andrew unpicks this through ironic mockery of the stereotypical reviewer – his character of Felix Chatelier. He enters the show with powder around a bleeding nose, explaining how his parents, both celebrated writers and journalists, got him his position. The hedonism and debauchery is non-stop, and often genuinely reflective of reality. Andrew shines a comedic light onto the issues latent within the concept and normalisation of reviewers, and for once they become the butt of the joke. 

Andrew’s identity as a queer performer is ever prevalent throughout the performance and story. It’s over the top, exaggerated and camp in a way that mocks the seriousness with which the reviewers take themselves, repeatedly reinforcing the message. The timing is to the point, and the audience are drawn into the action in a manner that has become a cornerstone of queer theatre. It also allows the absurd element of the comedy to step into the playfully taboo – with the character of Andrew Doherty entering at a point to intimidate, console and eventually have sex with the character of Felix Chatelier. Andrew then proceeds to review the experience – an ironic 3 star. 

Many of the elements of the story are drawn from the horror genre. This does well to lift the tale from a baseline reviewer-hating stand up piece into a show with twists and turns, and opens up the possibilities of the bizarre and unexpected. There are moments when this could have been pushed further – the strongest parts of the performance are the perfectly timed deaths, the impossible characters coming out of nowhere, the mystery underpinning the entire plot. The piece had the potential to be elevated by leaning into this, and seeing how far the absurd horror elements could go.

The staging was effectively simple – the only set piece was a blackboard which doubled as several doors, a bar, and was used at various times throughout the plot. It served as a useful way of changing the scene and building a location, though there may have been more comedic potential in a set which was more relevant to the themes and genres being explored. 

The lighting design was beautifully poignant and conservative. There were subtle shifts from location to location, contrasting with stark flashes for key moments and murders. This really worked to lift the show, the lack of set balancing with the purposeful choices in the lighting design. 

Andrew Doherty has taken a three star review and turned it into an insightful and necessary dig into the concept of reviewing. He examines the culture of reviewing, the hidden structures that perpetuate the privileged position, and the rules that seem to dictate who is allowed to decide what counts as good theatre. Through an absurdist-queer-slasher extravaganza, he gleefully proves just how quickly the reviewing establishment can be toppled to the ground when the right questions are asked. 

Crude, hilarious and poignant, Doherty does not fail to deliver a critique of reviewers that is delightfully hard to criticise.  

Recommended Drink: Cheap prosecco, straight from a press launch.

You can catch Andrew Doherty: Reviewers Welcome… TO DIE! at Upstairs at Pleasance Courtyard from 5-30 August at 22:50 (60 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.