REVIEW: The Terribly Credible Definitely Edible Tale of the Town of Cropshire, Diagnostic Trouble Code, EdFringe 2026 ★★

Recipient of Francesca Moody’s Shedload of Future Fund 2026, supported by the Camden People’s Theatre’s Test Match Scheme, Diagnostic Trouble Code’s The Terribly Credible Definitely Edible Tale of the Town of Cropshire was one of my most anticipated shows of the Fringe. It has all of the elements of a show that I would love: absurd clowning allegorising the rise of the far right with a stupidly wordy title – great! But within the first five minutes I could tell I was in for a long, confusing, and wholly frustrating hour.

Told in vignettes, Cropshire is the tale of an agricultural society’s descent into fascism. We see the corrupt politicians decide to outlaw carrots to quell protests about the rising cost of this crop, before expanding the ban to all vegetables when the civil unrest swells.

We see the decimation of the Cropshire economy, and the anger as citizens turn upon one another. We see the charismatic politician manipulate this fervour to seize power, puppeteering local weather-people and pageant queens to control the media narrative and bumping off those who oppose them.

Aside from humour, good clowning relies on two things: intelligence and slickness. Unfortunately, Cropshire exhibits neither. Particularly affronting was the sloppiness of the physical sections of the show: lacking expression, attempting movement sequences beyond the abilities of the actors, and failing to achieve synchronicity. It really weakened this ensemble.

Even the mime’s movement was unpolished and ineffective. As an audience member, the second that a movement section started, I braced myself for an uncomfortable and frankly boring few minutes. These sections made the hour feel far longer, and I was unsurprised by an audience member walking out within the first twenty minutes.

The lows of this production are so low that passable performances from Eleanor Bett, Abigail Chase, and latterly Laura Monroy-García are so tainted by the audience’s utter lack of goodwill towards the performance as a whole that they do not receive the laughter that they deserve, and fail to make the impact that they could do in a better production.

The mime character, Peach (played by Ariana Sacristán), is supposed to be a wide-eyed innocent, the beating heart of the piece. Instead, she scurried around haphazardly, miming shushes and giggles by turn and generally getting under the feet of the action, becoming nothing more than an irritant. The lack of personality or perspective from this performance actually made it counterproductive, making me genuinely frustrated with this character by which the audience were supposed to be endeared. 

In the post-show spiel, Chase proudly shared Diagnostic Trouble Code’s non-hierarchical collaborative devising process. This is a practice to be lauded – some of my favourite pieces of theatre were created similarly, and egalitarian approaches to any form of work or creation are always to be admired.

However, this was certainly a case of too many cooks creating an inedible stew. Displayed by the lack of a cohesive vision, inability to work with their collective strengths, and seeming refusal to edit down any of their material. With a more discerning dramaturgical eye cast upon the piece, I can see some of the stronger elements being developed into a different production.

Cropshire’s saving grace was the final section, which explored the town’s fall to fascism. The actors all seemed far more comfortable with the darker tone of this section, and suddenly I could see a glimmer of promise. The design and effects in this section were genuinely unsettling, and the final movement section was the only effective (and by far the simplest) piece of choreography. 

This production is inflated, sloppy, and awkward, rescued from a lower rating only by the merit of the final 10 minutes. For a piece that has been afforded far more resources than most Fringe debuts could dream of, Cropshire has a lot of explaining to do.

Drink recommendation: A Bloody Mary – a tomato is a fruit, you know!

You can catch The Terribly Credible Definitely Edible Tale of the Town of Cropshire at Upstairs at Assembly Roxy from 23-31 August at 19:45 (60 minutes). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.