Fringe! They did it again. Comedy duo Britney on their return to Edinburgh
Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson explain why TV roles in the USA won’t keep them away from the “joyful cult” of Edinburgh in August. Interview by Jay Richardson
After nine years, Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson only finished living together in September. Clive is about to return as Steve Carrell's daughter in the HBO comedy Rooster, while Robertson starred as Rachel Weisz's daughter in Netflix comedy-drama Vladimir. Robertson also makes her National Theatre debut in Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9 in November, while Clive just ended a run in Ben Ockrent's darkly comic family drama Relics at the Lyric Hammersmith. Both popped up in Amazon's female buddy action romp Ride or Die recently and have further television and film roles out later this year. The London-based pair are also developing their own, semi-autobiographical Netflix comedy. It is, naturally enough, about housemates.
So, how is it, with such busy and exciting transatlantic careers, that they're now renting in Edinburgh once again, performing not one but two Fringe shows? Especially as their last festival appearance in 2022 - as sketch act Britney in the acclaimed Friends and Nothing More - left Clive delivering two shows sat down throughout, having broken her ribs slipping on wet cobbles. In an unrelated incident, their flat's toilet also overflowed into the bedroom they were sharing that August.
“The Fringe is quite an extreme month,” Clive acknowledges. “But it feels like being a teenager again, at summer camp with all these cool kids who were the slightly odd kids at school. Drinking pints, breaking ribs, pretending you're not reading each other's reviews. It's a very joyful cult.”
Best friends since age 11, Britney have experienced real adversity. Their eponymous 2016 Fringe debut was inspired by, and wove sketches around, Clive receiving a brain tumour diagnosis, with Robertson suggesting that they write the show as part of her recovery. Britney was a hit, became a BBC Three pilot, but was not picked up for a series. John was their 2017 follow-up, recalling a US road trip they took as teenagers, confronting theirs and others' prejudices. Friends and Nothing More took its title from a song Clive wrote for Robertson when the latter came out as gay.
“We're completely incapable of setting any personal or professional boundary,” Robertson admits. “I don't think there's anything between us that's not up for grabs and being a bit teased about.”
Clive agrees. “Britney was so autobiographical, and about a real, scary thing that happened to us, so we set an early precedent. We've never done a show in which we haven't slightly roasted the other. But also really loved them too. I don't think I could ever say anything or suggest a sketch to make Ellen say: 'Actually, that's really upset me.'”
Britney's latest sketch hour, Holy Mackerel!, was meant to be staged last August but postponed due to filming commitments. In the interim, Robertson suggests, “the world feels as if it's got worse.” And so with songs, flowing wine and an unintentional number of skits about fire, it now hinges on “us having loads of fun and conveying that to the audience”. Their previous shows were “quite narrative-led” she says. “This is our first old-fashioned, sketch-positive sketch show.”
“No profundity,” Clive nods. “The audience can laugh if they find it funny and nap if they don't. We've really taken the pressure off. The sketches are meticulous but we've stripped away the need for any big revelation.”
Indeed, any nerves that the pair have are reserved for Jitters, their theatrical Fringe debut. In Robertson's first play in a decade, she also stars as El, reeling from the death of her mother while contending with her 60-something father marrying Charlotte, an enigmatic woman her own age.
Set on the wedding morning, Jitters began as a sketch idea, smiles Robertson, “that one of the funniest relationships we might have on stage is Charly as my stepmum.”
The play explores beauty, privilege, money and motherhood. “There's been quite a lot in the air about tradwives,” says Robertson. “And generationally, it feels like there's a pull back towards marriage that I'm slightly surprised by. Lots of our friends are getting married and it's still a relevant cultural phenomenon. In our twenties, marriage seemed like something our generation wouldn't do.”
Clive discloses that she only enjoys writing with Robertson. But otherwise, they don't have defined roles in the double act, beyond “Ellen almost always playing the character with short blonde hair and me the one with long brunette hair”.
Clive is half-American, a graduate of New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Robertson a Cambridge Footlight alumnus. “We have loads in common but very different interests,” reflects Clive. “Where we share a twin brain is doing live stuff. Growing up together, we moulded each other's sense of humour, to the point where our shared language is comedy. That translates to the stage too. People know that we're not going to yell at each other afterwards if it goes wrong.”
Sharing disappointments and successes certainly makes it easier. “We try to make as much eye contact as possible, telling each other 'everything's fine' or 'well done'” she explains. “More and more as we've got older. We both still get real stage fright beforehand.”
Clive was in a fallow period, contemplating taking time off from acting, before Rooster arrived. Channel 4 were “cowards” she argues, in not commissioning a second series of Pure, the 2019 OCD comedy-drama where she played a young woman suffering irrepressible sexual thoughts. Robertson levels the same accusation at the BBC for not handing a series to the equally well-received, equally dark Britney.
“We were gutted,” she sighs. “But Charly had her brain tumour in 2016 and it was 2021. We'd lived in that world too long. We had to move on to things we found funny again.”
Last year, both signed with the powerful US agency WME. But while Clive hails the “fantastic opportunities in America”, she adds: “We’re not packing bags and moving to Hollywood anytime soon. We'd love to work more in the UK.”
Writing and performing comedy and drama is a recipe for “insecurity in multiple fields”, Robertson jokes. “But at this point we're very excited to go anywhere,” Clive adds. “All roads still lead to us going on long walks, trying out silly voices for sketches.”
Britney will returning to the Fringe until they’re 100 years old, Robertson declares. “Just maybe with a soft play as our venue in case more ribs get broken.”
Britney: Holy Mackerel!, Pleasance Courtyard, 4.50pm, until 30 August. Jitters, Summerhall, 12pm, also until 30 August.
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