Scout Boxall review: A masterpiece in comedic storytelling
Edinburgh Fringe
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Edinburgh Fringe 〰️
Image: Nick Robertson
by Zoe Paskett
Slowly putting a nun’s wimple on top of what ought to be a world-famous mullet, Scout Boxall recounts one of the worst nights of their life. In rural Australia without their bipolar medication for the first time, they start to spiral.
What follows is a journey through mental illness and withdrawal, queer identity and giftedness, and LARP. Crucially, LARP. It’s also one of the funniest, slickest, most surprising hours of comedy I’ve seen in a long time.
To the uninitiated, LARP, or Live Action Role-Play, will have a bunch of often queer, variously neurodiverse people in handmade costumes brandishing swords and using terms like “my liege”. (I would be lying if I said it hadn’t crossed my mind as something I’d be interested in…am bisexual in case relevant.) Scout paints a vibrant picture of this community and their role within it, somehow always finding themselves drawn to playing religious figures. We meet the Medieval women who inspired this connection; as Scout wrote in an article for LMAOnaise, “the kind of behaviour that got you canonised in the Middle Ages would see you lobotomised in the 1950s and performing at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2026”.
The other main character, looming in its absence, is seroquel, the heavy duty anti-psychotic that has kept Scout tethered since they were first prescribed it as a late teen. The intense withdrawal prompts them to recall moments of seemingly divine inspiration that came along with being unmedicated, and questions the price of this kind of genius. Is it worth it for the suffering, or might it be ok to just be calm instead?
God’s Favourite is an intense and inspired hour, bound by a combination of zippy writing and a faith in the show’s journey, which the audience shares in wholeheartedly. Scout reels off line after line of top-tier jokes, but there are scattered moments of mellow reflection that have a near-meditative quality and add dimension to an already profound piece of work.
Attention must be also paid to the inventive but subtle lighting and sound design, evidence of the fact that you can be in a shipping container on the edge of a small park and have a fully realised theatrical experience.
A true masterpiece in comedic storytelling. Get tickets while you still can.
Scout Boxall: God's Favourite is at Assembly George Square, The Box, 16:20 (not Mondays). Tickets here
