Ensonglopedia’s new show Light Fantastic! has premiered at Komedia as part of the Brighton Fringe 2025. When I circled the dozens of Fringe shows I’d like to see this year, this one caught my eye because I’d enjoyed Laura Mugridge so much in Paul & Laura Don’t Give A Sh*t (Sorry) at the Brighton Fringe in 2024. This new show featuring Laura as Iris and John Hinton as Rod is a musical comedy that aims to teach audiences of all ages about science, (in particular Key Stage 3 – ages 11 to 14), and particularly about how fantastic light is.
In a darkened room (the Komedia studio), the audience waits as a snazzy Light Fantastic logo is on the screen. Characters Rod and Iris’s voices can be heard; they don’t realise their microphones are on. The pair come on stage in fabulous shiny silver suits, one with a lightbulb as a head and one with an eyeball. They take to the stage to explain how they met at school in Year 10 back in 1995 – 30 years ago and are going to share the songs they wrote when they were bored. Iris is on the keys and Rod on a slim electric guitar and throughout the show various props and cameras are used to make this truly engaging and interactive, with fun and informative visuals on screen too.
Over the course of an hour, the audience is taken on an educational journey based on the hypothesis that “science into song is like a hand in a glove”. This is a show that embraces silliness with lots of laughs, clever lyrics and fun beats that may have you waving a lettuce leaf (you’ll have to attend to find out more) in time in the air. It also is delivered with energy, enthusiasm and passion and is packed with scientific facts and audience participation.
Laura and John are likeable performers with great onstage chemistry. The characters are relatable and the storyline is heartwarming. Particularly standout songs include ‘Photosynthesis’, ‘Reflect, Refract, Diffract, Repeat’. ‘Eye to Eye’ and ‘Isn’t Light Fantastic?’. The performers said they would feel the show was a success if the audience were singing the songs the next day but they would never know. Some of the songs were less catchy than those I’ve mentioned but a day later, I could probably recite a couple of the aforementioned, plus recreate the dance moves. I also have a new found appreciation for eyes, mantis shrimps, black holes and lettuce. Isn’t light fantastic? Yes, it really is!
Ensonglopedia’s Light Fantastic! is available for touring to theatres and schools. If this show had come to my school, I would have been delighted!
This brand new show is written by award-winning science-singer-songwriter John Hinton and acclaimed comedian and performer Laura Mugridgem and directed by Kat Joyce. From the creators of Brighton Fringe favourites The Puddle at the End of the World and Ensonglopedia of Animals, this latest offering from Ensonglopedia blends music, comedy, and science you can trust — fact-checked by experts at Diamond Light Source and the University of Sussex.
John said: “At Ensonglopedia we make musical comedies about all different types of science.
The amazing thing about light is that it spans physics, chemistry and biology. I’ve discovered so much researching this piece – about what goes on inside black holes, how different animals like mantis shrimps see the world, how mobile phones work – and there’s nothing I love more than making all those incredible facts rhyme and putting a dance beat under them.”
Ensonglopedia: Website
Brighton Fringe: Tickets
