If we are asked to sell out, then we gladly will Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole in DollyWould. Photograph: The Other Richard

The theatrical double-act Sh!t Theatre got their name as a joke. Founders Louise Mothersole and Rebecca Biscuit heard the sort of work they do performance art combined with theatrical improvisation described as just shit theatre. But the self-deprecating designation caused problems for broadcasters. The first time we ever appeared on radio, remembers Mothersole, it was to talk about a show called Sh!t Theatre Presents Sh!t Theatre, and we were told that we couldnt say the name of the company or the production. Which obviously made marketing it quite hard.

The duo have since won a Fringe First award at Edinburgh and they received Arts Council funding for their latest project, DollyWould, which is one of the standout shows at this years fringe. Applications for public funding must be supported by a mission statement, which, the women admit, was difficult to write in support of DollyWould. Having previously made shows that were documentary based and political Guinea Pigs on Trial concerned medical research, while Job Seekers Anonymous was about the benefits system they wanted to create a piece that was pure fun, exploring their joint obsession with Dolly Parton, who they admire for her musical theatricality and consider a lesbian icon.

The shows framing device is an entertaining variation on a verbatim musical, with Mothersole and Biscuit duetting a cappella answers from Parton interviews, including a 1977 American TV encounter with Barbara Walters, in which the performer, not yet having honed her hokey-jokey media persona, was startlingly unguarded about her career, marriage and body.

The last subject prompts the performers, at one point in DollyWould, to cut two circles in their T-shirts, exposing nipples and areolas for much of the show. In a culture where female nudity on stage has to be carefully negotiated and justified, was this a hard moment to agree? Not at all, they say together, before Biscuit continues: At some level, a show about Dolly Parton is going to be about breasts. But one of the rules we set ourselves was that the word breasts would never actually be spoken. So the idea is that they are just literally out there. Mothersole adds: And were not actually topless were still wearing tops so it doesnt feel as exposing as you might think.

This partial nudity is ended when each of the women dons one large fake bouncy breast that covers their torso. They came up with such props during the rehearsal period, but admit to spending a lot of money on devices that are never used. A large model of a mouse with an ear growing out of its back a reference to a briefly famous experiment in the cloning of human organs is stored in London, having been dropped from the show before they travelled north.

Although they have never previously gone so flat out for jokes, DollyWould also has more typically journalistic sequences: featuring the history of the first cloned sheep, named Dolly after the singer, and the macabre Body Farm, an FBI facility for investigating the decomposition of bodies, which incongruously neighbours the performers theme park Dollywood, with surprisingly similar memorabilia on sale in both gift shops.

At one point in the show, Mothersole and Biscuit, who met in the improv group Alphabetties, tell the audience that they split up last year, but were reunited through the singer whose biggest hits include the song D.I.V.O.R.C.E. Thats all true, says Biscuit. She and Mothersole, their relationship fractured by creative disagreements, moved out of the north London apartment block referenced in their 2016 show, Letters to Windsor House, which explored the law relating to opening correspondence sent to previous occupants of an address.

The trip to Dollywood was the first time we really got back together, says Mothersole. DollyWould is their eighth joint appearance at the fringe, having started at the free non-ticketed festival, before slowly graduating to their current peak-time (9.15pm) slot at Summerhall. Performing on the fringe is notoriously expensive in the early years, they once shared the bedroom of a relative who was a student in the city with seven other performers and, even now, August on the fringe is economically daunting. You end up losing money, says Biscuit, but, if it works, exposure in Edinburgh gets you bookings elsewhere. (DollyWould and Letters to Windsor House already have post-Edinburgh dates around the UK.)

Sh!t Theatre recently received ACE funding for a 2018 show, which they expect to bring to Edinburgh. Noting that the Arts Council is funded by donations from the National Lottery, they came up with an idea for a show that would use a grant from the cultural funding body to buy Lottery tickets, returning any winnings to their patron.

After talking to the Arts Council and lawyers, says Biscuit, it turned out that we wouldnt legally be allowed to use a funding grant in that way. So were going to do something more general about money and wealth. Mothersole adds that it will probably be in a very different format to anything weve done before a sort of gameshow, with lots of audience participation.

One of their early ideas was to perform the show only on Wednesday and Saturday nights, coinciding with the Lottery draws, but that would have the effect of making an Edinburgh residency even less economic, although they hope to come to Scotland every August, unless lucrative commercial offers intervene.

Weve already made the moral decision over that, says Mothersole. If we are asked to sell out, then we gladly will. But, until then, well go on being performance artists.

DollyWould is at Summerhall in Edinburgh, to 27 August. Box office: 0131 560 1580. Then on tour.

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DollyWould: Sh!t Theatre's fringe tribute to the country singer and the cloned sheep - The Guardian