Meme-laden and completely magnetic, Swoon is a sharp skewering of male artists and their muses
Bertrude Burden: a lost soul, a spiritual horse girl, a child star, an out of work ‘model’. Bertrude is the protagonist (and doesn’t she know it!) of Bebe Cave’s one-woman exploration of artistic men and their muses, Swoon.
Swoon has about 700 characters, but the two most central are Bertrude and Lizzy – her beautifully dead-looking sister, inspired by Elizabeth Siddal, the real life model for Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everrett Millais’ ‘Ophelia’ (and wife of Dante Rossetti). Lizzy is a real cool, sickly girl – think Gabbriette, think early Lana Del Rey, think female cast of Skins (first gen). In her own words, “I drown so Effy from Skins can scowl”: a noble cause, and the women of the Bad Side of Pinterest thank her for her serve-ice.
Bertrude (reminder: PROTAGONIST) is having a hard time of it, what with Lizzy taking the spotlight away from her – simply by virtue of looking more dead! What Swoon thus deals with, is Bertrude’s increasingly manic attempts to become a muse for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood who have cruelly dubbed her a girl who ‘looks like she drinks milk’ (read: NOT muse material). .
Cave’s portrayal of the Brotherhood is exceptional: she is at her most astute when acting out the part of male East London creative. She indulges in a bit of spoken word, as the Brotherhood rail against the restrictiveness of the British educational system and GCSE Art: it’s ‘paint, paint, PAIN’. The costume design here is truly inspired – there is a Carhartt logo printed onto an A4 sheet, stapled to a top hat alongside a hanging carabiner. The woman is a genius.
Despite all of Swoon’s real historical references, and grand ‘themes’ of misogyny, objectification, pretentiousness etc., it’s a really, really meme-able show. Similarly to last year’s CHRISTBRIDE, Cave scatters in plenty of very online references to keep the Instagram Reel aficionados of the audience entertained – a sequence involving Tyra Riverbanks recreates the iconic “I have NEVER yelled at a girl like this” dramatic monologue. Further parallel themes of CHRISTBRIDE and Swoon include: Britain’s Got Talent, being Scouse, the year 2008, female hysteria, and prop chain glasses.
All in all, Swoon is an incredibly sharp hour (and a quarter) of the most expressive performer you have ever witnessed in your life doing the most accents and the most characters you have ever seen a performer perform in your life. It’s a once in a lifetime performance experience, you could say!
Show Listing: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/bebe-cave-swoon
LISTINGS INFORMATION:
Venue: Jack Dome at Pleasance Dome
Dates: Aug 5th-30th (excl. 18th)
Time: 17:40 (60 mins)
Ticket prices: £16.50 / concessions £15.50
Fringe box office: 0131 226 0000 / http://www.edfringe.com
Suitable for 16+