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Jessie Cave: An Ecstatic Display

 
Esther Review by Esther 2 Published: 25 Aug 2024 Assembly Roxy Show Dates: 31 Jul 2024-25 Aug 2024

Jessie Cave says she would like to be remembered as a “fun mum”, which we certainly get a

The laughter comes in smatters.

glimpse of in An Ecstatic Display at Assembley Roxy.

Cave is dressed like a 90s children’s show presenter and in the centre of the sizable stage is a handmade shadow puppet theatre, which she also accompanies with toys, paper aeroplanes, canvases that she’s painted her and her partner’s faces on, bubble blasters, and a hand-painted storybook. There’s a lot to contend with and that’s before getting to the topics she broaches which mainly revolve around her on/off relationship with her partner and father of her children.

Cave describes their relationship as one between “an emotionally unstable star sign believer

and a bipolar alcoholic,” and through the couple’s imagined therapy sessions, she shows how

they seem to largely be incompatible.

Cave gets tongue-tied a lot and twice when she messes up a punchline and throws herself

on the stage, much like a child having a tantrum, but she has such a likeable presence, we

encourage her on through cheering. The laughter comes in smatters, though there’s really

not much to chuckle at, as Cave excavates the last few years of her life including the death

of her younger brother. There’s more of a collective feeling of wanting things to go well for

Cave, both on stage and in real life.

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The Blurb:

Jessie Cave opens up about a number of things: social anxiety and monogamy, couple's therapy and parenting failures. She questions Mother Nature and examines why she might be addicted to giving birth. Hopefully it's funny.