EDINBURGH 2019: Review: CATHERINE BOHART: LEMON, Pleasance Courtyard

I'm really here for a comedy show born out of vengeance.

It wouldn't have mattered why Catherine Bohart felt the need to write an entire show to spite an audience member from last year - I still would have been passionately in favour of it. But, woman in the yellow cardigan, Lemon has some things you need to hear - Bohart's got no time for your "disgust", and neither do we.

Sex is often this strange taboo for female comedians. Average Jo(e) punter can handle men talking about their sex lives, but women? Absolutely not. Well, Bohart is simply not having any of it. In fact, it's pretty wonderful to think about how annoyed the woman in the yellow cardigan would be if she came to Lemon and heard Bohart talk about period sex.

Bohart carefully crafts her shows so that at the time it sounds like all of these ideas are popping into her head spontaneously, and then at the end you get hit with the full force of what she's really been getting at. There's this stunning moment in Lemon when the audience realise together where Bohart is going, and we see that sex toys, ninja turtles and lesbian bed death has been about the pressure to be a good queer feminist, the erasure of women, and that none of our actions exist in a vacuum.

You have to love leaving a comedy show, having laughed for almost an hour straight, with this desire to go out into the world and be a kickass feminist and ally. Lemon is a one-hour act of protest, and a call to arms. So, come at us, woman in the yellow cardigan - we're ready!

The show should come with a "Your childhood may be ruined" warning though. Learning that Raphael, formerly my favourite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, sort of proposed incest with his sort of sister was incredibly distressing. Mikey may have been the heart of the show, Catherine, but Raph was the coolest and you know it...

https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/catherine-bohart-lemon#overview

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