EDINBURGH 2025: REVIEW: BEBE CAVE: CHRISTBRIDE, Jack Dome And Pleasance Dome

This debut hour from Bebe Cave has enough energy to power Murrayfield and enough whimsy to dazzle even the staunchest of stoics. Fearless and paired with the whipsmart antics of a seasoned comic, baptism by spitfire CHRISTBRIDE is simply, pardon the pun, a religious experience. 

Middle Ages maiden Batilda is disenchanted with a merchant daughter’s fate, then a mystical woman makes a visit to her village that would change her life forever. Whisked away into the wonders of convent sisterwifery and in escape from the courtship corrale, the abbey nuns take this entranced tween under their wings and they dance like it’s 1399.

Before long, a Liverpudlian Prince of Peace delivers Batilda nightly visions in her stained glass paradise, and she’s hooked on the holy life. Goodbye townie pariah, hello Mrs. Messiah! Billed as a ‘medieval coming-of-age story’ (think bardcore, Ren Fair realness #girlhood meets droplets of shocking historical accuracy), this fever dream farce with an immaculate twist is as fiery as the flames that burned witches of yore.

With another knockout creation of nonstop invention and laughter following last year’s equally deliciously chaotic The Screen Test, Cave proves that she has only scraped the surface of her arsenal of ingenuity. Someone give Bebe and her extremely fun mind a budget and creative control over at BBC One or Channel 4 or something. Her signature cutting feminist critique laced with oodles of buffonery, accents and madcap characters is the thread throughout both The Screen Test and CHRISTBRIDE, this time also satirising organised belief systems and the wielding of power.

Multi-themed, chocka caricatures, lighting and music cues abound - is it too ambitious? No! This ham of God, armed with dizzying dress up, charming crowd work and ramshackle set changes, turns every bit of intentional mess into a mighty bit of magic, somehow even funnier in the event of any supposed missteps. 

What sets Cave’s unique brand of comedy apart from other character kooks is her imaginative writing and storycraft. Apart from the scattergun of hilarity on full blast, the story in which her myriad personas live is genuinely novel, thrilling and surprisingly sound. Eminently self-aware, Cave is well and truly living Dolly Parton's best advice: “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”

And the chef’s kiss? It is pure bliss to be in the presence of a performer enjoying herself this much, bringing you along for the wild, unbridled ride. After the uproarious applause, Cave bears a massive grin and you can just hear her over the din proclaim, “That was so much fun!”

Make haste! If thou dost not acquire admission ere four-and-twenty of August cometh, thy penance shall be twenty lashes of FOMO!

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