post by @nataliagresty

Seen by Natalia at Edinburgh Festival Fringe on the 10^th of August 2024

5 stars – brilliantly written and performed tale of a 1930s wannabe starlet

Bebe Cave‘s solo show pays homage to her favourite topic in the world: neurotic actresses (her own words). While Bebe has been performing at the Fringe and elsewhere in the UK with her sister Jessie Cave since 2014, this is her first one-woman performance, full to the brim with sharp, witty monologue and short multimedia sketches. 

It is the early 1930s and Betsy Bitterly, a young, aspiring movie actress lands her first film audition – a screen test. And so it starts: her fast-paced, at times pushy but glossy attempt to make the directors cast her and break into Hollywood. Her speech between, a stream of (slightly naive) consciousness tackles a multitude of topics including obsession with beauty and youth, delusionally justifying her husband’s frequent business trips, inability to manage her finances and spending time with only less successful female friends so she doesn’t feel threatened. She appears to be self-aware of all of this, but, while manifesting her stardom, never shows it on set.

Betsy’s character and its development are perfectly crafted, and as we follow her through a multitude of tragic twists towards a downfall, it is Cave’s ability to combine old-fashioned rhetorical style with modern humour that’s the selling point of the show. She’s glistening with sweat almost from the beginning and but never throughout the 60 minutes of dancing, singing, auditioning, storytelling, and heartbreak does she pause to catch her breath. It might just be that we’re looking at a similar stage-and-screen diva in a satin gown, only 90 years later. 

31st July – 26th August; 3.10 pm

Running time: 60 minutes

Venue: Pleasance Courtyard, Below

Tickets and Info: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/screen-test 

Group: Bebe Cave in association with BIGHEAD Comedy

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bebecave/