Jessie Cave @ Assembly Roxy
An Ecstatic Display is an hour of tales of social anxiety and absurd jealousies from an accomplished storyteller
Despite her lack of assurance, Jessie Cave is an accomplished storyteller, and she conveys the texture of her life very vividly. The show is an account of the unplanned events that have shaped her current existence: the on/off dynamics of her relationship with a fellow comedian, and the birth of their four young children. Slightly harried (inevitable, given the four children), she may be unfashionable in going against the eye-rolling, cynical take on child rearing that is so common, but her take is also far from the shiny Instagram versions of mothering.
There's a lot to like here, particularly the sequences about social anxiety and absurd jealousies; the satisfaction of hearing someone voice feelings you hadn't fully articulated shouldn't be underestimated. Cave talks of her dismayed discovery of a propensity to jealousy, prompted both by her partner’s wandering eye and anyone who seems to have things sorted. Peppa Pig's easy-going existence prompts some hard questioning – just how is Mummy Pig so relaxed? And what possible job could allow her to be such a laid-back mum?
Cave effectively uses the idiom of childhood – via lo-fi shadow puppetry and a bedtime story – to frame some bits, a way of staying true to her daily reality, but the Shakespeare and improv interludes feel rather tacked-on, as does the device for dramatising couples' therapy (shout out to Esther Perel).
Having been surprised by the turns life has taken and what they’ve uncovered, Jessie Cave is clearly trying to make sense of things; her honesty may be compulsive but there's an undeniable generosity at work, too.
Jessie Cave: An Ecstatic Display, Assembly Roxy (Upstairs), until 25 Aug (not 15), 12.45pm, £8-13.50