Jessie Cave: I Loved Her
Underbelly
Verdict: two stars
Everybody seems to be raving about Jessie Cave’s comedic and slightly psychotic performance at the fringe, but it seemed I wasn’t the only one in the audience who wasn’t laughing.
Dressed up in a smock with her hair in pigtails and glasses deliberately too large for her face, Cave entertains the audience with her cardboard cutouts, puppets, and a large board of receipts she collects from strangers at grocery shop tills.
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It’s very reminiscent of Lena Dunham’s work in Girls, as Cave portrays herself as yet another young, independent women struggling to make her boyfriend commit, figuring out her own identity in the world of social media, and stalking her boyfriend’s ex-wife which further transcends into an obsession with stalking strangers on the street.
It feels as if Cave is trying much too hard to remind us that she has come a long way from her being Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter films and has now solely devoted her life to comedy as well as being a hipster.
Her childish mannerisms and witty punch lines could be seen as endearing, but instead they are unsettling and poorly timed.
If you are looking for yet another show about the effects of social media and the hardships of being a young 20-something, I’d recommend Jessie Cave’s show. Otherwise, for a truly good piece of sketch comedy I would recommend seeing her boyfriend’s show, Alfie Brown-ism, who makes the audience truly laugh whilst only mentioning Jessie once.
Karina Mazur, News Academy for The Sunday Times