Some of the most revered works of art across history feature women as their primary focus. But though they might appear as favoured subjects, so often these women are relegated to the margins, their stories untold as they remain silent and often sexualised via the male gaze.
In her new multicharacter comedy Swoon, Bebe Cave interrogates the role of the muse and what it means to be seen yet never heard. We initially meet Cave as Elizabeth Siddal – or Lizzie – who was immortalised as Ophelia by John Everett Millais in the mid 19th century, also becoming a popular model for several other pre-Raphaelite artists.
With her comically excessive scouse accent and world-weary exasperation, she is the poster child for being sad and sexy, her story underlining the dichotomy between the elevated status of the muse and their simultaneously poor treatment by artists. The narrative, however, centres on the fictional Bertrude, Lizzie’s sister, who is desperate to be noticed and included by the pretentious Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose idea of the perfect woman involves her looking near death.
Swoon sees Cave take on numerous characters at breakneck speed, with appearances from a lanky redheaded mannequin, gloriously baffling dance sequences and casual pop culture references throughout. Cave emits a chaotic energy in her portrayal of the brotherhood and the many characters in their orbit, with her delightfully janky costumes and props and a Millais-coded set design amping up the absurdity at every turn.
As Dante Gabriel Rossetti, she is the ultimate hipster bro, a printed Carhartt logo stuck to her top hat adding an excellent touch in the depiction of his obnoxious faux-trendiness. The men’s nonchalant misogyny and their lack of care towards women is accentuated by Cave through their cringey edgelord behaviour.
Giving us a Victorian-era Tyra Banks as well as the Brontë sisters, Swoon is a highly impressive and creative feat of physical comedy, with an intelligent throughline that never takes away from the more slapstick and silly elements. The show has a wealth of jokes that rely on the audience having some knowledge of art history, but even without this, the message is clear: ridiculous men with pompous attitudes are forever contributing to the erasure of women.
They may live eternally in the art itself, but Cave argues that muses like Lizzie deserve more than just being nameless subjects. And in this, Swoon works to dismantle the illusion of impossible beauty standards set and romanticised by clueless men.
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At Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh, until 30 August
