Katie Burson on her absurd art-inspired comedy: ‘Of course it’s not autobiographical… we play two bananas’
Perhaps surprisingly, audiences may well discover more than a splash of visual art inspiration across this year’s comedy line-up. Afreka Thomson digs deeper and finds herself in a world of fruit, fainting and fangirling
The Fringe has never been afraid of a little surrealism, and, come August, half the people mooching around the beer gardens look like they went to art school, even if they didn’t. This year, though, visual art has made a bizarrely significant mark on the comedy programme. From Bob Ross and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to a pair of duct-taped bananas, comedians and theatremakers are raiding galleries and art history books for inspiration. Whether they’re interrogating the male gaze or poking fun at the absurdities of the contemporary art world, these shows prove there’s plenty to laugh about.
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Bebe Cave returns with Swoon, the final instalment of her trilogy exploring what she calls ‘historical female main character syndrome’. This time, she turns her attention to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the women immortalised in their paintings. ‘We remember these men as super-romantic, wistful characters, but the women around them were discarded and abused after being used to create their most famous works. It left a trail of destruction that’s so opposite to the serene, peaceful, beautiful nature of their paintings.’
For Cave, the show is also about the way those ideas continue to shape modern womanhood. ‘I’m trying to make comedy about how crazy it is that we think being sexy, sad and dead is more interesting than being alive and healthy.’ The title itself captures that contradiction. ‘I’ve always wanted to faint in public,’ Cave jokes. ‘To swoon must mean that you’re the most delicate, beautiful, fragile little creature. But in reality, fainting is something that happens when your body is not very well.’ Swoon asks why we’ve spent centuries romanticising women’s suffering: might not sound hilarious, but in Cave’s hands it almost certainly will be.
Elsewhere, Sarah-Louise Young looks to television’s most comforting artist. The Bob Ross Effect celebrates the beloved painter behind The Joy Of Painting, but Young’s fascination began at a giant Bob Ross watch party in 2015. ‘They screened all 403 episodes of The Joy Of Painting back to back, which was nine days,’ she laughs. ‘We slept for some of it, but we basically attempted nine days of Bob Ross with five million other people.’ Years later, following the death of her friend, the comedian and artist Lynn Ruth Miller, Young found herself returning to Ross’ philosophy of creativity without perfection.
Her show grew from ‘a desire to explore how art can help us heal and how people live on when we still tell their stories,’ she says. Audience members are handed crayons but there’s no pressure. ‘The show is also an invitation for the audience to explore their own creativity,’ says Young. ‘If you think you can’t draw, this is the show for you.’
New Zealanders Katie Burson and Georgie Llewellyn take a decidedly more absurd route in How To Art. Inspired by Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous 2019 artwork ‘Comedian’, their award-winning ‘clown-fruit mash-up’ imagines two bananas waking up duct-taped to the wall of an art gallery. Burson is keen to stress the show shouldn’t be taken too literally: ‘Of course it’s not autobiographical… we play two bananas.’ Behind the wacky premise, though, is a surprisingly relatable message. ‘The work is kind of one big metaphor for how it feels to be an artist trying to do your thing in a world that’s not really built for us,’ Burson explains. There’s real life art in there too; the onstage gallery set is packed with bespoke works by New Zealand creatives. And if existential bananas don’t scratch your art itch, Lisa!: The Mona Lisa Musical, When Vincent Met John and Coco’s Art History Comedy Highlights Tour are all adding their own brushstrokes to this year’s Fringe too.
Bebe Cave: Swoon, Pleasance Dome, 5–30 August, 5.40pm; The Bob Ross Effect, Assembly George Square Gardens, 5–31 August, 4.05pm; How To Art, Underbelly Cowgate, 5–30 August, 9.40pm; main picture: Jake Dennis.