Bebe Cave’s “Swoon” Skewers the Male-Gaze in Pre-Raphaelite Art

The new multicharacter comedy Swoon, written and performed by British comedian Bebe Cave, uses rapid-fire role changes to interrogate how women have been reduced to silent muses by male artists. The review notes that the play opens with Cave as Elizabeth Siddal—the model immortalised as Ophelia by John Everett Millais in the mid-19th century—and expands to a fictional sister, Bertrude, who desperately seeks recognition from the pretentious Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. By portraying the Brotherhood’s ideal of a “perfect woman” as near-death, the production highlights the paradox of women’s elevated status in art alongside their poor treatment by the artists who depict them.

The Guardian

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters and poets, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who sought to revive medieval aesthetics. Their canvases often featured women as ethereal muses, yet contemporary criticism points to a pattern of “non-chalant misogyny” and objectification. The play’s depiction of Rossetti as a “hipster bro” with a Carhartt-logo-adorned top hat satirises the movement’s self-conscious trend-setting while underscoring its underlying sexism.

The Guardian

Cave’s performance blends slapstick with art-history references: a lanky red-haired mannequin, baffling dance sequences, and pop-culture nods populate the stage. Costumes and props are deliberately “janky,” and the set design echoes Millais’s palette, reinforcing the absurdity of the Brotherhood’s aesthetic pretensions. The comedy thus functions as both entertainment and critique.

The Guardian

According to the review, Swoon succeeds in dismantling the illusion of impossible beauty standards imposed by “clueless men.” By giving muses like Siddal a voice and agency, the production challenges the historical narrative that women exist only as nameless subjects in art. The show’s intelligent through-line, combined with physical comedy, positions it as a noteworthy cultural intervention that invites reconsideration of how art history portrays gender.

The Guardian