Harry Potter’s Jessie Cave reveals ants fed on her breastmilk in brilliantly confessional Edinburgh Fringe show-Kitty Chrisp-Entertainment – Metro

Jessie Cave is holding nothing back in her Edinburgh Fringe show – and it’s not one to miss (Picture: Supplied)

Jessie Cave looks basically the same as she did in Harry Potter: with her long, waist-length hair, youthful complexion, and bubbling character. But a lot has happened since she appeared in the sixth film as Lavender Brown.

She has four children, for a start, but has also created her own path in her Edinburgh Fringe comedy show, An Ecstatic Display. And that it is.

Throughout her hour of comedy, Jessie gets frank. She’s so confessional, often the comedian admits an internal horror then clasps both her hands to her mouth and sinks towards the back of the stage.

Her show – in its haphazard randomness – reflects her internal battle with social anxiety and being a bit of a weirdo (her own admission).

Perhaps the most gasp-worthy moment was when Jessie recalled a particularly distressing night’s sleep a year ago, in which she woke to an undeniable presence in the room.

It wasn’t a ghost – don’t be ridiculous – but a colony of ants trying to, well, colonise her. As she discovered the critters all over her chest, it became apparent their prize was her lactating breast milk. ‘I’d been hunted,’ she tells the audience, who were still recovering after a uniform gasp. Respect.

The comedian has forged her own creative path since Harry Potter (Picture: Suppled)

Played Ron Weasley’s love interest Lavender Brown in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Picture: Warner Bros)

But the confessions didn’t stop there, as Jessie took the audience through her tumultuous but loving relationship with fellow comedian Alfie Brown in an imagined couple’s therapy session. They aren’t married, but Alfie has promised to keep on breaking up and making up with her until the day they die.

Perhaps it’s not romantic at first glance, but it is in a messy, honest way – the adjectives which seem to flow through Jessie’s anecdotes and attitude.

Under the chaos are real messages of retaining identity through motherhood and relishing in life’s moments no matter how unexpected they are.

She details becoming pregnant with her first child from a one-night stand (and falling in love with Alfie in the process), and how the death of her brother who died in an accident led her to having more babies. ‘As long as I’m with child I feel productive,’ she admits.

It truly is An Ecstatic Display (Picture: Supplied)

Her anti-improv segment was a joy, in which she riffs off audience members like someone who is being forced to do it with no prior experience. It plays into her lovable insecure persona, which Jessie told Metro.co.uk in a pre-Fringe interview is a heightened version of herself.

While some Harry Potter stars might be resting on their laurels – and, fair enough if they are – Jessie doesn’t appear to believe in stopping. She just creates: a feeling that’s embodied in all the props she uses, her delight in bringing life into the world, and in the Shakespearean segment of the show – and the shockingly bad but very entertaining puppet show. Yes, it’s a wild ride.

Jessie is a master of making light out of dark, and twisting a hurricane life into what genuinely is an Ecstatic Display – and not one to be missed this Fringe.

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