What's so funny? Book clubs, according to Harry Potter actor Jessie Cave. Her Edinburgh debut is a meeting of the spoof book group Bookworms United, inspired, she says, by obsessive Potter fans.
Biting the hand that feeds? But not with sharp teeth. Bookworm is an affectionate send-up – a young woman seeking refuge from real life in the pages of Babar the Elephant and CS Lewis's Narnia series.
Those are children's books. It's practically a children's show. The stage is brightly bedecked in Cave's drawings and her patchwork Wendy house. The show is delivered in a tone of bouncy, puppyish enthusiasm throughout, which telegraphs a little too obviously the personal troubles that dotty Jessie is sublimating.
Personal troubles? A failed relationship – and I'm not talking about her love for tennis champ Andre Agassi, whose autobiography Open is her bible. Speaking of relationships, the most intriguing one onstage is with Cave's sister, Bebe, who stars as her put-upon sidekick.
That rings a bell. I was reminded of last year's terrific truth-or-fiction show about sibling rivalry by the Daykin sisters – aka Toby. The Cave sisters' relationship is subsidiary here, not centre stage – but Bebe, simply by dint of being silent and shouted at, becomes the surreptitious star.
So are there jokes? Cave's gushing bibliophilia is the main gag, as she describes her bout of Bovaryisme and hymns the virtues of free indirect discourse. The biggest laughs don't come from Jessie's burbling chat, but from the sisters' more clownish routines: Bebe flashing a torch dramatically in the dark as Jessie introduces her love for Lisbeth Salander; Jessie trying to keep Bebe in line during a song about the books Stieg Larsson intended to write but never did.
Un-put-downable? Not quite. But it's a confident and distinctive debut, big on personality if shorter on laughs.
