Edinburgh Fringe 2026
CVNT
Sophie Power
Genre: Absurd Theatre, Bouffon, Clown
Venue: The Box at Assembly George Square
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A giant sexy vulva appears on stage, seducing the audience with its charm. What follows is part performance, part sex education and part therapy.
Review
In this solo performance, Sophie Power starts with the obvious jokes one would expect when faced with an embodied vulva. There’s a joy in this predictability, for the audience is still warming up to this kind of humour, and Power knows she’s going to take it far beyond the obvious.
Power, true to her name, aims to reclaim the word “c*nt”. She uses it in its literal sense, in its derogatory sense and in its reclaimed sense. She has the energy of a storm. You cannot escape her energy if you’re present in that room. She makes sure she sees you, and that your presence is important to her. The big Bouffon vulva is not out there to mock you, she’s out there to help you mock the world.
Once we’ve met the Cvnt and learned more about it, Power picks an audience member and asks them about a person in their life who they associate with the word “c*nt”. This is when the show turns into a large group therapy session. While the word “therapy” has its own connotations and assumptions, Power approaches it with absolute joy and command. This is not a tender and gentle therapy room. It’s a large Bouffon forcing you to channel your anger towards her. And nobody minds this forced healing session. We, in fact, embrace it. As the show goes on, Power keeps raising the stakes, exploring just how far this therapeutic experience can go for the audience.
What starts off as a great display of power over the audience slowly turns into power shared with the audience. Sophie is not interested in overpowering us or being superior to us. She realises the imbalance in the world and recognises the importance of redistributing power. As members of the audience went on to share excerpts of their experiences and Sophie listened to them with utmost sincerity, I wondered why it is so often women who take on the responsibility of fixing the effects of violence and misogyny while also being its victims. And to take on that responsibility with a deep sense of play, compassion and respect, is incredibly inspiring!
Power uses her ability to move, sing, dance, write and listen to create a space where the audience can let go of something difficult they’re carrying with them. At a poignant moment during the show, she asks us to declare, “we’re all c*nts”, filling the room with a wave of empathy for those we love, those we despise and those we don’t even know. In a world where healing processes are increasingly becoming performative, Power uses performance to create a space where we can playfully meet our hidden shadows, in the hope that we might find some healing in doing so.
The world needs more clowns. This show is highly recommended!
