There can’t be many Fringe shows whose titles reference the Strasbourg dancing plague of 1518. But there aren’t many comedians like Caitriona Dowden who can take a decidedly niche interest and take it in such consistently witty and inventive directions. Making a virtue of her academic pursuits, the former Chortle Student Comedian of the Year has crafted a wonderfully droll show around the not obviously hilarious theme of apocalyptic dread.

A knowledgeable medievalist, Caitriona’s idiosyncratic view of the plausible end of our modern world is informed (and somewhat alleviated) by the eschatological concerns of the scholars writing at the turn of the Second Millennium. The thematic linking of the experiences of an anchoress in the Middle Ages and a theoretical 21st century woman hunkered down in a bomb shelter is bold, but Dowden’s inscrutably eccentric material is curiously persuasive. How does observational comedy work when you’re hermetically sealed in an environment with so little to observe?

Dowden’s deadpan, considered approach to a joke is to let it steep and percolate with an audience. She’s already mastered the Pinteresque pause as a comic device, and there’s a smug sense of satisfaction in getting her latest gag and hearing the ripple effect as the rest of the room catch up. While this sounds like ‘Dance Like Everyone’s Dancing’ should have limited appeal in terms of both style and content, a packed room and large gales of laughter – even if there is some time between them – proves otherwise.

Maybe it’s because Dowden’s material is more accessible than you might think, she’s just approaching it from an angle that’s offbeat even by alternative comedy standards. Put simply, Caitriona thinks the lesson of events like the dancing plague is that she should let herself go more, and live in the moment. That is the common ground between the weirdness of Strasbourg, the hermetic anchoresses, Dowden’s own religious upbringing, and her gynaecological condition; a revelation that comes from leftfield as there’s nothing in the show up to that point (or indeed, from its performer) to suggest discussion of her sex life was on the hymn sheet.

There’s something irresistible in the unassuming way that Catriona Dowden performs, creating an involving and weirdly uplifting show with patience, intelligence, and a staunch (some with a classical bent would even suggest stoic) commitment to her method. A little adjustment may be required to relax into the rhythm of ‘Dance Like Everyone’s Dancing’, but this is not so intellectual that there isn’t a visible universal core to it. Just how high-brow could a show featuring a speculum with googly eyes possible be?

‘Dance Like Everyone’s Dancing‘ is PBH’s Free Fringe at Carbon – Room 2 until Sun 24 Aug 2025 at 14:10