one4review | On 05, Aug 2025

Cat Cohen’s 2024 Fringe show Come For Me saw the comedian perform what was actually her cancelled 2023 show. This year, Broad Strokes is her explanation for her 2023 absence: a mini stroke and the subsequent procedure to fix the heart condition which caused it. Writing a comedy cabaret show about suffering from a stroke at 30 years old seems like a weighty undertaking, but Cohen knows how to reframe a potentially traumatic experience into a funny and ironic tale, complete with sincerely well-crafted songs and clever lyrics.

 

Cohen presents herself as a self-obsessed and neurotic millennial woman. She reveals intimate details and intrusive thought processes that most wouldn’t dare to, yet audience reaction proves many identify with her words – all of this also delivered in her very particular vernacular and cadence which makes her so charismatic. Her stage persona resonates with a chronically online generation, with incredible one-liners that her audience loved which are utterly indecipherable to those not deeply invested in 2020s pop culture or the increasing influence of TikTok on young people’s senses of humour. Cohen’s self-satirising and ironic performance perfectly maintains the levity and fun of the hour. While there are moments of vulnerability, she never makes it overly sentimental or tries to conclude with a sincere pontification about mortality which would completely derail the tone of the show. Broad Strokes is a polished performance, and Cat Cohen definitely deserves the star status she unapologetically desires.

****.1/2

Reviewed by Niamh O’Hara

Pleasance One

21.00 (1hr)

Until 24 Aug (not 6, 12, 13 or 19)