In dealing with the death of her husband, thirty-year-old BearGirl (played by Rachel de Fontes) finds comfort in the form of a second-hand bear onesie. Day by day as the grief and guilt consume her, she retreats further into her bear persona – running away from memory and reality.
Given the premise of this play, one would expect a surrealist piece of theatre that sweeps you away from realism and into true primality. BearGirl however is very much grounded in reality – perhaps too much so.
In classic Fringe style, this play turns out to be your typical one-woman show, although is accompanied by Jimmy Kavanaugh multi-roling a number of characters, including BearGirl’s narcissistic husband, her elderly neighbour, and the grandiose fortune teller. Kavanaugh transitions between characters with ease, delivering the doses of reality that BearGirl so desperately needs. De Fontes delivers the bulk of the play and her resonance with the character is clear. As BearGirl reaches the crux of her journey, De Fontes weeps for her and in a touching finish, dances out to Dolly Parton’s Here You Come Again.
While the overview of this show holds promise, I feel the story was one we’ve seen many a time before. I found BearGirl’s character to be lacking in depth, and I think emotion is being mistaken for that depth. We see this woman’s most vulnerable moments but that is all we have seen of her and thus struggle to sympathise with her. She hates her husband before she properly meets him, but on introduction immediately falls head over heels with him. While this is probably aiming to demonstrate his love-bombing narcissism and her insecure attachment, it feels reductive of her as a person
While De Fontes and Kavanaugh were both big personalities with big emotions, it felt like the direction didn’t quite match this. It was played very safe when conceptually this could have been a very bold and gritty idea. It seemed more like a kitchen-sink drama when I think what it needed was something more abstract. We saw what the world saw of BearGirl – a woman in a onesie. I think this piece would have been more impactful if we saw through the eyes of the bear. The full context of her marriage wasn’t necessarily needed – if less was revealed so explicitly and instead, we leaned into the metaphors instead of showing their bones, this play could transform into something much bigger than itself. Nevertheless, there certainly is a lot to dig your teeth in to and what BearGirl gives us is a down-to-earth portrait of a woman in crisis.
Reviewer: Jessie Martin
Reviewed: 9th August 2026
North West End UK / Theatre Muse UK Rating: