Review: EVITA TOO, Southbank Centre

Fringe veterans Sh!t Theatre (Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole) are back, this time with a sharper, bigger, bolder EVITA TOO. I reviewed a work-in-progress version of EVITA TOO just two months ago, and came with high expectations. I wasn’t disappointed. The framing of EVITA TOO as the ‘first’ production about the untold story of history’s first female president establishes the show’s focus on populism and systemic misogyny. 

There are many upgrades. The Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room is dressed with voluminous pink drapes that create a lush, inviting backdrop for the informative first act. There’s a multi-level set, more costumes (pink lycra bodysuits, tailored pink suits, rainbow plaid jackets, and pink berets), gravity-defying bouffant wigs, the much-anticipated Andrew Lloyd Webber dummy dressed as Evita Perón, and an absurdist Elaine Page (puppet) cameo. Biscuit and Mothersole have perfected their technique of delivering punchlines in deadpan unison and maintaining full command (pun intended) of the room over the hour-and-a-half running time, a testament to their stage presence and stamina. 

Audience participation moments slyly underscore the point that we, the sheeple, are easily manipulated: we vote for nude roller-blading over a research presentation, are ‘voluntold’ to smash ice for (store-bought) mojitos, beg gleefully to receive the ‘spirit’ of Evita (vodka via squirt guns), and chant along, mob-like, to demand a song. It’s an effective approach to unpacking populism, cleverly concealed within a cabaret wrapper. The twist is darkly ironic: unlike most subjects of musicals, Isabel Perón is still alive to see how history (mis)remembers her.

Sh!t Theatre delivers whip-smart comedy and excels at integrating well-researched historical material with personal anecdotes. Biscuit and Mothersole navigate public archival material, screenshots of their own ‘unsolicited feedback’, and comparisons to Lloyd Webber’s Evita, to remark on an ever-relevant question: if women’s voices are controlled by men even when they hold power, how can they author their own legacy? The duo acknowledge that Perón’s complicity in state violence is not addressed, in the interests of a ‘simpler narrative,’ though interrogating this could be an intriguing counterpoint to Perón’s assumed passivity. 

As the duo point out, ‘It’s much easier to take the piss than be earnest.’ Sh!t Theatre has managed the rare act of succeeding at both, and giving us much food for thought along the way.    

Written & Performed by Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole
Directed by Ursula Martinez
Produced by Judith Dimant Productions
Original music by Sh!t Theatre
Supported by the Southbank Centre

EVITA TOO plays at The Purcell Rooms, Southbank Centre
until Wednesday December 31