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Sh!t Theatre: Evita Too

Zoo Southside

Four stars 

 

Don’t be fooled by the naked roller-skating that opens Sh!t Theatre’s latest rad-fem riot of a show. Beyond the untethered Starlight Express tribute of this freewheeling prologue, the harmonious duo of Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole who make up what is more a way of life than a theatre company serve up what is likely to be one of the most incisive political histories to grace the Edinburgh stage this month. Given the duo's own recent back story which they lay bare, the show also becomes a more personal look at what it takes for women like them to make history.

 

In just 75 minutes, Biscuit and Mothersole channel comedy, showtunes and obsessive fan-girl research as they go down the rabbit hole to unearth one of the lesser known, but briefly most powerful women in the world. No, not Eva Peron, the ever so slightly reimagined heroine of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s best musical, but the next Mrs Peron, Isabella. 

 

As Sh!t Theatre demonstrate by way of archive film footage, song, dance and the aforementioned nude rollerskating, Isabella was a showgirl 35 years Juan Peron’s junior when they married. After his death, she not only took over as president, but as Biscuit and Mothersole stress to the hilt, became the first ever female president in the entire world. 


Over the course of a production directed by Ursula Martinez, Peron is both mythologised and has that mythology broken down just as Biscuit and Mothersole question their own constructed past. This comes in the form of a back catalogue of umpteen equally irreverent but just as serious shows that make up what they probably wouldn't call an archive.


As for Isabells, beyond her dubious politics - and there was plenty - Biscuit and Mothersole develop a genuine fondness for their subject, even travelling to Spain in search of their fallen idol. This becomes an important part of Sh!t Theatre’s homage in a reclamation of Isabella’s story that is a revelation. As they come to terms with their own self mythhology, the duo run with this with a surface glee that has a lot more going on behind it. The result is a piece of feminist cabaret writ large that makes a song and dance of things to keep the acquired baggage of both themselves and Isabella alive.

 

Until Aug 30, 6.25pm.


The Herald, August 17, 2026


ends

 

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