Interview: Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole on Sh!t Theatre’s EVITA TOO
Photo credit: Christa Holka
Last summer might have been all about Evita at the London Palladium, but this winter is introducing us to a lesser-known Mrs Perón in Sh!t Theatre's production of EVITA TOO. Part disco cabaret, part political satire, EVITA TOO tells the wild story of Isabel Perón, and opens at the Southbank Centre in December. We spoke to the duo behind Sh!t Theatre, Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole, to find out more.
When did you first learn about Isabel Perón, and what do you think makes her such a great subject for a theatre show?
We were performing at the MAC Theatre in Belfast and were talking to the technician about the research for our show DollyWould. We had attempted to break into the Tennessee Body Farm, an undisclosed location where, since the ‘70s, bodies have been left to rot in various tableaus for the sake of forensic pathology.
The technician said to us, ‘Hey. D’you know what happened to Evita’s body after she died?’ and proceeded to tell us. After her death, the famous Evita was embalmed. When her husband and President of Argentina Juan Peron was overthrown in a military coup, her body disappeared for around 15 years. During that time, Juan Peron remarried. Juan and his new wife were living in Madrid when Evita’s body showed up again, a bit damaged from being stored incorrectly, but mostly intact. Juan and his wife then had Evita’s preserved corpse installed ‘over their dining room table’.
We did some quick googling to check the authenticity of the technician’s wild claims and discovered it was true! We wondered about ‘the wife’: ‘What woman would let her husband hang the corpse of his previous wife over her dining room table?’ And the internet informed us that this wife, Isabel Peron, was the first female president of a country. We thought, ‘That can’t be right, we’ve never heard of her!’ and continued digging. Isabel Peron was not only the sort of woman to eat her breakfast under the corpse of her husband’s previous wife, she was also a gogo dancer turned first ever female president of a country in the history of the world. And no one has heard of her.
Can you tell us a bit about the researching and writing process for EVITA TOO?
Sometimes we think we make shows as an excuse to do the research, which is our favourite part of any project.
The more we researched Isabel Peron, the more we realised what a bonkers life Isabel led. Absolutely bonkers. We don’t want to give too much away here but her life story is bonkers. We became obsessed with Isabel Peron and spent over a year researching her. Once we had read everything possible on the internet, we became fellows of the British Library’s Eccles Centre for American Studies. Luckily, Becca speaks Spanish so we were able to read the scant information about her and even found copies of handwritten letters penned by her during her imprisonment in the Patagonian desert in the late 1970s.
We flew to Argentina to visit places she’d lived both pre and during her presidency and we got drunk at two of the Peron-themed bars in Buenos Aires. The bars, bursting with Peron and Peronist photos and paraphernalia, had not one item or picture of Isabel Peron. The waiters hadn’t even heard of her.
We wondered how a woman with such a fascinating life, and a woman of such historical import, had been lost to history. That is the starting point of this show, EVITA TOO (as in, Evita is also there… as a corpse… installed in the dining room).
Why do you think comedy is such a powerful tool for exploring history and political issues?
Comedy is disarming; it opens people up, makes people receptive to absorbing facts and facing difficult or painful information. We have always used comedy in our work. Partly for that reason. Partly because, like most English people, we are terrified of being earnest. And partly because the comedy is already present - there is nothing more ludicrous and absurd than the truth.
What do you hope audiences take away from EVITA TOO?
We hope the audience take away some very reasonably-priced merch. But we have to make it first. We’re not very organised, so might not get merch ready in time… But we hope to. God, do we have plans for the merch! You can do all your Christmas shopping at our merch stand, if we get it ready in time.
We also hope they leave humming some of the songs, and reflecting on very recent history and how it has perhaps impacted their own lives. Thinking about history…thinking about power…thinking about puppets…pockets full of merch.
What's next for Sh!t Theatre after this production?
Our next project planned is a collaboration with the band Martha and the Muffins, called Echo Echo Echo Beach. It’s about nostalgia, we think. Also Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum With Expats is back in 2026 and Or What’s Left Of Us will be touring!
EVITA TOO plays at London’s Southbank Centre from 9-31 December, with further info here.
