This isn’t the quirkiest act I’ve ever seen at the Southbank Centre – that accolade belongs to a band I once saw playing in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall whose lyrics were completely indistinct. I’d tell you the name of the band if I could, but when they announced who they were, that was indistinct as well. But there probably have been very few, if any, acts at Southbank (which is gearing up to mark its seventy-fifth anniversary, having opened as part of the Festival of Britain in 1951, from which its flagship venue, the Royal Festival Hall, takes its name) that open with – wait for it – nudity on rollerblades, ostensibly as a celebration of the female body. The rollerblading, a nod to Starlight Express, is done to the sounds and video of Andrew Lloyd Webber DJing at the afterparty to mark the post-lockdown reopening of The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway (it closed anyway in 2023). From there, the show makes an inevitable link to the Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical Evita, and therefore to this show, about Isabel Perón, the third wife of Juan Perón, the 29th and 40th president of Argentina.
Isabel, the show is at pains to repeat as many times as it feels appropriate, was the first female president of a sovereign country in the history of the world. Technically, this is true, as far as I have been able to ascertain – Indira Gandhi may have preceded her, becoming prime minister of India in 1966, but ‘prime minister’ isn’t the same as ‘president’, y’see. As for Evita, there are a number of inaccuracies in the narrative of that musical which this show is only all too happy to provide the audience with a quick rundown of the most salient errors, backed with evidence from cited sources, which the audience catches glimpses of, thanks to a trusty (very) large screen projecting images and videos.
As far as Isabel’s story goes, it is sufficiently documented elsewhere online, so I need not regurgitate all of it here, but it was nonetheless a surprise to me to discover she is still alive, at the age of 94 at the time of writing, and that this show’s performers, Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole, had gone to the trouble of finding her home address in Spain… and went there (nobody answered the door). They had also gone to Buenos Aires, and found Isabel had been largely erased from the conscious memory of most Argentinians – there was some hilarious footage of a barista in a Perón-themed café being shown proof Isabel Perón really was the 41st president of Argentina, and being totally discombobulated by the revelation. For political reasons, it would seem, Argentinians too young to remember the era for themselves are unaware of Isabel Perón.
The show makes forays into feminist thinking – not the aggressive sort, mind you, but rather the tongue-in-cheek kind. References to ‘unsolicited feedback’ made me feel a little smug that I was invited to review. The whole thing is, in a word, bonkers: Biscuit and Mothersole (or is it Mothersole and Biscuit?) never take themselves too seriously, even when lamenting the deaths of close loved ones, and there are various odes to Dame Elaine Paige. I still have no idea whether they were in spite of, or because of, her Olivier Award winning performance in Lloyd Webber’s Evita, or indeed both – the show effectively partially blames that blockbuster musical for its contribution to the erasure of Isabel by way of elevating Evita.
It’s not a show for the squeamish. The content warning has it right – “This show contains themes of death, grief, miscarriage, murder, sexual assault and nudity” – and it is eccentric enough to consistently refer to Margaret Thatcher by the name of Gillian Anderson (Anderson played Thatcher in the Netflix series The Crown). Best enjoyed by those who are after something unconventional and quirky, this is a bold and irreverent piece of theatre.
Review by Chris Omaweng
The greatest story never told of the first ever female president of a country in the history of the world…
During Isabel Perón’s time in power (before she was overthrown in a military coup), Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice were writing their blockbuster musical about her dead husband’s even deader ex-wife. And now, nobody remembers Isabel. Coincidence?
Presented by Judith Dimant Productions and Sh!t Theatre
Written and performed by Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole
Directed by Ursula Martinez
Original Music & Songs – Sh!t Theatre
Set Design – Zoë Hurwitz
Lighting Design – Dan Carter-Brennan
Music Producer – Ian Hill
Video Design – Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole
Video Associate – Mark Morreau
Stage Manager – Rose Hockaday
Puppet Maker – Freddie Hayes
Associate Design – Olivia Jamieson
Additional Composition & Music Production – John Biddle
EVITA TOO
Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre
9 to 31 December 2025
