“What does a woman have to do to be remembered?” This is the question at the centre of Sh!t Theatre’s Evita Too, a comedy musical that tells the story of Argentina’s Isabel Perón, the first female president who has been largely forgotten by history. Playfully denouncing Andrew LLoyd Webber and Tim Rice’s story of the most famous Argentine first lady, Evita, Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole perform musical numbers relating to the genuinely absurd story of Isabel’s rise and fall from power.
Biscuit and Mothersole switch roles, drawing in crowd members and utilising a giant, somewhat horrifying Andrew Lloyd Webber dressed as Evita puppet to make up for their lack of a West End budget. The show is chaotic and unexpected as a result, delighting in the absurdity of the Perón’s story, which involves at turns a wizard (yes, a real one), a missing corpse, and a lot of unsolicited male feedback.
Evita Too gives Isabel her own glitzy musical treatment, packed full of genuine bangers. In the process, Biscuit and Mothersole draw our attention to the question of legacy: how patriarchy erases women from history, and to what extent we can control our own story. In pursuit of Perón’s legacy, Motherwell and Biscuit find themselves grappling with their own legacy, as they weave this story with their own anxieties over womanhood through ageing, grief, and whether or not to become a parent.
The show moves between its absurd comedy and these more profound themes expertly, and what emerges is a nuanced portrait of its subject, one which Biscuit and Mothersole have poured months of careful research into. We watch as they travel to Argentina and Spain in pursuit of Perón herself, hoping to at last hear, in her own words, how she feels about her legacy and whether she feels an injustice has been done in our forgetting of her story. Whether or not we hear from Perón, who is now 95 and living a largely reclusive life on the outskirts of Madrid, is something you’ll have to find out for yourself at the show.
Either way, Evita Too’s heartfelt conclusion garnered a standing ovation at a sold-out Zoo Southside — one I think was rightly deserved.
Evita Too is playing at ZOO Southside until 31 August.
Buy tickets here
Photo Credits: Christa Holka 2025, via ZOO Theatre.
