fish in a dress presents ‘The City for Incurable Women’ - a one-person show based on the true story of female patients at a 19th century psychiatric hospital and the doctor who treated them for ‘hysteria’. The women were forced to perform their ‘madness’ for an audience. Jean-Martin Charcot, the doctor, would ‘stimulate an attack of hysteria’ through hypnosis or ovarian compression. As well as the performances, the women were photographed in various positions to demonstrate the postures and expressions of ‘madness’. Home to around 4000 women, the hospital became a kind of city; its population and public appeal dependent on keeping the patients unwell but ready to perform.
Today, Charlotte McBurney re-enters the anatomic theatre: as both doctor and patient they scrutinize the men who sought to profit off pain and produce theatre out of suffering. There are moments of high camp and humour, a sense of liberation from polite society and restricted forms of communication. There are also moments of great darkness and trauma, as the story of women’s bodies abused for scientific experiments and the subject for public consumption unfolds.Through their own voyeurism, the audience becomes complicit in this outrageous tale of misogyny and mistreatment. Supported by Goethe Institute.
Tobi King Bakare and this theatre deserve a shout-out for such a young, diverse audience. There is so much talk about audiences being full of over 60s and why, why can’t theatres get the crowds in to reflect society in general? Well, I’m happy to say that on a rainy Thursday evening, the theatre was completely full.
Caiti Grove on Before I Go in CPT's Spring 2023 season London Theatre Reviews
