Back in 2018, writer/director Constanza Hola Chamy contributed to Glass Splinters, a semi-regular theatrical event that showcases short plays about historical women who have made significant cultural contributions, but are undervalued – if remembered at all. https://breaking-the-fourth-wall.com/2018/04/04/glass-splinters-2-pleasance-theatre-review/ Since then, Hola has refashioned her research into a ‘celebration’ of sorts, about three Latin American female artists, who despite facing mental health challenges, achieved many great things, at a personal and cultural level.

Mad Women: The Life and Death of Three Women Artists Living with Bipolar, focuses on Colombian painter Judith Marquez (Mariana Aristizábal), Chilean singer-songwriter and visual artist Violeta Parra (Samantha Manzur), and arguably the most famous of all, Frida Khalo (Jimena Larraguivel).

Situated on stage at the same time, the monologues of three actors overlap and intertwine, much like harmonies that complement and contrast with each other. Sometimes there is a commonality between them such as growing in poverty (Marquez and Parra), or having a significant male figure in their life (all three women) who for a time at least, eclipses the women’s own artistic achievements. In any case, all have faced physical hardships, the crucible for their respective art.

The play make significant efforts to dispense with the stereotypes that women of all nationalities have thrust upon them. In the case of Manzur’s Parra, she is very candid about the fact she has a healthy sexual appetite, but perhaps if she were really honest, she doesn’t love her children as much as she ‘should’ or be expected to.

Behind these women, there is an enigmatic male figure (played by David Bower) whose movements and actions in the background obliquely comment on the perceptions of the wider world on the women’s actions.

In the case of servicing a play about three artists, the show is quite compact, compressing quite a lot of information with its 90 minutes run time. Even so, I’m sure that audiences would be able to glean so much more on repeat viewings. The experimental development of the show has allowed two versions running in tandem. At the Etcetera Theate’s run, there are professional actors, and at the Rich Mix creative space, a version of the show by community members from underserved and underrepresented groups of women. They were involved in an R&D process involving explorative rehearsals with trained performers linked to mental health conditions. All of these experiences suffuse the topics raised in Mad Women, so that in a sense Marquez, Parra and Kahlo are these women, and they in turn are these icons.

© Michael Davis 2024

Mad Women ran at the Etcetera Theatre on Etcetera Theatre on 19th to 22nd March. It returns on 27th and 28th March at 9pm.