By Jennifer Beasley.
A showcase of a fractured mind unearths the pathologisation of women.
Trigger warnings: Depictions of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and flashing lights.
Ah, the good old days. When the easy fix for an unhappy and sexually unavailable woman was to shove them into an asylum and shock the brains out of them.
Leah Shelton presents the distressing events that occurred to her grandmother, Gwen Eyre, over a three-month period in 1963 to 1964, with tie-ins to the ongoing suppression of women under the guises she’s batshit crazy.
Directed by Ursula Martinez, Batshit almost defies any genre. An eclectic mix of cabaret, mime, audience participation and comedy, intercut with voiceovers, rocking music, television interviews from the 60’s and the personal medical records of Gwen Eyre, this is a captivating exploration of the medical pathologisation of defiant and unhappy women, misdiagnosed with hysteria, schizophrenia and other mental health disorders, with the objective to force them into compliance with the patriarchal world.
Through a series of fractured and frantic paced scenes, the performance segues from aspects of distorted body imagery, the wild abandonment of dancing freely, to the psychiatric experiences of Shelton’s grandmother as the recorded voice of deceased famed actor Max Von Sydow (pulled from one of his movies) as he counts down a hypnotic episode that results in Shelton disappearing into the sofa. Clever imagery and very creepy.
Superb lighting flashes dramatically, bouncing harshly off the sterile hospital white tiled backdrop and floor, as Shelton convulses during the ECT shock episodes.
Wearing a mouth gag, Shelton revisits these events later during the show, through a series of screened projections scrolling through her grandmother’s medical records at Heathcote Mental Hospital in Perth, and the overlapping of voices as reflections of mental discord is brilliant.
However, during all this frantic account, I found it difficult to connect to the person who was Gwen Eyre. I had no idea what her dreams and wishes were before the multiple ECT events, except a devout adoration to Jesus as an escape from her isolated existence as a farmer’s wife. I would also have liked to have seen more of the true horror that was ECT at the time, with the patient often forcibly bound, strapped down like a dog while the electricity and drugs numbed the mind and took away all personality and human dignity as the patient can also lose control of bodily functions. I should know. I worked as a student nurse at Mont Park Asylum in the 80’s and that was among the most disturbing experience of my life. I have empathy for the terrors that Gwen must have endured. I would also have liked to have seen more of the fact that this remarkable woman survived this ordeal, which, in truth, is a heroic life. This would have made the whole audience give a standing ovation, and not just half of the theatre.
Changing pace, Shelton cleverly connects the modern destruction of women’s mental rights with mentions of Brittany Spears, Lindsay Lohan and others, culminating in a frenetic whirlwind of flying papers and destruction of furniture.
This performance won the Scotsman Fringe First Award and the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award at Edinburgh in 2024 and is a brave undertaking to examine how women are controlled to fit into society.
If you think that this no longer occurs, think again. I know of one woman who as recently as 5 years ago endured 40 ECT events to make her more ‘compliant’ and is now a blank mess.
The message here is never let your voice be silenced. It can too quickly be zapped away.
A nice touch at the end where Shelton holds up the handmade face washer her grandmother made for her adds a beautiful human touch.
A fabulous, well written, acted and directed 50-minute show held at The Fairfax Studio. Shelton rules the stage.
Batshit plays at 7:30pm at The Fairfax Studio @ The Melbourne Arts Centre until the 1st of June.
