Winner of a Scotsman Fringe First and the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award in 2024, one-woman tour de force BATSHIT returns to Scotland.
BATSHIT is a wildly theatrical, darkly comic, and deeply intimate reckoning with the myths and misconceptions of female madness. Created by psycho-siren Leah Shelton and directed by Olivier award-winning Ursula Martinez, BATSHIT is a requiem for Leah’s grandmother Gwen, who was incarcerated for seeking independence in 1960s Australia.
BATSHIT draws on personal stories, in-depth research and pop culture to unpack how psychiatry has been shaped by gender bias.
Winner of a Scotsman Fringe First & the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award at Edinburgh Fringe 2024, this renegade feminist dark comedy tears apart the labels used to control and undermine women through razor-sharp wit, raw storytelling, and unflinching performance.
BATSHIT is dedicated to anyone who has ever been told to calm down, smile more, or stop being hysterical.
Moving and thought-provoking visual theatre that’s also terrific fun.
★★★★★ The Age
About the Artists
Leah Shelton
Psycho-siren Leah Shelton (AU) creates stylized, guttural, renegade feminist performance art soaked in cult references and dark humour. Her work has taken her from the glamour of Las Vegas to the back streets of Kings Cross, from rigorous training in Japan to live art festivals in New York. With Lisa Fa’alafi, Leah is Co-Director of artist collective Polytoxic, with whom she creates hyper-visual works underpinned by intersectionality, diversity and collaboration. Leah’s triptych of solo works interrogating gender and identity have received critical acclaim. Highlights include touring France (TERROR AUSTRALIS), SOHO Theatre UK (ON HEAT), and winning the prestigious Scotsman Fringe First Award with BATSHIT, Directed by UK icon Ursula Martinez.
Ursula Martinez
Ursula Martinez is a London based theatre maker, performer and director.
After 20 years creating her own work, and performing in prestigious venues and Festivals around the world including Barbican (London) Sydney Opera House, and La Fondacion Cartier (Paris), Martinez naturally fell into directing. She has directed several internationally acclaimed productions including Lucy McCormick’s smash-hit shows Triple Threat and Post Popular, and Laura Murphy’s multi Award-winning A Spectacle of Herself.
She recently co-directed Casting Lear with Spanish artist Andrea Jimenez. The production won Spain’s highest theatre Award; a Premio Max, for Best Show. Martinez also has an Olivier Award (2004) for C’est Barbican, a co-creation with London’s pioneering performance collective Duckie, and is an original cast member of the Olivier Award-winning La Clique. This is her second collaboration with Leah Shelton.
Quiet RIOT
Quiet RIOT develops, commissions, presents and represents daring, joyful work grounded in innovation, diversity and collaboration. Founded by award-winning producer Linda Catalano, we believe art can shift perspectives and spark change. We are producers, agents, curators and problem solvers, creating bold contemporary work across genre, culture, style and scale—from tiny indie venues to established arts centres, major festivals and everything in between. With radical kindness, social justice, and curiosity at our core, we champion artists and ideas that challenge the status quo. Based on unceded lands of the Kulin Nations, we honour all First Nations peoples and collaborate globally with those who share our values.
