Charlotte McBurney stars in The City for Incurable Women, a bold and provocative new show at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe. Created by international theatre collective fish in a dress, the piece dives into the disturbing history of hysteria and its modern-day echoes.
Set in 1880s Paris, the show explores the treatment of women at the Salpêtrière Hospital, where so-called “madwomen” were put on display. With a queer and feminist lens, the production challenges outdated narratives and invites audiences to reflect on how far we’ve really come.
The City for Incurable Women runs from 30 July to 25 August (not 12th) at Pleasance Courtyard (Upstairs), 13:35 daily. Tickets available here.
You’re starring in The City for Incurable Women at Pleasance Courtyard – what can you tell us about the show?
This show explores the true story of a hospital in 19th-century Paris. Women were diagnosed with hysteria and made to perform their ‘madness’ in front of an audience every week.
Of course, the patients were suffering from real illnesses. But these were exacerbated and exploited by the hospital. They used to say that even the doctors would go insane and come out mad. It’s hard to tell what was real and what was performance.
In The City for Incurable Women, a modern-day storyteller – Kae – wants to know what happened in that hospital, and trace through the history of hysteria to understand where we are today. This is a one-person show – although there is such a brilliant and complex sound design that I often describe it as a two-hander between the actor and sound. It’s playful, it’s disturbing, and it’s wonderfully weird.
The show explores the history of hysteria and its lingering effects – what drew you to this subject matter?
The first thing that drew me to this subject matter were the original photographs from the Salpêtrière hospital. I’m certainly not the first person to be fascinated by them. There is something so extraordinary about the sheer number of photographs and their unnerving staged quality.
While these women were definitely suffering from their traumatic experiences, they were also captivating performers. These photographs capture their heightened expressions, their powerful athleticism, and their sensuality – of course, one of the main reasons these images were so popular.
Then, as we explored the bizarre and turbulent history of hysteria, I was even more drawn to this subject matter because of how frighteningly current this story is. I thought we were making a play about history, but the more we researched, the more I felt the echoes of the past in our world today.
How did the devising process with fish in a dress shape your performance and the final piece?
Some of the weirdest ideas we had in the room wormed their way into the final piece. Through being playful and provocative, we developed a language to tackle this complicated topic. We experimented with many different versions of the characters that I embody on stage.
Our director, Christina Deinsberger, pushed me (and the whole team) to think beyond our initial instincts when we think of madwomen and the perpetrators behind these institutions. Together with our writer, Helena McBurney, we researched and explored so widely that we were able to devise a thread of a story that sits within a much larger narrative.
Helena’s writing flowed between the poetic and the absurd, the academic and the hallucinogenic. When our sound designer, Bella Kear, joined the rehearsals, a whole world opened up from her creativity. Suddenly there was a level of pace and humour injected into our work – and everything became more visceral. Our story pivoted as a result.
Once our set and costume designer, Vanessa Sampaio-Borgmann, entered the room, everything changed again. Part of the genius in Vanessa’s costume design was resisting the period-dress and planting us powerfully in the present day, while still incorporating nods to the hospital setting. When she brought trainers in for the costume, I put them on and was suddenly able to ground myself and move in the way that Kae moves.
I could wax lyrical about the brilliance of the people I’ve got to work with on this project! Through being constantly curious, and challenging ourselves to question our work, our devising process has led us to create something I never could have pictured.
The show blends absurdity with deeply disturbing themes – how do you navigate that balance on stage?
It’s part of human nature to deal with disturbing themes through comedy. Humour is a very good coping mechanism! We needed it in the rehearsal room when we were devising this show, and it definitely helps to get the audience relaxed and engaged.
Christina, Helena and I tried to thread the absurdity throughout the play so the pace can fluctuate between high speeds and charged stillness. The run time is one hour – and we cover roughly 5,000 years of hysterical history. You can’t help but laugh.
The sound design holds a lot of the balance – the audio world that Bella has created helps me transport the audience from ridiculousness to horror and back again. So the audience knows when we’re in the darker parts of the story, and when they can laugh.
Having said that, every audience is different and I absolutely love how connected I get to be to them during this show. You can never predict how they’ll react!
What do you hope audiences take away from this feminist and queer reimagining of medical history?
I hope they take away a feeling of solidarity. I’ve been really touched by the number of people who’ve spoken to me after the show about feeling seen, and feeling their story represented in some way through the play.
I hope they take away a feeling of rage. We’re living in a terrifying time and we need to be angry.
I hope they take away a feeling of hope. When you look at history – there have been a lot of terrifying times! But we’ve fought for our rights and we can do it again.
Ooh! And I hope they take away merchandise. Buy a little badge from our show!
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see The City for Incurable Women?
Listen – I started going to the gym for the first time in my life for this play. The patients were incredibly athletic! We recorded 18 different coughs to get the one the director felt sounded the most like Freud.
My dentist prescribed me a yoghurt after every performance because of… something that happens in the show (no spoilers). If that doesn’t intrigue you – I don’t know what will. Come along!
And of course, check the content warnings – some of the themes in this show can be heavy but I promise we will also have a lot of laughs together.
