MGwen Couper suffers from “delusions” about leaving her marital home. Her medical records reveal that she lost a baby just days after giving birth and that she has now become “more difficult to live with”. As a result, she is incarcerated at Heathcote, a psychiatric hospital in Western Australia.
Gwen was Leah Shelton’s grandmother and the inspiration for Batshit, a one-woman show about “the pathologizing of women’s mental health.” Directed by Ursula Martinez, a legend of provocative genre-bending shows, Batshit premiered in Australia in 2022.
We begin with Shelton as Gwen in her Stepford Wives costume: ball gown, gloves, high heels, perfect hair and makeup. And a gag. She sings “Get Happy” by Judy Garland. She dances around a mid-century TV and chaise longue set on white tiles in a building, clutching an axe with one arm comically outstretched.
The play combines Shelton’s riveting performance with serious research, through clownish physical scenes, audio recordings of Shelton’s mother’s memories, patient medical records and educational videos. The television periodically comes to life, showing historical vox pops of Australians debating the lives of housewives, a court official reading out Amber Heard’s diagnosis of histrionic personality disorder, Shelton asking people to name “crazy” celebrities or find a male equivalent of “crazy bitch”. Sometimes it’s a surveillance tool.
Shelton weaves threads that connect the Gwen of the 1960s to us today. She becomes the doctor and we become the patient in a powerful section on the fickleness of diagnostic criteria. She reads moving letters to her grandmother and pays passionate tributes to famous women who have suffered similar fates. Two years after the show’s premiere, the focus on celebrity and the fact that these issues have now been discussed at length in the context of Heard and Britney Spears somewhat dilutes the emotional depth.
Gwen’s story is the heart and most compelling storyline. The bare facts are shocking. At Heathcote, she is medicated and electroshocked until she is “well enough to return to married life.” Shelton’s central question remains: What if being crazy was a reasonable response to the world around you?
In the UK, the charity Mind can be contacted on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, you can call or text Mental Health America on 988 or chat on 988lifeline.org. In Australia, support is available from Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14 and MensLine on 1300 789 978.
