Created by Renata Garcia and Mariana Pereira, “House of Shame is an electric show about the dirty things women are told to keep to themselves. Framed by the experience of growing up as a girl in Brazil, the show is, ultimately, a collective experiment in raw vulnerability. Join in for a liberating journey through a messy, irreverent, tropical ritual of soap and sweat.”
Where: Etcetera Theatre
When: 5-7 Nov
Ticket link: https://www.voilafestival.co.uk/events/house-of-shame/
*You can expect cringy memories, ass-shaking and slutty nuns.
Your show House of Shame is taking place at Voila this year. What can you tell us about it and about the team behind it?
House of Shame draws on the experience of growing up as a female in Brazil, highlighting the cultural structures that perpetuate a state of self-surveillance in women’s psyche and social behaviour.
It uses humour and shameless exposure of what can be considered ‘taboo topics’ to create a shared experience of vulnerability between performer and audience. The show mixes real memories and fiction, tied together through further research on the mechanisms of shame rooted in the works of Brené Brown and post-Jungian psychology.
The show takes the audience on Renata’s journey of self-analysis that, symbolically, transcends her own personal experience, culminating in a cathartic release that points toward vulnerability, empathy and radical self-acceptance as the means towards healing and finding inner freedom.
The first draft of House of Shame was Renata Garcia’s final MA project in Theatre and Performance, and since then our project has become a work of two minds, with Mariana Pereira joining as a director.
From Mariana: “I was captivated by Renata’s immense power as both creator and performer, recognising the show’s potential to tackle difficult-to-pin-down topics”. We partnered because of our shared interest in the themes of vulnerability and shame, a love for physical theatre, and a desire to reconnect with our Brazilian roots.
Our partnership and friendship continue to grow as the show develops and transforms in an organic, creative process that gains coherence and power through a truly symbiotic collaboration.
Your venue is the Etcetera Theatre. What appeals about that space and how has it informed the development of the show for this festival?
We worked with Etcetera Theatre in our first public performance of House of Shame and built a relationship with management and the technical team. It first appealed to us because of its more intimate setting, which felt crucial for a play tackling shared vulnerability.
Given the technical constraints of a festival, we decided to keep what we had and focus on building new features that complement what this venue can already offer. We also like Etcetera’s tradition on the Fringe scene and its location!
Can you sell the show to a potential audience in one sentence?
A filthy, funny, and unapologetic one-woman show about all the things women are taught to feel ashamed of, and what happens when we stop apologising for them.
Women are often encouraged to keep their bodies smooth and to hide the fact they bleed and sweat. What’s the most empowering thing you have heard that counters this?
We personally find the term ‘Female Gaze’ empowering. Knowing women can choose their own framework to understand and define themselves, take ownership of their thoughts, emotions, physical appearance, and bodily functions, and not answer to patriarchal expectations is empowering.
It may sound obvious now, but feminist theory has given us the vocabulary to honour our existence in its totality.
And what’s next for the show?
Edinburgh Fringe 2027, then world domination, naturally.