Madame Señorita: 25 Different Shows, Come Every Day!

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Mesmerising silliness is Madame Señorita’s trump card, and she plays it without shame as soon as punters enter her domain – through her legs. She squeezes a bum here and there, making gestures that cause almost everyone to blush. In different circumstances this might cause offence, but the alter ego of Spanish artist Paula Valluerca manages to quickly wrap us up in her absurdist charm, so inappropriate behaviour is soon forgiven.

“Let’s get weird, and weird and weirder until we don’t know who we are anymore!”, she exclaims. And this show gets pretty weird. But Valluerca plays with perceptions in such a clever way that, after getting accustomed to her silliness, her show moves beyond this to ask serious questions. Is she really the one who’s being silly, or are society’s values ready for readjustment?

The big questions in life are Valluerca’s inspiration. What are we doing here? Are we really here? With these in mind, she improvises a new show on the top deck of a double decker bus. She keeps a close eye on every single member of the audience in this intimate space, involving all of them and striking unexpectedly: she steals their glasses, takes them outside for a dance, kisses them, screams and sings at them.

Although she repeatedly states that she’s vulnerable, she doesn’t convince. Some of her sequences could be much tighter, and the reasoning behind her costume changes are unclear. But she fully deserves the applause she receives at the end. Followed by a surprise confession where she’s suddenly heartbreakingly vulnerable – and all pieces click into place.