Playwright and actor Elena Mazzon brings her solo show The Popess: Instructions for Freedom, a dark comedy exploring 13th century religious uprising led by women, to The Glitch theatre this September.
The Popess: Instructions for Freedom resurrects the true story of a rebellious, spiritual and very feminist movement. The show focuses on The Guglielmites, a religious group that believed women were the only hope for the salvation of mankind.
They were convinced that a woman named Guglielma was the Holy Spirit incarnate, her life constituted a Third Testament and furthermore that she would usher in a “renewed” age of Christianity after her Second Coming.
The movement was visionary, challenging the established Church and its misogynistic norms, which were heavily influenced by men and wealth.
Just before Guglielma died in 1281, she appointed a nun called Maifreda da Piovano as her “Popess”. Maifreda performed mass on Easter Sunday, 1300, attracting the attention of the Inquisition. The choice of date was considered exceptionally unwise, being a holy day in the holy jubilee year (the first ever celebration of this kind, which the Catholic Church still celebrates every 25 years to this day). Both Guglielma and Maifreda were eventually condemned by the Church; Guglielma’s bones were disinterred and burned, and many of her devotees, including Maifreda, were executed for heresy.
In the show, Mazzon plays Everywoman, a naïve but searching soul who finds herself caught between fear, faith and the desire for something more. She encounters Sister Maifreda and her radical followers, and she is swept up in a forbidden vision of salvation led by women; enamoured by the unprecedented attempt to place women at the centre of religious authority. But as the movement grows, so too does the scrutiny of the Church – and its appetite for punishment.
Italian-born Mazzon’s credits include The Count of Montecristo, Killing Eve and Anna & Modern-Day Slavery. The Popess premiered in London in 2024 and has toured the UK, New York and Italy.
Tickets here.
Top Image: The Popess. Photo by Josephine Bono (image supplied)