Brighton Fringe 2025

The Burning of a Sicilian Whore

Giulia Menichelli

Genre: Biography, Feminist Theatre, Fringe Theatre, Historical, One Person Show, Solo Performance

Venue: The Quaker Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton BN1 1AF

Festival: Brighton Fringe

Low Down

Review

Because Giulia Tofana is a courtesan.   NOT a common prostitute, she insists – she provides much more than just sexual satisfaction to her clients; she offers cultured conversation, erudite learning from her books (she’s an avid reader of Dante Alighieri), and emotional support.  

Giulia Menichelli both wrote the piece and gave us a vivid rendering of Tofana, in a one-person performance.   She’s tall, as I mentioned, and in a long black dress beneath a colourful top she dominated the room.    It’s obviously Tofana’s boudoir, with a small table to one side, filled with vials and stoppered bottles containing mysterious unguents.   Interestingly, there was also a large hourglass.  (I imagine that’s how she times her sessions …)

And as a seventeenth century courtesan, she mixes with the upper levels of Sicilian society – influential men, from counts and marquises to Cardinal Grimaldi.  Great use of language – at one point she tells a client – “You are a Count, while I am a cunt …”   Tofana’s creative in her work, too, catering for all tastes – at one point she stroked her thigh languorously with a sheer silk stocking, then bound her hands with it as she raised them above her head …    It’s a necessary service, she tells us, as it frees the men’s wives from ‘duties’ they find tiresome or repulsive.

Giulia Tofana didn’t start out as a courtesan, of course.  In the backstreets of Palermo her brother had first sold her services to someone “for an orange”, but later she discovered the brothel of Madame de Blanche.   Turns out she was a natural at the profession, and the Madame offers to teach her the arts – “But keep your fire under control !”     After some years, she’d left de Blanche and set up her own establishment, along with her maid Zaza.   

This was much more than just a monologue – as Tofana told us of her work, at one point she lay stretched out on a seat in the attitude of a ‘grande horizontale’.  She gave us oranges, too – mine is sitting on my desk as I’m writing this.  Menichelli is very skilled at interacting with an audience – little physical shrugs and asides to amplify and underline her script.  I don’t know how it would look in a larger space, but in the Meeting Place room we were only three rows deep, and she was able to make intense eye contact with every one of us.

Physical theatre, as well.   Tofana’s boudoir had a window, facing to the south, which we had to imagine, and as Menichelli mimed the opening of the casement, she talked of the Scirocco, blowing gently with the scent of oranges, and sometimes fine red sand dust, blown all the way across the Mediterranean from Africa.

The piece’s movement and staging were beautifully done.  If I have one caveat, it’s that when Tofana was relating her story, Menichelli jumped back and forth amongst the various characters – “Then I said” … “Then she said” … “Then I said” –  speaking so quickly that it was sometimes difficult to keep track of the narrative.   

So far,  we’ve met Giuilia Tofana as a courtesan; but she provided other ‘services’ too.   Seventeenth century Italy was a quite brutal environment, with women often terribly treated by their menfolk.  In a society where marriages were usually arranged to unite different clans, or to increase the size of a family’s estates; love and respect between the married couple was a low priority.   Tofana told us of wives being beaten by their husbands, or being got rid of, shut up in an asylum.    Of girls, some as young as thirteen, being forced into dynastic marriages by their fathers.

So – many married women wanted an exit.  Either from an intolerable domestic situation, or (let’s be realistic) to marry a new husband, more attractive as a lover and probably with a larger fortune.  Amongst her many accomplishments (and all that reading) Tofana had dabbled in alchemy, and the uses and properties of various chemicals.   

Especially lead …

So a courtesan became an apothecarist, and developed what she called her Tonic.   She labelled it ‘Aqua Tofana’ (branding, eh? …)    A colourless and odourless liquid, which she sold in small bottles.  Small enough that wives could hide them on their dressing tables.  Until needed.  Just three drops would kill a man slowly, over the course of a few days, which was exactly what her women customers needed – nothing too sudden, just a gradual fading-away …    It seems to have left no trace, unlike arsenic, which means it was probably lead-based.   Tofana built up a very successful business in Palermo – and later on in Rome.

In case you’re thinking that this show is like something out of Agatha Christie – you’ll be fascinated (as I was) to learn that Giulia Tofana was actually a real person.  Facts about her life are often contradictory, and Giulia Menichelli has rummaged amongst them to create this piece.

I don’t know where she fits into the Feminist canon – but Tofana certainly seems to have been a powerful personality, forging her own path, and helping many other women to have agency over their own lives.

But – she was a real poisoner.

And – it seems she caused the deaths of over six hundred men.

So – she was the most prolific serial killer in history.

There are contradictory versions of Tofana’s end – but in Menichelli’s version she flees to Rome, where she eventually falls foul of the Papal authorities and The Inquisition, who accuse her of being a witch.  Tofana’s defence that “ It was just poison, not witchcraft ” didn’t (unsurprisingly) save her from being burned at the stake.  In the show’s final moments we see her writhing in the flames and choking on smoke, while a soundtrack filled the room with the crackle of burning wood.

Wow !!   Who said that history had to be dull?

If you’re into feminism – or maybe mass murder – try to catch this show.

Kill to get a ticket, if you must.

Published May 11, 2025May 12, 2025 by Strat Mastoris