“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

~Kahlil Gibran

Julia Pastrana,was born with congenital hypertrichosis, a condition that caused her small frame to grow excessive amounts of hair and a protruding mouth. She was a 19th-century celebrity on the side show circuit often billed as the "bear woman" or "baboon lady," & she spent her afterlife as an embalmed corpse—being dragged around America and Europe to shock and titillate curious circus-goers and opportunistic scientists. The one book on her life is devoid of any real facts or sensitivity but there is a play about her you should see ...but won't because the whole show is performed entirely in the dark so you will have to employ your other senses to get an idea of what this incredible woman was about.

Performed entirely in the dark, Julia Pastrana is the powerful tale of a woman made famous as “The Ugliest Woman in the World.” Audiences are transported through sound, smell, and touch into Julia’s world of travelling circuses and sideshow phenomena. Dragged across oceans by her husband, the circus ringleader, Julia searches wherever she goes for the love and beauty she believes life has in store for her. Julia Pastrana, based on a true story, shows us the real face of beauty, without ever letting us see a thing.  

This astonishing play is  showing now thru November 18th at Amphibian Stage Productions in Fort Worth