2023 Edinburgh Fringe

Becoming Chavela is an award-winning cabaret performance of the life and music of legendary queer Mexican singer Chavela Vargas. Stephanie Trudeau's one-woman show documents and recreates Vargas' life, combining songs of lust and longing and enactment, illustrated with multimedia. The show traces Chavela's artistic evolution and her key relationships with Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Liz Taylor and Pedro Almodovar, who called her a 'volcano'. Chavela broke with social, cultural and gender norms, defying conventions and living her tumultuous life on her own terms. Becoming Chavela tells a bold, unique and inspiring herstory.