Madame Lynch was produced by the Drunkard’s Wife at the New Ohio Theater. Madame Lynch was a spectacle with music  that takes on the picaresque story of Eliza Lynch, an Irish refugee cum French courtesan, who, through fate and machination, became de facto Empress of Paraguay in the mid-19th century.  At various times in her life, Lynch was an  Irish refugee, a French courtesan, the self-proclaimed “Empress of Paraguay,” an adventuress, a microfinance pioneer and arbiter of culture.   In collaboration with the Paraguayan folkloric dance group Ballet Panambí Vera, The Drunkard’s Wife  explores this complex and polarizing figure who is remembered as both as a villainous femme fatale who allegedly helped foment the war in which 90% of Paraguay’s male population was killed and as a cultural “founding mother” who introduced styles of music, dance and social etiquette that are practiced and cherished in Paraguay today. Incorporating live music and dance, our show reenacts real and imagined scenes from La Lynch’s life  through various theatrical frames, including a ball that goes wrong, a fashion show that tells the story of a terrible war, and a list of the 695 known birds of Paraguay.