FRIDA. LIFE IN COLOR
April 29, 2020
The play by Nika Simonova “Frida. Life in Color” is about the world-famous Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. About their art, love, contradictions, quarrels, and reconciliations. About their difficult fate: betrayals and separations that nevertheless were unable to destroy their creative unity.
Director Leila Abu-Al-Kishek:
“Frida Kahlo’s art is inseparable from her life; most of her paintings are autobiographical. Her life was so full of events that it could serve as inspiration for countless dramatic works. Each painting is a small play.
Three days before her death, Frida painted ‘Viva la Vida!’. This title sounds like a manifesto of her entire life, which she lived with gratitude despite many tragic circumstances. ‘Long live Life!’ — Frida Kahlo says in farewell.
The performance ‘Frida. Life in Color’ is about what is hidden behind the bright and, in part, naive paintings of Frida Kahlo. This is a story about loneliness, passion, pain, love, and destiny.”
Nika Simonova, author of the text “Frida. Life in Color”:
“The story itself is so dramatic, vivid, and self-sufficient that throughout all the time we worked on the performance it led us — the author, the director, the performer of the leading role, and all the creators of the production — guiding us and suggesting solutions. In the scenes we used documentary materials, excerpts from Frida Kahlo’s diary, fragments of Diego Rivera’s interviews, Mexican idioms, songs, as well as our own subjective view of the inner development of the characters.
For me, ‘Frida. Life in Color’ is first and foremost a story of overcoming and feats of one small woman who was destined to become a great artist.
It is a story of love and public loneliness. A story of the victory of color over grayness, imagination over everyday life, life over death.”
Author — N. Simonova
Director — Leila Abu-Al-Kishek
Set design and costumes — Dina Borovik
Composer — Nikolai Shipulin
Musical director and vocal coach — Andrey Sergievsky
Choreographer — Evgeny Lyubashin
Assistant director — Rogneda Smirnova
Cast:
Host — Andrey Udalov / Alexey Petrov
Singer — Polina Chernyshova / Maria Volkova
Frida Kahlo — Adelina Gizatullina
Alejandro Arias — Konstantin Beloshapka / Denis Bondarenko
Cristina Kahlo — Anastasia Zhdanova / Asya Domskaya
Diego Rivera — Denis Samoylov
Lupe Marín — Maria Volkova / Natalya Vinokurova
Leon Trotsky — Pavel Yudin / Vasily Tsygantsov / Yan Gakharmanov
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes (with intermission)
The theatrical performance “FRIDA. LIFE IN COLOR” was staged at the Vakhtangov Theatre on April 29, 2020.