The Subject I Know Best

Frida…A Self Portrait

When Frida Kahlo was only a child she contracted polio. Then, at age 18, as she was heading to medical school, her life suddenly changed again. A severe bus accident left her permanently disabled and left Frida with a life of chronic pain. She spent many years bedridden in hospitals and at home. The young woman would undergo many painful surgeries, often performed by quack doctors who promised a complete recovery that never materialized. Not able to leave her bedroom and often alone, Frida filled dozens of notebooks with sketches. She briefly considered combining her love of art and science and  becoming a medical illustrator. Then her father loaned her some of his oil paints and her mother created a special easel that Frida could use while in bed. And with a few strokes of paint, the young woman’s future began as an artist.

Frida Kahlo has been labeled a surrealist or a magical realist, sometimes employing flights of fantasy into her works. Often her art reflects Frida Kahlo’s experience of living with chronic pain. Ms. Kahlo is known for using bold color, employing a Mexican folk art style of painting and incorporating pop culture into her work. Her artwork explored nature, gender, class and race in Mexico. But the artist is particularly remembered for her many portraits of people, especially her self portraits. When asked why she created so many paintings of herself, Frida replied, “I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best.”

Vanessa Severo also knows the famed artist and herself best. She’s the multitalented artist who’s written and performs this incredible one-woman portrait of Frida Kahlo. Vanessa has presented this work, as well as other performance art, all over the country to great acclaim. In creating this particular piece, the effervescent Ms. Severo discovered parallels between the iconic artist’s life and her own. Vanessa stated in an interview that she couldn’t tell Frida Kahlo’s story without also telling her own. She strongly believes that in order to fully connect honestly with the famous painter, Vanessa had to also present her own self portrait. Both women “lived boldly, loved wildly” and, at least in Frida Kahlo’s case, “painted prolifically in order to see herself and the world around her more clearly.”

 Directed with power and passion by gifted Joanie Schultz, Associate Artistic Director of the Cincinnati Playhouse, this production is actually a collaboration between three artists: Ms. Severo, Ms. Schultz and, of course Ms. Kahlo. Add to this talented mix a brilliant design team, consisting of Costumer Katherine Davis, Original Music and Sound Designer Thomas Dixon, Lighting by Rachael Cady and a unique and stunning Scenic Design by Jacqueline Penrod. 

Ms. Penrod’s expressionistic set is dominated by a massive fourposter bed that hovers above and upon the stage like the maw of a giant whale. There are also three clotheslines that magically stretch across the width of the upstage playing area. These are laden with colorful articles of clothing for men, women and children, which Ms. Severo uses as she shares her stories. One garment actually becomes a vertical bed, which the actress crawls into as young Frida. Vanessa portrays two of the men in the artist’s life, her father and her two-time husband, artist Diego Rivera, by slipping into certain male clothing. And, particularly poignant are the tiny, white baby clothes Ms. Severo uses to symbolize Frida’s difficult pregnancies and ultimate miscarriages. She also straps herself into several leather belts, wrapped tightly around her torso. They represent the painful medical corsets that Frida had to wear most of her life because her spine was too weak to support itself.

A lovely and gifted solo artist, Vanessa Severo’s intelligent, sensual and brilliantly creative self portraits of both herself and Frida Kahlo are two subjects that she knows best. The show is inspired by the artist’s published diary and a field trip to Mexico City to La Casa Azul, the Frida Kahlo Museum. A trained dancer as well as a gifted actor and playwright, Ms. Severo magically weaves her stories through voice and movement, and the end result is pure Art. Under the superb Direction of Joanie Schultz, Writers Theatre’s captivating one-act breezes by in 90 short minutes. It’s a play that’s guaranteed to entertain, educate and inspire every single theatergoer.                   

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented January 23-February 23 by Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe, Illinois.

Tickets are available in person at the box office, by calling 847-242-6000 or by going to www.writerstheatre.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.