Perhaps Frida Kahlo, a singular artist, could only be portrayed in a one-woman show. Voices of her parents, Diego Rivera, Nelson Rockefeller, Georgia O’Keeffe, and others supply the illusion of an outside world. Playing with her dolls and stuffed monkey, or her paints, Brazilian actress and Flamenco dancer Andrea Dantas, who also wrote Fragmented Frida, inhabits this legendary figure at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Fisher Hall under the fine direction of Christine Renee Miller; the outside world, outside the clay house in Coyoacan, Mexico with its vivid red bougainvillea comes alive through the chatter of fascinating art world and political characters, Kia Rogers’ superb lighting, Justin West’s projections of New York City, and evocative Mexican music: “Llorona” fills the room.
Resilient as she was, and talented too, of course, the outside world crippled Frida. Taunted as a child for being Jewish, and later, for being Mexican, bisexual, and a feminist, Frida’s key moments form this portrait in fragments. When she shows her wedding dress, a green satin gown, she explains, I could not wear white. After all, the bus took my virginity. She speaks to the freak accident that crippled her physically. Especially wonderful is her description of falling in love with Diego Rivera, the womanizing genius painter who betrayed her. Frida dances with Nelson Rockefeller, dazzling in a gorgeous colorful dress printed with large eyes. If one may quibble with a uniquely beautiful production, it is that you’d wish to see more of Frida’s art, but then again, for an artist, a fully crafted life is art in itself.
Regina Weinreich
Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura
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