FRIDA KAHLO by Sanja Domazet
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FRIDA KAHLO
Author: Sanja Domazet
Director: Ivana Vuji?
Performance of MADLENIANUM Opera & Theatre
Bel Etage Stage
Premiere 28th March 2006 
WHY FRIDA KAHLO?
APPROACHING AN IMPORTANT CENTENARY
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) has been a world icon for decades already: as a woman, as a painter, as a revolutionary and as a steadfast personality, who immured unhappy pages of her life into a myth of herself. Frida was healthy only by the age of six, and after traffic accident and numerous operations, she was often bedridden. Her life was filled with adoration of her husband Diego Rivera and succumbing to her own art in which she built in her dreams, her inspirations, but also her nightmares and all disappointment. Despite being an invalid, Frida Kahlo had a relentless and unshakable spirit, permanently occupied by a revolutionary zest and devotion for her people. She made friends with the greatest personalities of her times, with artists, but also with revolutionaries, among whom was the most famous expatriate emigrant Leon Trotsky. She died on 13th July 1954, from lung embolism according to official information, though some doubts remained that she committed a suicide. Right after her death, Frida Kahlo became a legend, first in her homeland, but also very soon in the whole America and Europe, even in our country, where she became a symbol of a woman and a painter. After publishing of her diaries (In Serbian, Clio Publishing House, Belgrade) and appearance of the film Frida with Salma Hayek, the glory of this Mexican painter becomes really incomparable. Therefore, the whole world is preparing to celebrate in 2007 a centenary of her birthday.
THE PROJECT OF THE PERFORMANCE FRIDA KAHLO
The performance Frida Kahlo by Sanja Domazet, written for the Opera & Theatre MADLENIANUM, is not an ordinary biographic dramatization, but an outstanding feminine text, which depicts the last days in the life of the great painter. The drama can primarily be characterized as lyrical and intimate, though the author also highlights the violent and explosive character of Frida Kahlo. Noticeably electrified, creatively inspirational, this play has served as an ideal basis for an authorial, extravagant and very aesthetically designed performance, signed by Ivana Vuji?. The authors’ team creating this performance includes our greatest actors, the most intriguing artists, who have designed the stage, as well as the costumes, which were delivered from Mexico, thus intensifying the authenticity of the performance. According to the idea of Kosta Bunuševac, the stage includes a movable bed of Frida Kahlo, which has a front and a rear side, where the old Frida Kahlo (Dobrila Stojni?) lies nailed. Together with her appears the young Frida Kahlo (Vanja Mila?i?), as well as Diego Rivera (Slobodan Bešti?), with many associations to various phases of Frida’s life.
It should be mentioned that the performance Frida Kahlo opened a new stage in MADLENIANUM: Bel Etage and this performance is also an introduction into a series of dramas on painters. Frida Kahlo is the fourth drama performance of MADLENIANUM. After the performances Tesla, by Miloš Crnjanski, in the directing of Nikita Milivojevi? (marking 150th anniversary from the birth of Nikola Tesla), Icy Firefly, by Vladan Radoman and Don Quixote (on the occasion of 400 years from the first Spanish edition), by the performance Frida Kahlo MADLENIANUM turns once again to a modern contemporary dramatic text. In the realization of this performance a significant support was extended by the Embassy of Mexico in Belgrade, that is, H.E. Eduardo Hector Moguel Flores, and the University of Arts and its rector, Mr. ?edomir Vasi?.
BIOGRAPHIES OF THE AUTHOR AND THE DIRECTOR
Sanja Domazet, born in Smederevo, graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade. She is a famous playwright (Stuffed Zucchini, Lead Wings), but she is also active as a literature and theatre reviewer in the daily newspaper Danas (Today). Beside the drama Frida Kahlo, Sanja Domazet also finished the drama Coco about the most famous creator of 20th century, as well as the novel Who is crying, which was shortlisted for the NIN Award for the novel of the year 2005. Sanja Domazet is predominantly a lyrical author in whose works intermingle human destinies, with their reflections and preoccupations. A thin edge between the two worlds: the interior one, which permanently seeks for satisfaction, and the exterior one, which disturbs such satisfaction, is a place of wrangling, struggling, success and destruction of the literary heroes of Sanja Domazet.
Ivana Vuji?, director and Professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, is one of the most controversial and the most successful directors of the contemporary Serbian theatre. Always on the verge of extravagance, in a permanent search of modernness, and always being alert to the world trends, this director has become on Belgrade stages a synonym of theatre modernness, a new and unconventional dramatic expression. Ivana Vuji? is the founder of BETON HALA THEATRE and she has staged over 60 performances of many authors: Shakespeare, Webster, Sartre, Jeunet, Becket, Ionesco, Brecht, Euripides, Wilde, Schimmelpfenig, and Coltes. She directed in Slovenia, Germany and Italy.
FRIDA KAHLO
CAST
Directing and music selection: Ivana Vuji?
Dramaturgy: Slavenka Milovanovi?
Mise-en-scène: Kosta Bunuševac
Costume designer: Dušica Kneževi?
Choreography: Dunja Mahor?i?
Roles:
Frida Kahlo ......................................................Dobrila Stojni?
Young Frida Kahlo ...........................................Vanja Mila?i?
Diego Rivera …............................................... Slobodan Bešti?
Lola, Cristina Rivera, Antonen Arto …..................Vanja Ejdus
Leon Trotsky ....................................................Goran Dani?i?
Guillermo Kahlo ................................................Igor Ili?
God .................................................................Mihajlo Jovanovi?
Painters ...........................................................Kosta Bunuševac
Jelena Milovanovi?
Nikola Velicki
Ballet dancers of the ballet school Lujo Davi?o
Stage speech: Ljiljana Mrki? Popovi?, Ph.D.
Light designer: Sr?an Jovanovi?
Video editing: Svetlana Volic
Stage manager and prompter: Vidan Bunuševac
Organizer: Tatijana Rapp