Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
The Mexican painter Frida Kahlo epitomised the slogan of the Mexican revolution: "I would rather die standing than live on my knees!" her tempestuous marriage to the visionary mural painter and committed communist Diego Rivera, forms the focus for this Rhiannon Ashcroft's spellbinding production of Greg Cullen's "Frida and Diego: A love story". Unable to accept his true love's passing, Rivera (Tom Holmes) begs Catarina Calavera (Charlotte Alexander-Marsh), the skeletal personification of death, to hold his love once more. And so the lovers accompanied by an evocative Mexican funeral band and a chattering chorus of calacas, the jolly skeletons of Mexico's day of the dead festival, reenact their story from their first meeting to Frida's death in 1954.
Catherine Bennet's portrayal of Frida is a mightily impressive one. She presents Kahlo as a woman of contradictions: promiscuous and jealous, brave and vulnerable, passionately impulsive yet yearning for the stability of motherhood. Tom Holmes' Diego conveyed the introspection and emotion of a sensitive painter, yet missed the fiery passion of Rivera's twin life as a painter and activist. However their chemistry together was completely convincing and towards the end we really get a sense of why their union survived the philandering, compromise and upheaval that their bohemian lifestyle produced. Their artwork is depicted through an interesting use of projection and the themes explored by their work guide the audience through their partnership. Sex, politics and the dilemmas that they present urge the production forward with Mexico's history rumbling in the background.
Though the Artists' names may adorn the title, the show belongs to the Calaveras, the skeleton chorus. Their first appearance is a fascinating combination of the ridiculous and the unnerving, swarming Kahlo's deathbed they are utterly engrossing to watch. As the play progresses they possess the characters of those from Frida and Diego's past. The ensemble easily inhabits judgmental parents, embittered lovers, communist agitators and Mexican peasants. The large scale set pieces set in a Detroit auto factory and a mexican wedding are electrifying. Particularly effective were Ryan Lane and Emily Russell as Trotsky and his wife Natalia exiled in Mexico. At first the doddering revolutionary and his timid spouse provide one of the play's greatest moments of comedy, however the scene in which Natalia discovers her husband's infidelity is one of the play's most moving sequences. Additional mention must go to Alexander-Marsh's Catarina Calavera, grinning in the sidelines, flitting into the spotlight to claim her prey and entice characters to their deaths. A welcome antidote to the grey skies, hung parliaments and revision "Frida and Diego" is the sort of vibrant, affecting ensemble play the barn does best and is well worth seeing.
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