Who killed Frida Kahlo: an enchanting carnival will be shown in Barvikha

Mexican passions with skulls, capito with tequila under sangrita with the effect of a kiss, black-browed beauties in love and jealousy, as well as Stalin and Trotsky and the ideas of world revolution – all this was mixed in the performance of the Obraztsov Puppet Theater, provocatively called “Who Killed Frida Kahlo?”

The premiere performance, which is already being called fashionable and extravagant, was built by the theater’s chief director Boris Konstantinov in the style of the Dia de Muertos carnival, which is celebrated annually in Mexico. Here the coincidence between the day of the performance – November 2 and the location – “Barvikha Luxury Village” – is not accidental.

The Festival of the Dead, which in Mexico usually takes place on November 2, will move on the same day to Moscow, to the Barvikha Luxury Village, where an enchanting carnival in the spirit of Latinos is being prepared. Here guests will be greeted by terribly cute calaveras (as skulls are called in Mexico), huge dolls, and will have their first acquaintance with the world of Frida Kahlo.

The miracles announced at the beginning will continue on the stage, where the investigation is underway into the mysterious murder of the artist Frida Kahlo de Rivera, who went down in history with her bright and imaginative paintings, a very dramatic relationship with the greatest artist of Mexico, Diego Rivera, and sultry eyebrows. Her figure and fate constantly excite directors to create films and theatrical productions. The truly limitless artistic possibilities of the puppet theater allowed Konstantinov and his creative team to present Frida’s life – from birth to death – in an unusual light.

— Frida is close to me in spirit – she is a free artist. The paintings are her life,” says the director. — Fate presented this woman with many trials: trauma, tragedy, betrayal… Her paintings bleed, but not with tears. Despite the cruel collisions, Frida never for a moment lost her ability to love life! And this performance is conceived as a hymn to life, a hymn to simple human joys. Because you can talk about death only by composing life.

On stage, life is like a dream, woven from the real and the fantastic, the beautiful and the monstrous. In front of the viewer’s eyes, huge dolls in the hands of the artists are folded in parts, becoming signs and symbols. For example, Mexico, which gave birth to such a hot and ardent Frida. Mexico here is like the Motherland, who fed her milk to her famous daughter in the future, looks like an ancient stone woman, from whose saggy breasts light sand flows like milk.

Everything here is hot and scorching – meetings, partings, betrayals, hope for harmony in Frida’s relationship with Diego and the collapse of illusions. The characters, in the form of small flat dolls, rotate in a dance on the record player. But Diego and Frida are wearing masks that repeat their historical appearance with photographic accuracy: she with eyebrows in the shape of black seagulls over her burning eyes, he with the ironic grin of a free artist and a man who does not refuse a single beauty. Therefore, he is surrounded by several Fridas at once – after all, every Mexican woman in her soul feels like the fatal Frida. With their multitude, they only emphasize the hyperpolygamy of the great Diego.

Around Frida and Diego, the calaveras (in the costumes of Natalia Kornilova) stage their own black carnival. Here the puppet theater also turns into a plastic one. The music of Vladislav Mikhailov, stylized to folk and popular Mexican melodies, “adds fuel to the fire.”

The dolls of two artists – Viktor Antonov, Alexandra Gromova – and their diversity are admirable. Huge flat ones, in the form of masks or black calaveras, painted so that they do not look intimidating. Although, it should be admitted that from time to time the fire-breathing love story genre resembles a thriller, and on a global scale.

Here is the time for the rulers of the minds of the beginning of the last century to come to the forefront – first Leon Trotsky, who had a far from platonic relationship with Frida, and then Joseph Stalin himself. His huge flat figure in an overcoat floats up like a large ship, and around him are figures of red horsemen, rushing to God knows where. Is there a Russian trace here?

However, the presence of political figures only strengthens the question – so who killed Frida Kahlo? The artist Diego Rivera with his inconstancy, neglect of the woman who loved him, or the leaders of the world communist movement, who confused people with their ideas who longed for a just world order?

The directors prefer to keep the suspense. So it’s best to take advantage of the opportunity – and during the action, take the capito (a short and narrow container) with sagrita offered by the organizers, which is still covered with a small cup of tequila, and wave without looking. In the homeland of Frida and Rivera, this is done in the following way: they close their eyes, apply their lips to the capita, as if they were kissing the dearest person, first drinking tequila and then “snack” it with sangrita. The effect is as if there is no one in the whole wide world except you and your loved one.

And this is another important reason to go to Barvikha Luxury Village, whose atmosphere is perfect for a Mexican party.