At one point or another during their upbringing, most people meet the artist Frida Kahlo – the Mexican painter with the dark, bushy eyebrows, the woman with flowers in her hair, the woman who painted herself as damaged in pictures where death often lurked. Hålogaland theatre’s performance “Frida” is aimed at older children, and fortunately it is not a biographical representation of Kahlo’s life and past. Instead, it allows the audience to join Frida’s life. Telling in the ear Katrine Strøm is an award-winning children’s theater director. For “Frida” she was nominated for the Hedda award both in the children’s theater category and for best direction. None of the awards went to Strøm this time, but what she has created with “Frida” is really something all her own. “Frida” is a performance that is lively and constantly surprising, and which at the same time takes the older children into a landscape with space for longing, loss and memories. Katrine Strøm’s performance “Frida” was shown at the Festivals in Northern Norway. Photographer: Maja Hannisdal Equipped with headphones, the audience is guided into a Mexican landscape, Frida’s home, to “the best backyard in the universe”, according to Frida herself. It is her voice we hear through the headphones. Now she has promised her mother to help prepare the Day of the Dead celebration, and she would like help. Because Frida forgets herself and lets her thoughts fly – and takes the audience along with everything that happens. We, who were supposed to be preparing for the Day of the Dead, are suddenly in the middle of a school lesson. Suddenly we have to hide when someone comes before we play with the other children in the backyard, we draw, we exercise, we read Frida’s diaries, we meet dad, and we meet Frida’s imaginary friend Lucille, who is very, very similar to Frida. DAY OF THE DEAD: Decorating butterflies for the Day of the Dead, which Frida celebrates every year. The butterflies are hung in a tree which becomes a kind of memorial tree. Photo: Renate Jensen Halloween for real What happens is that we get to be Frida for a bit. She reaches out a hand through the sound in her ear and invites the audience into her life: to the play and the drawing, to the love and the strange and difficult things that happen. It makes it easy to join in decorating for the Day of the Dead, and as an audience we look forward to celebrating it with Frida. But the Frida who speaks through the headphones is no longer alive, we learn in the end. The memories of her, her life, which we have played through and become a part of during the performance, therefore feel all the more worth celebrating. Early in the performance, Frida says “We have to mess with death a bit, then it won’t be so scary”. She could just as well have said: We must enjoy life, then death will not be so dangerous. SWIRL: Autumn leaves and swirling joy are natural even on the Day of the Dead. Photo: Renate Jensen It is not a stretch to imagine that Frida Kahlo had a difficult life – among other things, it was strongly marked by a traffic accident she was involved in when she was quite young. In “Frida”, the audience follows this event through the narration on the ear and through Frida’s diary drawings in elaborate diaries that are allowed to be browsed, which allows the audience to get close, close to Frida’s inner life. It gives understanding and motivation to join Frida’s dad at the exercises when she has to be trained, we bend and stretch to become strong, and we box out all bad feelings together when it’s time for that. Give yourself up to the game Even if the audience walks around with their own headphones, a community is created through what we do together. Playing is practicing life, and that is what happens in “Frida”. What the performance requires of the participant is that you give yourself up to the game. Joining in – running when we have to, drawing, trusting that it’s not possible to make a fool of yourself. This is obvious for a child, often less obvious for an adult. But the performance is so trust-building that this will not be a problem. TRAINING AND VICTORY: Guided by Frida’s voice in the headphones, the audience is taken through training, dancing and football matches. This is not sedentary theatre. Not only, anyway. Photo: Renate Jensen “Frida” only has room for around 30 participants at a time, it is an interactive and intimate performance. It is especially nice that Strøm has thought about the big children, those in the intermediate stage, those who are in a phase where everything starts to become more complicated and the big thoughts really come into their own. I find myself wondering if the show isn’t a little short. There is room for more here, and I think the children can tolerate it just fine. The direction is impressively seamless when three different groups with different stories to tell have to be coordinated around a small room. I still think the community the show creates is one of the strongest things. When it’s over, everyone sits down and eats popcorn and reads Frida’s diary once more. This life we lived. Every little component had a meaning. We were in it because we played it. The festivals in Northern Norway celebrate 60 years in 2024 with several theater performances. One of them particularly impresses news’s theater critic. news reviews Photo: Festspillene i Nord-Norge Title: “Frida” By: Katrine Strøm Suitable for: 10 years and above Where: Harstad Kulturhus, Lillesalen When: 23 June 2024 Occasion: Festspillene i Nord-Norge Cast: Katma in collaboration with Hålogaland Theater Director and script: Katrine Strøm Sound design: Alexander Rydland Hansen Composer: Tore Bruvoll Costume and stage design: Ingunn Sønsteby Choreographer: Mathilde Caeyers Creative producer: Mette Spjelkavik Enoksen Lighting design: Erlend Østrem Nielsen Text dramaturg: Lina Killingdalen Dramaturgy consultant: Mari Andreassen Supervisor: Johanna Coraline Jensen Props designer: Danielle McCauley Stage manager: Magnus Storvoll Strømseth Costume manager: Ann-Jorunn Pedersen Costume designer: Ida Susanne Øien Published 24.06.2024, at 14.21
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“Frida” at the Northern Norway Festival – news Culture and entertainment
