Frida...A Self Portrait Brings an Iconic Artist to Vivid Life at Shakespeare Theatre Company
Frida Kahlo is one of the most recognizable artists of the 20th century, but Frida...A Self Portrait, now playing at Shakespeare Theatre Company's Michael R. Klein Theatre through Nov 8, invites audiences to look past the famous images and meet the woman behind them. Written and performed by Brazilian artist Vanessa Severo and directed by Joanie Schultz, this intimate solo piece has drawn enthusiastic praise from critics, especially for a central performance described again and again as a true tour de force.
The play finds Kahlo near the end of her life, largely confined to her bed at La Casa Azul, her family home in Coyoacan, and living with constant pain. A journalist has arrived to write about the house, but before he can get his story, he becomes a confessor to Kahlo's anguish, fury, humor, and longing. From there, the evening moves fluidly between confession and hallucination as Kahlo revisits the forces that shaped her life and her art: childhood polio, the bus accident that nearly killed her at 18, her stormy marriage and remarriage to muralist Diego Rivera, and the losses she carried with her always.
Critics have been united in their admiration for Severo, a gifted physical performer with a background in dance, choreography, and the Suzuki method. She brings remarkable emotional force and intimacy to the role, using bold gestures and full-body expressiveness to capture Kahlo's ferocity and vulnerability alike. She does not shy away from Kahlo's pain or disability, and at moments she steps outside the story to share something of her own medical journey, creating a striking bond between performer and subject. More than once, she challenges the audience not to look away but to truly see the whole person in front of them, which is perhaps the very gift Kahlo offered in her self-portraits.
The production's design has earned equally strong reviews. Jacqueline Penrod's set is framed by an enormous four-poster bed, its frame suspended overhead like a mirror of Kahlo's memories and desires. What first appear to be piles of rags rise into clotheslines of laundry, and these garments become the people of Kahlo's life. Severo slips into her stern father's mustache and jacket, turns an oversized coat into Diego Rivera cradling her face, and, in one of the evening's most moving moments, gathers tiny infant clothes to her body before folding them away. Katherine Davis's costumes echo the vivid colors, traditional Mexican dress, and flower-crowned hair of Kahlo's paintings, while Rachael Cady's lighting shifts from defining the room to drawing Kahlo into tight pools of white light as she turns inward. Thomas Dixon's sound design and original music complete the world.
Longtime admirers of Kahlo will find a richer, more complex portrait of the artist, and newcomers will discover a fascinating introduction to a woman whose influence reaches far beyond the canvas. Audiences have been rising to their feet at the curtain, and for anyone who loves great acting, this is a performance not to be missed.
Frida...A Self Portrait runs approximately 75 minutes with no intermission and plays through Nov 8, 2026, at Shakespeare Theatre Company's Michael R. Klein Theatre, 450 7th Street NW, Washington, DC