Review: FRIDA...A SELF-PORTRAIT at Union Arts Center

One-person productions are typically autobiographical: the performer teaches the audience about themself, as themself. But this seemingly “direct” approach is often not actually revealing, where an artist performs a ritualized series of autobiographical anecdotes that fit into the form’s genre conventions. In touring production Frida…a self-portrait, now playing at Union Arts Center, the artist subverts the one-person show form by adding a layer, indirectly telling the story of the performer through the experiences of another artist: the surrealist portraitist Frida Kahlo. This new show asks, can we better understand one artist by telling the story of another?

Frida…a self-portrait starts with the writer and lead performer, Vanessa Severo, bursting onto the stage, beaming with energy. She asks the audience, as herself, clutching the Frida Kahlo literature that got her obsessed, if they see Frida in her. Then with a flourish of her arm, she becomes Kahlo, bedridden but vivacious, answering interview questions for an architecture magazine article about her home. She refuses to stay on topic, obviously bored of talking about a house’s history, and becomes more fervent when speaking on bigger issues: love, pain, art, and her relationship to her body. Kahlo’s refusal to comply with the interviewer’s assignment sets the tone for one of the show’s themes: celebrating the soul, rather than the framework. 

Directed by Joanie Schultz, the production unfolds with Severo, as Kahlo, recounting Kahlo’s life story. Gracefully slipping in and out of the outfits strung on a clothesline, Severo also plays characters in Kahlo’s life such as her father, and her husband Diego Rivera. Occasionally, Severo pauses her storytelling as Kahlo to return as herself, making a connection between her own story and Kahlo’s.

The story focuses on the more poignant, and often most painful, moments from Frida Kahlo’s life, such as her pediatric polio, a devastating trolley accident that had her bedridden for two years, her multiple miscarriages, and her torrid relationship with Diego Rivera. Nothing too new, if you have a general understanding of Kahlo's history coming into the show.

In this production, there is less of a focus on her artistic output and more on the moments that inspired her to paint, with only subtle visual references to Kahlo’s work in the stagecraft that definitiely require a prior familiarity with her work to recognize. It’s a bold move to have a production about a famous painter without a single painting. But maybe that’s the point, that Kahlo, and in turn Severo, are more than the work they produce. 

By that same token, the show promises to educate audiences about the performer by being a one-woman show, but her examination of the self through Frida Kahlo makes it difficult to learn that much about Severo. The bulk of the show focuses on Kahlo’s story, with a few interstitial stories of Severo breaking character to make her own connections with fresh, emotionally taut tales of her own. There was poetry to these vignettes: her mother defying domesticity, her experience with facing a medical procedure the likes of which nightmares are made, and the reality of Kahlo’s legacy versus Severo’s own mythologizing. But these stories are scarce, and there’s a lingering feeling of wanting to learn more about the performer, despite, ironically, Severo practically gutting herself like a fish for this role. Perhaps that’s the consequence of performing as someone else to express your experience–there’s a layer of removal. 

As a performer, Severo is full-throated and ferocious. She convincingly portrays a version of Kahlo who experiences every emotion at its highest register. Despite the sorrow and pain in Kahlo’s life, Severo finds the joy and lightness to provide a counter-balance. She also effortlessly pivots between character performances, going from Kahlo to Kahlo’s doctor and back to Kahlo with ease. Her movements are dancerly, somehow both precise and natural. Her interactions with the stage dressing are further complemented by an illusion that the costumes are made animate through clever puppeteering.

It’s an understatement that Kahlo and Severo both boldly express themselves for their respective art forms. They practically bleed. It’s gorgeous, graphic, and real, and there are clear threads that tie these two artists together. But beyond that concept, I was left wanting to learn more about both Frida Kahlo and Vanessa Severo. Even so, Kahlo has an incredibly important and captivating story to share, even if it's already within the general cultural consciousness. Frida...a self-portrait is worth your time to see an incredible performer tell two intertwined stories with their whole heart.

Grade: B+

Frida…a self-portrait performs at Union Arts Center through June 28th, 2026. For tickets and information, visit https://www.unionartscenter.org/.

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Frida...A Self-Portrait

6/6 - 6/28/2026