TEHRAN – A stage reading of “Musas” (“Muses”), Venezuelan writer Néstor Caballero’s play on a fictional encounter between Frida Kahlo and Sylvia Plath, will be held at the Guye Art House in Tehran Wednesday evening.

Bahram Sarvarinejad will direct the reading, which will be performed by Marzieh Sadrai and Golchehreh Zand. Saeid Eslamzadeh will make a contribution to the performance as the narrator. 

“The play features an imaginary and surrealistic meeting between two icons of contemporary art, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and American poet Sylvia Plath, who are familiar with Iranian literati and visual artists,” Sarvarinejad said in a press release.

“Kahlo is best known in Iran for her boldness in her paintings and the surrealistic ambiance in her artworks, and Plath is famous for her poetry crammed full of intense feeling and honesty, representing her life overflowing with pain and anxiety,” he added.

A Persian translation of “Musas” and Caballero’s other play “Dados” by Shahab Naderi-Moqaddam have been published in a single book by the Nimaj publishing house.

“Musas” features an extraordinary meeting between two iconic figures of contemporary art, Frida Kahlo and American poet Sylvia Plath, in which they share the most intimate and passionate moments of their lives.

Though Kahlo and Plath never met in real life, this drama depicts their unique perspectives on art, love and death, as well as their tumultuous relationships with painter Diego Rivera and English poet Ted Hughes, respectively.

The audience confronts the intense experiences of these women in the same space. “Musas” is full of biographical details and references to the two dynamic women’s lives, revealing portions of their distinctly personal and creative paths that were each marked by a fatal destiny.

Caballero is also a scriptwriter, painter and poet, who won the Venezuelan National Culture Award 2010-2012 with a mention in theater.

His plays have been performed in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Panama, Dominican Republic, United States, Spain, France, Germany and Iran.

Among his credits are “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Sarah Bernhardt’s Last Performance”, “The Hinges or Macedonian Lost Among the Angels”, “The Men of Ganymede”, “Deserts of Paradise” and “His Name Is Simon”.

Photo: A poster of a stage reading of Néstor Caballero’s play “Musas” at the Guye Art House in Tehran.
  
MMS/YAW