Arts

Kahlo comes to the Lakeside

Following hot on the heels of the University Gallery’s successful exhibition inspired by Frida Kahlo, the Lakeside Theatre welcomes a professional production celebrating the lives of Kahlo and two other legendary Latin American women.

Tres Vidas, presented by The Core Ensemble, looks at the lives of Kahlo, Rufina Amaya and Alfonsina Storni.

Rufina Amaya was the sole survivor of the massacre at El Mozote, El Salvador in 1981 which saw the Salvadoran’s army elite, the Atlacatl battalion massacre over 700 civilians as part of a campaign of intimidation. Following years of speculation over whether Amaya’s remarkable story of survival was true, a forensic team definitively proved she was not lying in the 1990s.

 Tres Vidas will celebrate the lives of Frida Kahlo, Rufina Amaya and Alfonsina Storni

Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938) is Argentina’s most popular female poet. She was the first woman writer to be accepted as an equal in the literary circles of Buenos Aires and was the most feminist poet of her generation in Latin America.

Tres Vidas will be at the Lakeside Theatre on 16 November. The performance starts at 7.30pm and tickets (£8 or £6 for concessions) are available from the box office, telephone 01206 873261 or e-mail arts@essex.ac.uk. 

Dance club showcases campus talent

The University of Essex Dance Club will showcase its talents in December in a performance at the Lakeside Theatre.

Opium for the Masses will feature street and ballet, salsa and contemporary dance in what promises to be an exhilarating performance.

The Essex Dance Club is made up of students interested in dance. The Club runs dance classes a variety of levels in jazz/modern, street, freestyle, salsa, ballet and contemporary.

Opium for the Masses will be at the Lakeside Theatre on 8 and 9 December. Performances start at 7.30pm and tickets cost £4.50 (£3.50 for concessions). To book tickets, call 01206 873261 or e-mail arts@essex.ac.uk.  For further information about the Dance Club see www.sxdance.co.uk.

Picture (Essex Dance Club.jpg) caption: Opium of the Masses will present live dance and music

Exhibition recreates family memories

A series of photos recreating distant childhood memories goes on show at the University Gallery this month.

Trish Morrissey’s Seven Years is made up of elaborately staged portraits, created by Morrissey and her sister as they re-enact memories including birthday parties and holidays at the seaside.

22 July 1972 as Trish Morrissey remembers it

The resulting series of photographs, the title of which refers to the age gap between Morrissey and her elder sister, reveal hidden tensions between family members and are unsettling as well as nostalgic. The photographs were largely staged at Morrissey’s former family home using old clothes found in her parents’ attic or props searched out in second hand shops to recreate the atmosphere of the seventies and eighties.

Accompanying the photographs are two new video works. In the bittersweet Eighteen and Forty Five, whose faces we do not see and who are wearing wedding dresses, dance in a suburban back yard. Eleven and Three-Quarters shows a young boy chasing an elusive rabbit round a garden. Both videos evoke a sense of yearning and a feeling of not quite being able to grasp one’s dreams.

Seven Years will be at the University Gallery from 14 November to 16 December. Admission is free and opening times are as follows: Monday to Friday 11am-5pm and Saturday 12.30pm-4pm.

Also in the printed November edition of Wyvern:

• Exploring Holmes
• East 15 students perform Dickens favourite