Astrid Hadad in Los Tarzanes
Perhaps Astrid Hadad’s performance is best
described as “one of the most provocative stage acts since the Weimar Republic
was in bloom” (New York Times). When this outraged and outrageous Mexican diva
comes onstage along with her ‘Tarzanes’, nothing and nobody is safe from her
sharply pointed and bawdy mockery. And no one can resist her enigmatic voice,
the polished and powerful musical arrangements and the sensuous and thrilling
performance. Her wildly energetic revue is a fusion of old songs combining
ranchera, bolero, rumba, rock and jazz, performance art, political barbs and a
mix of the most surreal and extra- vagant costumes and settings. A unique,
self-created style, suitably called ‘Heavy Nopal’, after this
‘quintessentially’ Mexican cactus whose juice is distilled to make Tequila. She
may first appear as an Aztec Pyramid complete with carved snakes, a skull rack
and a peacock’s tail of agave leaves, change into the Virgin of Guadeloupe
(Mexico’s patron saint), embody La Malinche (the devil women who sold out the
Aztec Empire to the Spanish conquerors), or become a psychedelic plant glowing
with all-seeing eyes and the bleeding heart of Christ. Subversively turning
upside down the symbols, stereotypes and traditions of Mexican and Latin
popular culture, she attacks macho culture, the Mexican government or the USA’s neo-imperialism (“Visit the United States
before it visits you”). Ms. Hadad says her act has its origins in the cabaret
of Brecht and Weill, “the political cabaret that was a new way of experiencing
life.” In the 1920’s and 30’s, Mexico
City’s clubs were also filled with performers who
skewered the powerful in their acts. But no one since has stuffed all of
Mexican political and cultural history into a dress and laced it up with a
feminist attitude quite like Ms. Hadad. Astrid Hadad, a trained actress and
singer, graduated from Centro Universitario de Teatro in Mexico City and
embarked first on an acting and singing career spanning the extremes of Mexican
TV soaps and an all-female production of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. Later she
developed her own form of musical and artistic expression, performing in Australia, Latin America, USA, and Europe.
She has published numerous CDs, contributed soundtracks to several movies, and
her work has been documented in a number of TV productions. Whether Hadad is
performing on Central Park’s Summer Stage, at international theatre festivals
around the world, or at the Bodega in Mexico City, she attracts mixed,
devoted and passionate audiences, old
and young, straight and queer, post-modern Latin-kitsch lovers, or serious
admirer of popular Mexican music...
vocals, concept and direction:
Astrid Hadad; music director, piano, accordion, backvocals: Jesus Fernandez;
percussion, strings, backvocals: Marco Manrique, Juan Cisneros; sax, flute,
backvocals: Jose Angel Ramos; bass, strings, backvocals: Daniel Vera; producer: Luis Werner; production
assistant: Juan Antonio Calderon; costume design: Astrid Hadad; costume making:
Rosina Conde, Laurencio Ruiz, Maris Bustamente, Victor Susarrey.
organised and financed by: Cankarjev dom in
co-operation with: Mesto žensk / City of Women
with the support of: Secretaria de
Relaciones Exteriores de Mexico & Embajada de Mexico en Austria.
