Modotti, by Wendy Beckett, at Theatre Row

Pascal Productions present the world premiere of Modotti, written and directed by Wendy Beckett, opening at Theatre Row's Acorn Theatre on 11 Jun 2010, following previews from 9 Jun and running through to 3 Jul 2010.

The story of photographer, silent film actress and ultimately activist and communist subversive, Tina Modotti. Sleek and sensuous, yet as dangerous as a tiger, she tore through the male dominated political forums almost as fast as she tore through her lovers.

Modotti fled to Mexico lured by the revolution and artistic excitement. Accompanied by her lover, American photographer, Edward Weston, she took on the challenge of a culture undergoing rapid change. Relishing in her new found freedom, her contemporaries were muralist, Diego Rivera, and Cuban revolutionary, Julio Mella.

Wendy Beckett (Playwright/Director) is the former mentee of English author Lawrence Durrell (The Alexandria Quartet, a friend of Henry Miller's and Anais Nin and his brother was zoologist Gerald Durrell author of My family and Other Animals) with whom she lived and studied in France. As a former radio/print journalist Becket interviewed the likes of Gore Vidal, Leonard Bernstein, Paul Bowles, Walter Trampler and John Cage.

Beckett has written over 25 plays and directed more than 40. Over the past ten years she has often directed her own plays. Her productions have been staged at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. It was here her biographical play about musician Alma Mahler & her composer husband Gustav Mahler was backed by musicians of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.