“She’s an artist and a person, and a revolutionary – who stayed true to her beliefs until the very end,” Aguirre says.

Born in northern Italy, Modotti (1896–1942) was raised in a family of labour organizers. Best known for her photographs, Modotti spent her life across multiple countries, including the United States, where she acted in silent films, and Spain, where she ran Madrid’s Red Aid Hospital during the Spanish Civil War.

The present tense

Aguirre first came across Modotti’s story almost 35 years ago. In 1992, while in theatre school, the director read Elena Poniatowska’s Tinisima – a fictionalized account of Modotti’s life based on years of research.

“It was a really great thing to read about this woman, who was considered one of the [greatest] photographers of the 20th century, and was also a revolutionary,” Aguirre recalls. “She’s always stuck with me because of her story and her photographs.”

Around 15 years ago, Aguirre started to write a one-woman show about Modotti. She eventually wrote three drafts and developed the show with theatre companies.

“But it didn’t work as a solo show…I couldn’t find what we call in theatre, ‘the present tense,’” the playwright shares. “What is the problem she is trying to solve in front of us, right here, right now in the theatre?”

In 2020, Aguirre revisited these scripts and decided to rewrite Modotti’s story into a multi-character play. This work eventually resulted in Fire Never Dies. This new version takes place during the last ten seconds of Modotti’s life – a choice Aguirre made to capture the activist’s theatrical present tense.

“There’s a real urgency to what she’s going through…she has ten seconds left to live, and she revisits her life,” the playwright shares. “What is at stake for her? Why is she telling this story now? What is she trying to come to terms with?”

Fire Never Dies then takes audiences through twenty episodes – across Mexico City, Berlin and Madrid – highlighting moments of Modotti’s life.

“She had such a full life, and she had all these different lives,” the director reflects. “She was part of the inner circle in the 1920s in Mexico City: the inner circle of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.”

The character of photographs

According to Aguirre, Modotti left behind 400 photos. Rather than pitying, appropriating or objectifying her subjects, the director sees Modotti’s lens as showing solidarity.

“The lens you can see as the viewer is the lens of a person who is photographing something that they too have lived and are living,” she shares, adding that Modotti was a child labourer herself. “They are photographs that are disturbing but also full of dignity.”

Aguirre adds that Fire Never Dies is “not a message play.” The playwright sees her work as asking questions without providing answers – allowing audiences to decide what resonates with them.

“She was a master of composition, of light and dark, of being able to capture something that photographers spend a lot of time trying to capture,” the director adds. “She photographed the poor – everything from abject poverty, horrific levels of poverty to the working class.”

Drawing on Modotti’s activism, Aguirre’s play explores the purpose of art during times of fascism. It also investigates how art can serve those living in poverty while examining what Aguirre phrases as the “personal costs of militancy.”

“I find all those questions interesting not only because I find them very relevant to today, but also because [there isn’t] one answer to them,” she shares. “The meaning of the play lies in the contradictory answers to those questions.”

A selection of Modotti’s photographs will be projected during Fire Never Dies. The director sees these photographs as “a major character.” Aguirre’s research shows that Modotti is regarded as “a master” of the art form.

“I hope that [the audience] is inspired by this woman and her story – this woman who fought fascism until the very end and never sold out,” she says.

For more information, see https://thecultch.com/event/fire-never-dies