A new play written and directed by Carmen Aguirre

World Premiere October 16, 2025

Produced by Electric Company Theatre

Presented by The Cultch in partnership with the Vancouver Latin American Cultural Centre

Tickets on sale now!

“What exactly is the purpose of art in the face of fascism? Can art serve the poor, and if so, how?” — Carmen Aguirre 

In Fire Never Dies: The Tina Modotti Project, best-selling author and Electric Company Core Artist, Carmen Aguirre tackles the dialectic between art and revolution by excavating Tina Modotti’s life and art, and, in so doing, reflecting on our own lives through hers.

This Italian photographer and her revolutionary art thrived in Mexico City in the 1920s.  She was Frida Kahlo’s lover and posed for Diego Rivera’s murals. After seven years of photography, she abandoned her art to join the anti-fascist cause in Europe, running the Red Aid Hospital in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War.

Raised in a working-class family, Tina’s legacy is one of dedication to justice and equality and the four hundred photographs she left behind. She died of a heart attack at the age of forty-five in the back of a taxi cab in Mexico City. Carmen is compelled by Tina’s struggle to reconcile her artistic practice and intimate life with her political commitment.

The play takes place during Tina’s heart attack and consists of twenty-five episodes performed by a seven-actor ensemble. Each episode differs stylistically: film noir when Tina is in 1930s Berlin spying on the Nazis for the Soviets, naturalism when she is at a 1920s party in Mexico City, cat-walking when characters are introduced on a runway, etc. The thematic thread is: what is the personal cost of militancy?

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the BC Arts Council Arts Impact Program, Metro Vancouver’s Regional Cultural Project Grants Program as well as the Deux Mille, Hawthorne, Lohn, Schein and Y.P. Heung Foundations.