Like many female artists, I've always felt a strong connection with Camille Claudel – a female sculptor in a world of men, a genius who remained unknown in her lifetime and was locked away in an asylum by her family in the last 30 years of her life. Last summer, during a bad insomnia, words started coming to me, and sentences forming, and soon I had the first draft of a play, a monologue told from her perspective.
This campaign aims to support the production of a show based on the play, including fees for the cellist who will accompany me, and for renting the venue for the three-night run at the Brighton Fringe Festival. There have been several films about Camille’s life but this show is different in that it makes her speak from the heart and present facts from a personal perspective: what was it like to be a sculptress in late 19th century Paris, what did it feel like to be ignored by critics and the general public alike, ending up lonely and forgotten in an asylum?
I am not putting together this show to make money, let’s be realistic, but because I believe in its artistic value. The money raised would help to contribute towards playing the cellist who will accompany me for the three performances, playing music from Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen. Any further money raised will go to renting the stage at the café where the show will be performed.
In exchange for your support, I will be offering you artwork from the show, recording of the show and also the published version of the play, as well as copies of my two novels. If you like my writing in general, you guarantee you’ll like this!
Your help would mean a lot to me. This is a project that’s really important to me, and if the three-night run at the Brighton Fringe is successful, I’d like to take it elsewhere to follow.
I also understand that times may be difficult, so if you can just spread the word and repost on social media, I’d be ever so grateful.