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The Artist-With-Kids Conundrum — 150 Years Ago
Bringing back turn-of-the 20th century muse Gabrielle Réjane
By Deborah Klugman
Most people familiar with theater history have heard of Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse. Fewer recognize the name Gabrielle Réjane, a French actress and international megastar whose career spanned 1874 to 1920, during which time she toured Britain, Russia, North and South America, as well as her native France.
Ilana Turner’s first play, O Réjane, currently playing at the Bootleg Theatre in Westlake through December 6, brings the French muse back to the stage.
Read Lovell Estell III’s review.
Réjane began as a comedienne but expanded her repertoire, becoming known for her naturalistic style of acting. As a renowned stage actress, she was portrayed on canvas by Toulouse-Lautrec, Boldini, Sargent and Beardsley, among others.
Besides her stage work, Réjane distinguished herself by taking control of her career. She insisted on making her own choices at a time when women had few legal rights. Beginning in 1906, she managed the Réjane Theater, where she performed until her death.
Stage Raw talked to Turner about the work.
STAGE RAW: What gave you the idea to develop this project?
ILANA TURNER: One day, magically, my dear family friend Willie told me about her grandmother. Willie’s grandmother, Réjane, was the subject of the Toulouse-Lautrec print that was hanging on Willie’s wall. Having spent my childhood wanting to leap into Toulouse-Lautrec paintings, I was immediately intrigued.
SR: So how did you put O Réjane together?
IT: I started researching Réjane in what feels like eons ago, in 2007. I went to Paris on a Réjane pilgrimage in 2008 with Adrien Reju, Willie’s granddaughter, who co-wrote the music for O Réjane. We toured the Théâtre de Paris (formerly Théâtre Réjane) and the Odéon. Later, I toured the Moulin Rouge.
I started weaving text from the plays Réjane performed with my original text. Adrien was already interested in writing music, and I knew I wanted the show to use movement without being a musical.
How was Réjane different from Sarah Bernhardt or Eleonora Duse?
Bernhardt mainly played tragedies and her style was melodramatic. Réjane was first known for comedy, and even when she played dramas, her style was much more naturalistic. She connected her own life and observations of life to her work in a very modern way.
Eleonora Duse and Réjane were about the same age, and also close friends. Duse was interested in “eliminating” herself as an actress from her characters, and believed acting was a spiritual feat.
Sarah Bernhardt was 12 years older than Réjane and gave her a big break in a play called La Glu. Despite a reputation for being chilly to other actresses, Bernhardt liked Réjane’s work in La Glu, and the two became lifelong friends.
The Museum of Modern Art Film Library film Great Actresses of the Past has silent footage of all three of these remarkable women.
What were some of the highlights of Réjane’s career?
Réjane played the first French translation of Nora in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. When she performed for Ibsen in Copenhagen, he said she was one of the finest Noras he had ever seen.
Other famous roles were Germinie Lacerteux, adapted from the Goncourt Brothers novel, and Catherine Hübscher, Napoleon’s real-life laundress in Madame Sans-Gêne. She also resurrected Henri Becque’s La Parisienne, which originally had flopped after only a few performances. Eventually a production of La Parisienne starring Réjane became a huge hit, but not until after Becque’s death.
Was there something besides her art that made you want to write about this woman?
Reading about Réjane, it struck me that for her, life equaled art. She did things in life and on stage at almost the same time. Réjane acted like a modern woman even though she lived over 150 years ago. She won the right to sign her own contracts 59 years before married French women were allowed to. She was a world-famous actress and a theater impresario but she was also a working mother who fought hard to balance the demands of a successful career and a family.
I have two girls of my own, and I very much relate to the storm and emotional havoc engendered between the pull of a child and the pull of one’s necessary work.
There’s a lot of physicality and movement in this play. Where did that come from?
Ilana Turner’s O REJAN: Photo by Alex Berry
Movement has always been a huge part of my life. My father was a professional musician and a writer/editor. I was a professional figure skater and a trained dancer. Tempo and words have always guided me.
What I’ve always loved about theater is its ability to tell stories using movement, music and text at the same time. When I went to create O Réjane, I knew I wanted to physicalize and orchestrate parts of the story, so I sought out a director who was also interested in telling unabashedly ‘spectacular’ stories.
How did you meet your director, Christopher Silversten?
In 2009, I took part in a workshop [he] was teaching at Au Brana Cultural Center in southwest France. We worked on text from Antigone, and I was struck by his ability to use the text, movement and rhythm cohesively. My script is dense with original text, quoted text and history, and I thought his use of rhythm could keep the play moving really well. Thankfully, Christopher was interested and we have been developing O Réjane ever since.
When I saw the play, I was struck by designer Alex Berry’s innovative settings. How did she come to be part of the project?
Alex Berry designed two shows for Christopher’s company Awake Projects. I was really impressed with her work for Awake, and Christopher pitched her for this project. She had an ingenious, affordable way to stage the most difficult part of O Réjane.
Which was?
The show explores Réjane’s life on-stage and off-stage. Scenes take place in clearly delineated on-or-off-stage spaces, initially imagined on a stage that revolved. Revolving stages cost a lot, so during workshops we had been using a curtain hanging from a pole held by actors. Alex came up with the idea of building characters small flats on wheels.
One side of each flat is a canvas on-stage backdrop, and the other side is a character’s off-stage dressing room. Actors move and rotate the flats to set the scenes of O Réjane.
Actress Cara Pifko has a special quality – an inner glow. She seems really suited for this role. How did you come to cast her?
Cara Pifko and I met in Kerrie Keane’s Acting Gymnasium [in North Hollywood]. I really liked her work, and we clicked as people. I invited her to do a table read of a new draft of the script I’d finished and loved her take on Réjane. I believed every word out of her mouth almost immediately. Christopher and I invited her to work on the character in a workshop that fall. She brings an innate sense of her own rhythm and movement to text.
Cara Pifko, as Gabrielle Rejan. Photo by Joseph Will
After two more workshops together, including one when we were both pregnant, Cara and I had our second kids 36 hours apart. (Our first kids are only months apart). The whole process has been à propos for women working on a play about women working and having kids at the same time. It seems Réjane wasn’t the only one whose life and work run parallel.
What is next for you?
I am talking to theaters in other major US cities, London and Sweden about O Réjane. I also have my eye on Edinburgh Fringe Festival next summer.
There are also two new plays in the works. The first uses the framework of, and partially adapts, a traditional Greek women’s story, with my original text, to explore life in the culturally rich and economically poor modern state of Greece. The Scandinavian play is a modern take on the myths about Norse goddess Frejya, who was a real badass with two daughters. For future plays, I’d like to continue to partner with relevant established cultural institutions.
O Réjane closes this weekend, Thurs.-Sat., 7:30 p.m.; through Dec. 6 at Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd., LA. (213) 389 3856, www.bootlegtheater.org
