The Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
Staged reading, adapted by Frédéric Rey, with Jennifer Maria and Claude Galvez.
Produced by La Semeuse.
‘We spend the whole day admiring me, Mum admires me, Princess G. admires me. It’s because I’m really pretty. I like to be alone in front of a mirror to admire my hands, which are so white, so slender and barely pink on the inside’.
Born Maria Konstantinovna Bashkirtseva in Ukraine in 1858, the painter and diarist Marie Bashkirtseff grew up far from her native country. Her aristocratic family took her from one European capital to another, before she settled in Nice for a few years in 1870. It was here that she began her famous ‘diary’. The reader is immediately struck by her extraordinary narcissism. At once annoying and touching, Marie watches herself live, totally convinced of the posterity of her work. Although the social reality of the nineteenth century has changed profoundly, Marie’s narcissism remains as relevant as ever.
It heralds the navel-gazing, the rugged individualism and the Narcissus-like solitude in the face of life and death that have developed in our post-modern society. At a time when everyone is writing blogs, taking selfies and dreaming of 15 minutes on television to feel like they exist, Marie’s diary gives us a glimpse into the dreams of a turbulent teenager who wants to assert herself as an individual, against all the rules that society tries to impose on her. Her narcissism is above all a cry for existence, a deliberate need to be loved and recognised as an artist. Her short, unbridled and romantic life left behind a wealth of writings and pictorial works that still fascinate people around the world.
You can also see the show Marie Bashkirtseff, journal intime à Martigues on Friday 29 November at 7pm at the Conservatoire, Site Pablo Picasso. Free admission. Limited seating. Book on 04 42 41 39 60
