After an amazing response last year we have once again resurrected our Brighton Bites mini-interviews. These short and snappy Q&As offer an, occasionally witty – often hilarious, insight into the acts strutting, sailing, surfing (insert preferred form of transport here) in to join the line-up of England’s largest arts festival, Brighton Fringe. 2018 was a record-breaking year for the Fringe with over 575,000 people attending the festival; and with 2019 promising to be more inclusive than ever, our Bites aim to give you a taste of what’s in store across the 4,500+ events and performances that are on offer.
Next up, Carole Bulewski talks about Camille – National Treasure which will be coming to Diva’s Piccol-Odeon.
Describe your show in one sentence?
A personal take on the life and death of sculptor Camille Claudel.
Why Brighton Fringe?
As a very international city which seemed like the most appropriate place to premiere this play.
How did the show get to where it is today?
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.
What do you think sets your show apart from all the other festival offerings?
What’s different with this show is that it doesn’t intend to be a biopic, or a historical play. Because Camille Claudel lived in late 19th century/early 20th century France, content in the English language usually present her in the context of this ‘free’ society that was France at the time compared with Victorian Britain. This is not what this show is about. This play is about showing Camille as a human being, someone with feelings, a woman and artist ahead of her time. She is the main protagonist of the play, and also its only character. The show is accompanied by cello music from her times.
What show do you not want to miss at this year’s Brighton Fringe (apart from your own!)?
Death of a Hunter, about the last hour of Ernest Hemingway. I love stories about tortured artists, obviously.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given, or would give, for performing at a fringe festival?
Be prepared for the worst, enjoy the best.
With the theme of this year’s festival being ‘DARE to Discover’, we’d like you to tell us a TRUTH – something about you or the show that fans may not know.
I’m very self-conscious about the fact that I have a French accent, and paranoid that people will not understand me!
Camille – National Treasure runs at Brighton Fringe from 25-27 May 2019. Brighton Fringe takes place between 3 May – 2 June 2019; www.brightonfringe.org
Nicole Craft | Image: Contributed
