| Vaslav Nijinsky: | Redjep Mitrovitsa |
| Directing: | Isabelle Nanty |
| Stage Adaptation: | Djamila Salah |
| Light: | Patrice Trottier |
| Sound: | Daniel Deshays and Alain Michon |
| Costume: | Kenzo |
Vaslav Nijinsky writes his diary in winter 1918-1919, being on the edge of hard mental illness. He is 29 and he will never again appear on stage. The rest 30 years of his life he will spend in the psychiatric hospitals, among the doctors. Written in Russian his «Diary» was translated into English in 1930 and published by his wife Romola Nijinskaya. Thanks to the dancer's daughters Kira and Tamara, Christian Dumais-Lvowsky managed to translate the whole text of the «Diary» into French, for the first time without any cut.
His diary is not a madman's delirium. This is the last cry of the man ready to go forever to the unattainable depths of his being. Turning his soul inside out, Nijinsky gives us chance to hear the most desperate entreaty for love.
Isabelle Nanty and Djamila Salah:
Redjep Mitrovitsa — actor of the «Comedie Francaise», the chief director of the «Compagnie Champ Libre», he has worked with such directors as Antoine Vitez («Ernani», «Electra») and Daniel Mesguich («King Lear», «Le Soulier de Satin», «The Life of Galilei»). For his performance of the leading part in «Lorenzaccio» by Musset staged by George Lavodan in the «Comedie Francaise» he got the Molier Award in the nomination «for the theatre discovery» (1990). On this stage he also played Hamlet in Lavodan's production.
Nijinsky's «Diary» became for the actor a tremendous encounter with the dancer's person and his fate. In 1993 Mitrovitsa read extracts from the «Diary» in the Avignon Festival. His reading had made such an impression on the audience that the next year the Festival invited him again. This time he presented a monoperformance.
Не is sitting at his table dressed in a blouse and white trousers, looking like an ill, or a surgeon, or, maybe, a butcher. White light falls from above so that his pale face looks as if it was made with an axe. Eyes, ears, teeth seem to be separated from the head: this man did not give presents to himself and neither did life give them to him.
Nevertheless, he is Nijinsky, the most famous and the most talented dancer in the world, «the butterfly lost in the crowd», in Proust's words... Nijinsky said about himself: «l am a madman with common sense and trained nerfs». Rare actor managed to show madness in its close link with genius. And seldom was the term «the theatre of cruelty» so appropriate. Because the union of such a madness and such a genius could be realized on the altar of cruelty only. But nevertheless this production gives us love: «My madness manifests my love to people»
Nevertheless, he is Nijinsky, the most famous and the most talented dancer in the world, «the butterfly lost in the crowd», in Proust's words... Nijinsky said about himself: «l am a madman with common sense and trained nerfs». Rare actor managed to show madness in its close link with genius. And seldom was the term «the theatre of cruelty» so appropriate. Because the union of such a madness and such a genius could be realized on the altar of cruelty only. But nevertheless this production gives us love: «My madness manifests my love to people»
Daniele Karraz, Midi Libre:
..Redjep Mitrovitsa wanted us to listen to the true, non-shortened version of «The Diary». ... he started this «sedentary» journey, plunging into the depths of this silent and heart-rending madness. Through the text written by the blood of sufferings, by the sharp scalpel one can see Nijinsky’s reflections on his endless loneliness. Now the man of «flight and silence» is confined to his table, to his demons overcoming him and completely dependent on his doctors, his wife, his old night mares. And on his destructive love to God. But these diaries are not delirium, they contain the words of the man plunging into the depths of his soul. He is fully aware of the causes of his madness. His flashing and beautiful words are full of contradictions, doubts, courage and anxiety...
Now Redjep «turns to» Nijinsky and obeying to the mise en scenes austere as a partiture starts his journey to the border of madness. Strange emotions possess the spectators, passing from exaltation to awkwardness, from compassion to horror.
Now Redjep «turns to» Nijinsky and obeying to the mise en scenes austere as a partiture starts his journey to the border of madness. Strange emotions possess the spectators, passing from exaltation to awkwardness, from compassion to horror.
Martine Bres, Midi Libre: