2014 & 2017
Fugato Labile for Camille Claudel was a world première (2014) in Vermont, presented in English and in French, back-to-back each evening. Fugato Labile for Camille Claudel was produced in Bucharest and in Brussels in 2017. My friend and wonderful actress Liana Ceterchi played the part of Camille.

Fugato Labile for Camille Claudel is a one act, one actress play composed, designed, choreographed and performed by Georgette Garbès Putzel with the participation of one movement performer, one musician Live, recorded voices, projection of sculptures by Camille Claudel, a visual by Gabe Albright, and the Core Team at TMM. Diego Mattos created the most appropriate lightings.

The accordionist Michel La Jeunesse interpreted live his own creations written for the play. More music was composed and interpreted Live by Vermont musicians: violin and tabla. Movement performer Felicia Plumley was wonderful on stage. Gabe Albright created the “final scene particles” visual. The play was enriched with the voices of: Angelica McLennan (Camille’s mother), Bob Robbins (Minister of Fine Arts), Emmanuel Tissot (Pottecher), Henry Weinstock (Asselin), Jean Marie Rabot (Camille’s father), Karen Kane (Maria, friend of Camille), Laura Roald (commentaries), Polly Connell (Madame Montavox), Roger Putzel ( Rodin and Docteur Truelle), Scott Thomson (Blot), Steven Pite (cousin Charles).

The author is using Camille Claudel’s own words for this play. The sister of famous playwright Paul Claudel, and lover & student of famous sculptor Rodin, young Camille soon surpassed her famous teacher with her own extraordinary sculptures. Born in a wealthy bourgeois family, she was joyful, truthful, dedicated to her art, indifferent to the games of high society: a free spirit with an unacceptable lifestyle at the time and in her milieu. She was born a century too early. She was born happy and creative. She died lonely and miserable. Why? Fugato Labile for Camille Claudel is a true story of love, art and the challenges of being different.

Camille Claudel new Alphonse Daudet (Les lettres de mon moulin) and Debussy. In the play she will thank Marcel Schwob for his book “The Book of Monelle“. M. Schwob influenced generations of great writers from Guillaume Apollinaire and Jorge Luis Borges to Roberto Bolaño, as well as Paul Valery, Alfred Jarry and the surrealist photographer Claude Cahun. Marcel Schwob helped Camille sell her sculptures.

Camille Claudel had her last studio Quai Bourbon, Paris, from 1899 till 1913 when she was taken away to insane asylums, by her mother, her sister and her brother Paul Claudel, renown poet, dramatist and diplomat. “March 11, 1913: 2 maniacs enter my home, Quai Bourbon, grab me by the elbows, throw me out of the window of my studio”. Camille Claudel.

On March 11 of 1913, Camille Claudel was interned by her mother, her brother the famous Paul Claudel, and her sister at the insane asylum of Ville Evrard, near Paris. In 1914 (German troops entered Paris) she was sent to the Montdevergues asylum in South of France, where she spent the last 30 years of her life, from 1914 to her death in 1943. The author visited the two asylums, Ville Evrard and Montdevergues, in 2012 while writing the play: Fugato Labile for Camille Claudel to which you are invited in March 2014.

Words can hurt. At the museum Les Arcades at the Montdevergues asylum, one can read some of these words written on the tiles of the floor of a little patio. (TMM offers you an English version of the tiles). When preparing for the writing of Fugato Labile for Camille Claudel I visited the museum and, with their permission, took some pictures of the tiles. It is about engaging our empathy towards the inmate’s situation and provoke thought about individual differences and exclusion. The tiles have a consciousness raising role. It is about the demystification of psychiatry in general. We are invited to thinking more deeply about it. The museum allows the hospital to be a place for care, for life and for creativity. It opens up for us new reflections on how society perceives madness and mentally ill people. It exposes how healthcare for the mentally ill has evolved.

Séraphine (You have seen the movie), Camille and 40 to 50 thousand other famine victims died in France under the German occupation during WWII. Both artists, Séraphine and Camille never met. Both exploited. Both abandoned. Séraphine (Séraphine de Senlis) died of hunger (1942) and possibly, like Camille, of cold. Camille Claudel died in 1943.

Miserable. February 1927. Camille writes to her mother, from Ville Evrard asylum: “My dear mother, I am late writing to you because it has been so cold, my legs don’t support me, I can’t go to the place where everybody is to write and where there is a pitiful fire, it’s bedlam; I have to stay in my room where it is so glacially cold that I have frostbite, my fingers tremble, I cannot hold the pen. I have not warmed up all winter; I am frozen to my bones, cut in half by the cold. One of my friends, a poor teacher from Lycée Fénelon who got stranded here, was found frozen to death in her bed. It is horrible. You can’t imagine the cold of Montdevergues. And it goes on, and on and on, 7 months at a time.“

Betrayed. 1915. Camille to her dear beloved little brother Paul, from Montdevergues asylum: “Do you think it’s fun for me to spend months, years like this, without any news, without any hope! Where does such ferocity come from? How can they make you turn away?”

But spirited. April 1932. Camille to Paul: “I received them clappity clap, with my rheumatism on my knee, an old battered overcoat, an old hat from the Samaritaine that covered my nose. Well, it was me; that’s how they will remember me in the coming century.”

A genius born at the wrong place, wrong time, wrong family. 1932. Eugene Blot to Camille: “Your sculpture, the supplicant, is the manifesto for modern sculpture. You were finally free from Rodin’s influence, as grand in the inspiration as in the craft. With you we were going to quit the world of false appearances for the one of thought.”

What they said about Fugato Labile for Camille Claudel in 2014

“Bonjour à tous, hello to all! Just a note to let you know I had a real treat last night—Theatre Mosaic Mond performed Fugato Labile for Camille Claudel in English & then French. A touching account of an artist who should have been known in her own right (Claudel was Rodin’s model and muse, and a brilliant sculptor). Original script, brilliant use of stage, sets, lighting, and the French performance was like being bathed in soft light and music “. Karen Kane @Paris by Design, specializing in fantastic travel to Paris, France and Montreal, Canada.

“I think your play deserves to be seen by a wider audience.” Michelle Hewitt, from Boston

“Your performance was exquisite. You are a genius! The memorization and the details of timing, scenery, music, sound effects, lighting, props (especially balloons in lieu of tiles) and projected photos all warrant further exposure. I loved how you started out as a young and happy Camille and metamorphosed into an old and slow one. I hope the video goes viral and the story gets told over and over. Camille deserves this! I want to share with others. Love,” Doctor Joanna Weinstock, Vermont.

“An amazing show! I cannot say enough how impressed I was by all your hard work (and memorizing lines in both languages with editing and all, wow) and just how you conceived this to being all the elements needed for a powerful story of one woman! Brava really…music, projections, movement, voices, lighting and moving thru time. And your research evident of a sad and unnerving story. I was so glad to be part of it. Millle mercis!” Angelique MClennan, member of the Burlington Choral Society, Vermont.

“Very well done. Congrats. You really reached the depth of the injustice and her despair. Such imaginative art direction and staging too. Appreciated the comic relief of the balloons!” Sally Ballin, Independent Associate USANA Health Sciences.

“I must tell you how much your performance has stayed in my mind. The first thing I did when I got home on Friday night was to email all of my colleagues that speak French to try to go to your play. My only regret is that I didn’t spread the word here at my school sooner. I learned so much; I know nothing about Camille Claudel’s life. Your writing of the script was stellar! I do not have enough superlative adjectives to tell you how much respect I have for you, your acting and your dedication to your work.” Irene Bihun, Special education and coordinator for bringing the arts into the class rooms at Champlain Valley Union High School.

“My friend Judi and I were so moved by Camille Claudel. Your play and your performance were extraordinary. Your passion and many talents are a wonder. Your use of media and props, your timing and the interlacing of other ghostly voices in the background, well, immense thought and creativity.” Sandra Costes, Jericho, Vermont.