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Sarah Bernhardt’s three tours of Kyiv’s Theatres

In March 2003, the Ukrainian Observer magazine published an especially well-researched article by Pylyp Selihey on Sarah Bernhardt and the world-famous Parisian actress’s three visits to Kyiv between 1881 and 1908. A prominent figure at the Institute of Linguistics at the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Pylyp Selihey is the author of a number of academic research papers and a regular contributor to various periodicals.

A small, elegant woman looking weary and with a slightly melancholy face stepped off a railway carriage onto a platform at Kyiv’s train station. A burly man picked his way through the crowd of students, newsboys and bystanders to the woman and presented her with a bouquet of the finest roses before gallantly leading her to a nearby car. That evening, the 20" November 1881, there was a performance of “The Lady of the Camellias” to a packed auditorium, hardly surprising, as one of the most renowned actresses in the history of theatre, the incomparable Sarah Bernhardt, was performing in the leading role.

This was the “Divine Sarah’s” first appearance in Kyiv and she was to return twice. Each time all her performances were sell-outs, the audiences were enraptured and the theatre critics could hardly contain themselves.

During her lifetime, Sarah Bernhardt was described in many ways, including: The Embodiment of Poetry, The Queen of the Stage, The Star of All the Stars and universally as the most famous actress of all. The crowned heads of Europe bowed to her, the powerful showered her with jewels. Regarded almost as a goddess, Victor Hugo said of her “This is more than an actress, this is a Woman”.

Even before she first appeared in Kyiv, the gossip in the city was about her: her European triumphs, her extraordinary technique, her exquisite costumes, but also her eccentricities. The residents of Kyiv knew that she eagerly performed in men’s roles, that she was not only able to cry on stage but even faint and lose consciousness or even bleed. They had heard that she loved to shock public opinion and create scandals. Some of what was rumoured included that she went fishing, hunting ~ even hunting for crocodiles — and that she slept in a coffin. She let it be known that her motto in life was “without regard for anything”.

By the time she first visited Kyiv, Sarah had assembled her own com- pany of actors, and with this troupe had started touring extensively around Europe. A year earlier, she had returned from a successful tour of the USA and Canada, first playing New York on 8" November 1880. 

Sarah Bemhardt was invited to Kyiv to perform for 5,000 francs for each performance. Even though the prices of tickets to her shows were set extremely high, sales were brisk long before she arrived. When it became apparent how strong ticket sales were, touts became to buy up the tickets for four boxes at the theatre. Three days before the performance, when it was announced that tickets were sold out, the touts resold their tickets for 100 karbovanets each and successfully found buyers. Another unusual situation was that some of the audience bought tickets by clubbing together, so that several people would occupy one seat, taking turns — one person at each act of as performance.

The theatre critics received Sarah Bernhardt rather cautiously during her first visit, although theatre-goers were immediately impressed by her exquisite and romantic style of acting. Her originality and unique talent were particularly surprising. Reviewing one performance, a Kyiv newspaper wrote “Sarah Bernhardt has the ability to assume multiple characters. She can change her gait, her voice and even the way she looks for each different role. Only two characteristics are common to each role — refinement and taste ... Sarah Bernhardt has a wonderful voice. Everyone can learn some- thing new just by listening to her dynamics. Her resonance comes from the soul and reaches the soul...”.

Kyivan ladies tended to pay less attention to Sarah’s dramatic art than to her costumes. They regarded her as a trend-setter and leader of fashion. This was in the context of her looks being such that she could not then be called a beauty. She was far from being an ideal of those times but very attractive to modern eyes. She had fluffy hair, a long nose, a pale face, light- green eyes and was extremely slim. So slim in fact that she was subjected to having her build caricaturized and joked about.

She herself was proud of being so slim and emphasized this with her clothes. Eventually, Kyiv’s well-rounded ladies began to be impressed by her waif-like looks.

In the winter of 1992, Sarah came to Kyiv for the second time. It is interesting to note that during her tour, one local theatre owner cancelled his programme so that he and his troupe could be present at Sarah’s performances, which were wonderful lessons in acting technique.

This is how a young Kyivan actresses recollected Sarah’s performance in the role of Zhilberta in the play “Froufrou” by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy: “The curtain opened. The actress was standing with her back to the audience. There was a wide slit in her dress and her half-naked, rather unattractive, skinny back immediately caught your eye. Then on cue, she turned for the audience to see her aged face covered in grease-paint — Sarah was 48 years-old at that time. Her face and figure were in contrast to what was expected for that role. But after several minutes, the audience was enraptured and couldn’t take their eyes off her. Her voice, her enunciation, her manner and gestures were so charming that it was impossible not to be captivated. The actress filled her role and was carving out her creation like a sculptor carves out a beautiful sculpture from stone. As several more minutes passed, the audience was almost hypnotized by her and completely forget the gap between what they were seeing and what they were feeling emotionally.”

By the time of her third visit to Kyiv, Sarah was 64 years old and even though she could not act with the energy of her younger days, she truly knew when and how to focus her incomparable acting techniques into key moments during a performance. Kyiv was honoured to see Sarah during all the stages of her career and how her talent not only remained but indeed became more powerful and wonderful.