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She was, many would say, the greatest actress who ever lived.
She was known to millions of people in Europe and the United States simply as “the divine Sarah.” The literary and political lights of tum-of-the-century Paris and London were her friends. When she died, in 1923, almost a million people crowded the streets of Paris to get a glimpse of her funeral cortege.
She was Sarah Bernhardt. And in “Memoir,” which will be performed at The Theatre at Washington, Va., at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26, she relives some of the most thrilling episodes of her tempestuous career.
“Memoir” takes place on the terrace of Bernhardt’s retirement retreat on Belle-Ile-en-Mer, off the coast of Brittany, as the aging actress dictates her memoirs to her secretary, Georges Pitou. With his help she relives the past, transforming herself back to her youth and once again playing some of the greatest roles in her passionate repertoire.
“Memoir” was written by John Murrell, one of Canada’s most accomplished playwrights. It has been translated into fifteen languages and performed in more than 36 countries. It ran for three years at the Theatre de l’Oeuvre in Paris.
The current production on Oct. 26 coincides with the publication last month of a new biography: “The Divine Sarah: A Life of Sarah Bernhardt,” by Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, published by Alfred A. Knopf. The book is available locally through Cabin Fever Books in Washington.
New York actress Madigan Ryan plays Sarah Bernhardt; Richard Fink, of Vermont, is Georges Pitou. Equity players Ryan and Fink performed “Memoir” in repertory last summer at the Unadilla Theatre, East Calais, Vt.
Ms. Ryan is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Ryan of Amissville and the niece of Marshall Boarman of Washington, Va. Her family traces its ancestry to John Adams Washington Smith (a founding father of Warrenton), Chief Justice John Marshall, Francis Lee Smith (Gen. Robert E. Lee’s attorney), and one-time Middleburg mayor Courtland Hawkins.
In addition to numerous stage credits in London, New York and New England, Ms. Ryan has also apr
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