The Woman Behind ‘The Ladies of the Camellias’ : Modern Playwright Explores Sparks Set Off When Old-Time Stars--Bernhardt and Duse--Collide

Imagine a first meeting between two of the world’s greatest actresses, two temperamental leading ladies of the theater who are competitors, two women who are about to take turns starring in a sentimental, romantic production.

It happened--in the summer of 1897--when Sarah Bernhardt and Italy’s Eleonora Duse agreed to alternate the lead in Alexandre Dumas’ “Camille.” Bernhardt did the matinees in French; Duse performed in Italian at night.

Did they greet one another warmly? Or did they live up to their reputations: Bernhardt, dogmatic; Duse, hysterical?

Lillian Garrett has focused on that meeting in her new play, “The Ladies of the Camellias,” which officially opens Sept. 8 at the West End Playhouse in Van Nuys.

But the meeting is just a springboard for Garrett’s questions about the nature of theater: In an era in which movies and television are king, can any theater production have a lasting impact on its audience? Is any production worth all the effort that goes into it? Do artists--or playwrights--have an important role in society?

Garrett, an actress who has her Ph.D. in French theater from Northwestern University, spent three years researching the lives of Bernhardt and Duse. Garrett came across rare letters, memoirs, photographs and assorted other documents about the actresses, mostly written in French and Italian, both of which she speaks fluently.

She was intrigued by the power of these grande dames of the theater. “In those days, the actors ran the theaters.” Bernhardt and Duse “produced, directed and managed their entire companies,” said Garrett.

“To take their companies--and the sets, costumes and props for eight shows--around the world on transatlantic liners shows an incredible strength of personality. It’s phenomenal to me.”

‘Polemical Farce’

In “The Ladies of the Camellias,” though, what goes on between the two women is pure fantasy, drawn from Garrett’s own imagination. She calls the play a “polemical farce.”

“In French we have a word for it: divertissement --an amusement,” Garrett said.

She wrote the first draft of “The Ladies of the Camellias” in 1986, in only five weeks. Last year, public readings were staged at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego and at the Capitol Repertory in Albany, N.Y. Garrett continues to change lines.

Born in Argentina of an Austrian father and an Italian mother, Garrett was exposed to real-life drama at an early age. Her father, an engineer, had fled the Nazi regime with the hope of starting fresh in South America. But Juan Peron came to power in Argentina soon after her father’s arrival and established yet another tyrannical regime.

Garrett remembers an underlying sense of fear during her childhood, recalling images of soldiers in boots and helmets, the sudden disappearances of people her family had known. “There was this incredible feeling that something was not right--but you didn’t know what,” she said.

Finally, through an elaborate scheme, Garrett’s father was able to escape with his family to Uruguay when she was 6 1/2.

Garrett’s family sent her to prep school in the United States, and then to Lake Forest College in Illinois. It was when she was in college that she told her family that she was going to be an actress, and they were “horrified,” she said.

“Art to them was a decoration, something to do after work,” Garrett said. “They wanted me to be a diplomat.”

Even before she received her doctorate in 1971, Garrett was beginning to build her reputation as an accomplished actress.

Among her many roles since then, she singles out her portrayal of Luisa Baccara, the classical concert pianist who goes mad in the play “Tamara.” Garrett spent 3 1/2 years in the Hollywood production, which is still running. She has also acted in various television series.

Work as Director

Garrett, who won a 1978 Dramalogue Critics Award for her direction of David Storey’s “In Celebration” at the Company of Angels, was eager to work on “The Ladies of the Camellias,” explaining, “there are a lot of nuances that I knew would be interesting to bring out.”

She is also finishing her second play, “The White Rose,” a drama based on the true story of three college students in Germany who were executed in 1943 for printing pamphlets that condemned Hitler.

Her third play, now in its earliest stages, will deal with education--something she holds in high esteem. “It is through the printed word that the world will be saved,” she said.

But this writing project will have to take a back seat for the next few months. In October, she will go to New York City to appear in Eduardo Machado’s “A Burning Beach,” scheduled to open Oct. 27 at the off-Broadway American Place Theater.

“The arts,” she said, “are as important to me as bread and water.”