The Triumphant Return of 'Tolstoy's Wife'

(1/14/2006)

Following her sold-out and widely acclaimed December 2005 performance, acctress Jennifer Claire will again present her one-woman play "Tolstoy's Wife" at Ubud's Amandari Resort.

Classically trained in the English theatre, Jennifer Claire divides her time between homes in Sydney and Bali following a distinguished career that included 10 years with the Melbourne Theatre Company.

As a young woman traveling from the United States to Australia by ship, she read the printed diaries of Countess Tolstoy, the wife of Count Leo Tolstoy.

Many years later and approaching her sixth decade, Ms. Claire decided to embarked on an ambitious plan to turn the story of Madam Sonya Tolstoy into a stage play. Consuming two years of painstaking research, the story of the much-maligned and long-suffering Countess Tolstoy made its debut to appreciative audiences in New York and Australia.

Ms. Claire, speaking of her play in an interview published in Australia's The Age, said, "I wanted to be faithful to her words and her passions. I wanted to portray a woman who had borne 13 children, of whom nine lived, and who was great but who also had her faults, as faithfully as I could." Adding, "I had to be ruthless. I had to deal with the old Russia of peasants and serfs and all those difficult Russian names."

Humiliated by Tolstoy in his diaries and seen in history as a shrew who persecuted a great mind, Ms. Claire's play lends a much more human depiction of a woman otherwise portrayed to the world as a villain. Putting much of the blame for history's treatment of the Countess at Tolstoy's feet, Ms. Claire says, "I don't think he really liked women. I think at heart he was a deep misogynist, which is incredible, really, when you consider that Tolstoy also created one of the most memorable women of all time in Anna Karenina."

A Single Return Performance in Bali

Don’t miss this chance to see Ms. Claire's sparkling performance which delighted and amazed local audiences last month.

Presented by its author, "Tolstoy’s Wife" will re-appear on Saturday, January 28, 2006, at the Amandari Resort in Ubud.

Ticket at Rp. 200,000 each (approximately US$ 20.00) which includes pre-performance cocktails and canapes at 7:00 p.m. followed by the play at 7:30 p.m..

A special after theatre supper is available at The Amandari for an additional charge.

Proceeds form Ms. Jennifer Claire's performance will be donated to the Amandari's Kesayan Ikang Papa Orphanage Fund.

Reservations are mandatory and can be made by calling Putu Sudiari at The Amandari at ++62-(0)361-975333 or via the e-mail link provided.