Are we molded or made? This question lies at the heart of Broken Clay, a bold new work from Know Promises Theatre Collective. Inspired by the life and legacy of Camille Claudel, the French sculptor whose genius was long overshadowed by expectation, silence, and the weight of history, the piece conjures a portrait that is not biographical but elemental — a breath, a fevered whisper between creation and collapse. Claudel was a woman whose hands shaped marble into forms of astonishing intensity, yet her own life was defined as much by struggle as by triumph. As a daughter, a sister, a lover, and an artist in late 19th-century Paris, she existed in the margins of a world that often denied women the right to create freely.

Her long and complex relationship with Auguste Rodin has come to dominate her story, yet her work speaks of an independent spirit, fiercely original and uncompromising. Broken Clay seeks to strip away the myths and recover something more immediate — the raw energy of a woman at work, and the cost of living at the edge of genius. The piece is staged within the fragile sanctuary of the artist’s studio: a space where marble dust lingers in the air, where silence and sound intertwine, and where sculptures stand as both creations and witnesses. Through a visceral blend of live sculpting, movement, and theatrical imagery, the performance brings audiences into the act of making itself. Sculptural forms emerge in real time as metaphors for resilience, fragility, and transformation. Threaded throughout the work is the echo of Claude Debussy’s impressionistic soundscape — music that ripples with light and shadow, evoking the fleeting, unstable textures of memory and emotion. The interplay of sound, movement, and sculptural action creates an immersive environment that is at once poetic and physical. Audiences are invited not to watch a history lesson unfold, but to experience the pulse of a life: the rhythm of chisels and breath, the tension of bodies in space, the fragile balance between beauty and destruction. Broken Clay is not a straightforward retelling of Claudel’s biography.

Instead, it is an exploration of how women artists are remembered, forgotten, or misremembered by history. The piece gives voice to the ones too often silenced — the women who carved places for themselves in a world that sought to define them as muse rather than maker. In Claudel’s story lies a universal reflection on creativity, desire, and the price of survival in a world that resists those who break its mould. First presented in July 2025 at the Hawk’s Well Theatre, Sligo, as part of the Cairde Arts Festival, Broken Clay marks a significant new work for Know Promises Theatre Collective. Known for its commitment to raw, intimate, and risk-taking performance, the collective here brings together theatre, live art, and visual practice to create a work that is both haunting and immediate. At its core, Broken Clay is a love letter — to Claudel, to the women history almost forgot, and to the fragile, furious act of creation itself.