Baryshnikov steps into Nijinsky's troubled mind

The subject of Vaslav Nijinsky's diary first came up in 2013 during a rehearsal for "The Old Woman" by Daniil Kharms, directed by Robert Wilson and starring Mikhail Baryshnikov and Willem Dafoe. Wilson was telling Baryshnikov of his admiration for the journal kept by the legendary Russian dancer (1889-1950) in which he described in chilling detail his mind's gradual descent into schizophrenia.

"We talked about it more and more and I asked him whether he had considered putting this diary on stage in some form, when he said, 'If you're interested, let's do it,'" Baryshnikov says over the phone from Zurich. I catch the exhaustion in his voice, though it's hardly surprising considering that he spends almost every night under Wilson's notoriously demanding direction grappling with Nijinsky's troubled mind in the performance "Letter to a Man," which is coming to Athens as part of...