Yael Farber relocated Strindberg's 1888 classic to post-apartheid South Africa – and cut straight to its dark, throbbing heart
Strindberg's 1888 play Miss Julie, which focuses on a fatal sexual liaison between a servant and the daughter of a declining aristocratic household, comes so draped in outmoded class and gender politics – not to mention its author's own hectic misogyny – it would seem a likely candidate for the mausoleum. Patrick Marber's After Miss Julie, with its relocation to 1945 and the night after the Labour landslide, went a good way to solving the difficulties, but others—most recently Juliette Binoche and director Frederic Fisbach with Mademoiselle Julie at the Barbican – have struggled to bring this 19th-century play alive for contemporary audiences.
Not Yael Farber, at the Edinburgh fringe. The South African playwright and director got straight to the drama's dark, steamy heart in a production that renamed the play and relocated it to the...
Strindberg's 1888 play Miss Julie, which focuses on a fatal sexual liaison between a servant and the daughter of a declining aristocratic household, comes so draped in outmoded class and gender politics – not to mention its author's own hectic misogyny – it would seem a likely candidate for the mausoleum. Patrick Marber's After Miss Julie, with its relocation to 1945 and the night after the Labour landslide, went a good way to solving the difficulties, but others—most recently Juliette Binoche and director Frederic Fisbach with Mademoiselle Julie at the Barbican – have struggled to bring this 19th-century play alive for contemporary audiences.
Not Yael Farber, at the Edinburgh fringe. The South African playwright and director got straight to the drama's dark, steamy heart in a production that renamed the play and relocated it to the...
- 12/17/2012
- by Lyn Gardner
- The Guardian - Film News
Harold Pinter theatre; Barbican, London
Trevor Nunn began the summer by directing a heavy-handed Kiss Me Kate; he ends it by staging a star-encrusted but tepid Chorus of Disapproval. What a waste. Of Alan Ayckbourn, whose 1984 play has not been taken seriously, and therefore looks unfunny. And of Nunn, who has been innovative (Nicholas Nickleby) and meticulous (his Merchant of Venice was a revelation because of its detail), and who has helped (with Gorky's Summerfolk) to widen the theatrical repertoire but is in danger of looking fusty.
Rob Brydon fans may think his performance alone is enough to justify the price of a ticket. He certainly provides the high points of the evening. As the director of the Pendon Light Operatic Society's amateur production of The Beggar's Opera, Brydon is hangdog and top dog: bullying, cardiganed, down in the dumps, overweening. He unleashes a terrific riff when, while trying out...
Trevor Nunn began the summer by directing a heavy-handed Kiss Me Kate; he ends it by staging a star-encrusted but tepid Chorus of Disapproval. What a waste. Of Alan Ayckbourn, whose 1984 play has not been taken seriously, and therefore looks unfunny. And of Nunn, who has been innovative (Nicholas Nickleby) and meticulous (his Merchant of Venice was a revelation because of its detail), and who has helped (with Gorky's Summerfolk) to widen the theatrical repertoire but is in danger of looking fusty.
Rob Brydon fans may think his performance alone is enough to justify the price of a ticket. He certainly provides the high points of the evening. As the director of the Pendon Light Operatic Society's amateur production of The Beggar's Opera, Brydon is hangdog and top dog: bullying, cardiganed, down in the dumps, overweening. He unleashes a terrific riff when, while trying out...
- 9/29/2012
- by Susannah Clapp
- The Guardian - Film News
The Oscar-winner on her return to the stage, working with R-Patz, and her constant fight to preserve privacy
You're in London playing the title role in Miss Julie – or rather Mademoiselle Julie, a modern-day production of the Strindberg play by Frédéric Fisbach. Aside from being in French, is it much different from the original?
I hope it's different; when a text has been played over and over, you hope to get a new view of it. When I reread it, I was struck by how modern the play is, in what it says about women and the consequences of emancipation. However, the aristocratic side of the play seemed a little old to me. I feel like the more significant differences in France today are between immigrants and non-immigrants. I thought it would be so interesting if Jean [the servant with whom Julie, a count's daughter, has an ill-fated love affair] was, for example, a north African man dealing with a white woman.
Do you feel sympathy for Julie?...
You're in London playing the title role in Miss Julie – or rather Mademoiselle Julie, a modern-day production of the Strindberg play by Frédéric Fisbach. Aside from being in French, is it much different from the original?
I hope it's different; when a text has been played over and over, you hope to get a new view of it. When I reread it, I was struck by how modern the play is, in what it says about women and the consequences of emancipation. However, the aristocratic side of the play seemed a little old to me. I feel like the more significant differences in France today are between immigrants and non-immigrants. I thought it would be so interesting if Jean [the servant with whom Julie, a count's daughter, has an ill-fated love affair] was, for example, a north African man dealing with a white woman.
Do you feel sympathy for Julie?...
- 9/22/2012
- by Killian Fox
- The Guardian - Film News
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