Too often, when a director, or adaptor, takes on a classic work like MISS JULIE they run into an audience member who considers themself a “purist,” who complains that the work they are witnessing is egregiously different than the way it was originally meant to be performed… For that audience member I call your attention to Mr. Strindberg’s original introduction to this very play. He writes of his great desire to see the work performed naturally, by actors lit without footlights, in minimal makeup, in a setting where the characters live within a room, ignorant of the audience… “and, if first and foremost we could have a small stage and a small house, then perhaps a new dramatic art might arise, and theatre once more become a place of entertainment for educated people (Strindberg, 1888).” 7 and 1/2 years ago, on a cold autumn day. I aimlessly climbed a hill in Stockholm, only to discover a little park, and at its center, a great statue of a man sprawled atop a craggy pillar of stone. That statue is a memorial to August Strindberg, a tortured artist who struggled with his own mountains and valleys. His works have dragged the theatre, sometimes kicking and screaming, to the place where we can revisit this play in a manner I think he would have enjoyed, and I hope you do as well.
RSS Feed