Production Notes
August Strindberg holds a very precarious position in the minds and hearts of playgoers today. His predicament is similar to that of the composer Richard Wagner. How do we reconcile the great artist, the master of his craft, with the misogynistic and chauvinistic elements which occur so shamelessly, even arrogantly in his work? One way that proved effective in our rehearsal process was to focus on the heart of what Strindberg was after- to investigate the forces that bring these two young people together and eventually contribute to Miss Julie's destruction. Our efforts to strip away that which has bound Strindberg so tightly to his own era necessitated that we remove any tendencies towards naturalism and create an abstracted visual and kinetic realm. Now the play becomes less about what happens to Miss Julie (we see this in the opening image), and more about how and why it happens. Thus we become knowing witnesses to the last hour of Miss Julie's life.
-John Giampetro |
