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    Miss Julie
    Miss Julie
    Miss Julie
    Ebook86 pages41 minutes

    Miss Julie

    By August Strindberg

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    About this ebook

    As all the great dramatists since the Greek tragedians have known, class and gender roles continue to remain the two fundamental determinants of the social fabric of any culture—even one, like our own, in which the boundaries of those identities have become fluid, situational and transitory.

    David French’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s disturbing and enduring drama of the transgressive affair between the daughter of a count and the count’s man-servant has an eerie feel of the contemporary about it. In this adaptation of Miss Julie, French has sharpened the psychodramas of the original—scenes of conflict, desire, anger, jealousy, coercion, manipulation, exploitation, arrogance, dominance, submission and deceit—and backgrounded the historical elements of the play which have made it a favourite “period-piece” of the repertory theatre circuit. His revisioning of Miss Julie foregrounds the ruptures of identity and faith that ambition and desire eternally work in their rending of social norms, strictures and conventions, and he has re-enacted them in a contemporary idiom and vernacular that virtually cries out for the casting-call of a Paris Hilton to play the lead role.

    As with his adaptation of Chekhov’s The Seagull, David French, one of Canada’s best-loved playwrights, has here once again paid homage to one of the enduring masters who have brought to the stage the most elemental and universal dramas of the human condition.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTalonbooks
    Release dateJan 1, 2016
    ISBN9781772010008
    Miss Julie
    Author

    August Strindberg

    August Stringberg was a novelist, poet, playwright, and painter, and is considered to be the father of modern Swedish literature, publishing the country’s first modern novel, The Red Room, in 1879. Strindberg was prolific, penning more than 90 works—including plays, novels, and non-fiction—over the course of his career. However, he is best-known for his dramatic works, many of which have been met with international acclaim, including The Father, Miss Julie (Miss Julia), Creditors, and A Dream Play. Strindberg died in 1912 following a short illness, but his work continues to inspire later playwrights and authors including Tennessee Williams, Maxim Gorky, and Eugene O’Neill.

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      Book preview

      Miss Julie - August Strindberg

      Title Page

      David French’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie premiered on August 10, 2005 at the Bauer Theatre, Antigonish, Nova Scotia. It was produced by the Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre with the following cast and crew:

      MISS JULIE . . . . . . . . . . Raquel Duffy

      JEAN . . . . . . . . . Andrew Musselman

      KRISTIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jenn Priddle

      Director: Ed Thomason

      Set & lighting design: Thistle Theatre Design

      Costume design: Denyse Karn

      Stage manager: Ian Pygott

      Student apprentice: Kaitlin Hickey

      Music: Ken Shorley

      Characters

      MISS JULIE

      JEAN

      KRISTIN

      A large kitchen, draperies covering the walls and ceiling. The rear wall slants obliquely upstage from stage left. On this wall are two shelves with pots and pans of copper, iron, and pewter. A little to the right can be seen three-quartrers of a deep arched doorway with two glass doors. Through the doorway is visible a fountain with a statue of Cupid, lilac bushes in bloom, and the tops of some Lombardy poplars. Stage left is the corner of a large, tiled stove, part of its hood visible. Stage right, one end of the servants’ white pine dining table juts out, a chair or two around it. The stove is adorned with birch leaves; the floor strewn with juniper twigs. On the end of the table is a large Japanese spice-jar filled with lilacs. An icebox, a sink, and a scullery table. Above the door is a big, old-fashioned bell; to the left of the door, the mouthpiece of a speaking-tube. KRISTIN stands at the stove, stirring a frying pan. She wears an apron over a light- coloured cotton dress. JEAN enters, dressed in livery and carrying a pair of tall riding boots, with spurs. He sets the boots on the floor in sight of the audience.

      JEAN:

      Miss Julie’s wild again tonight. Absolutely wild.

      KRISTIN:

      So you’re back, are you?

      JEAN:

      I drove the Count to the station, and on my way back past the barn I dropped in for a dance. And who do I see but Miss Julie and the gamekeeper leading the dance. The second she saw me she rushed over and picked me for the ladies’ waltz. Lord, how she danced – I’ve never seen the like. She’s crazy, that one.

      KRISTIN:

      She’s always been wild. But nothing like the last two weeks. Ever since her engagement was called off.

      JEAN:

      Yes, I wonder what the real story was. He seemed decent enough, even if he wasn’t rich. Ah, women like her have such ideas. (He sits at the end of the table) Strange, don’t you think, that a young lady would want to stay home with the servants rather than go with her father to visit relatives? Especially on Midsummer Eve?

      KRISTIN:

      Maybe she’s ashamed to, after what happened with her beau.

      JEAN:

      Could be. He refused to take any nonsense from her, I know that much. You know what happened, Kristin? I saw it with my own eyes, though I didn’t let on.

      KRISTIN:

      You were there?

      JEAN:

      I was. They were down at the stables one evening, and Miss Julie was training him. That’s what she called it. Know what she was doing? Making him jump over her riding crop, like you would a dog. He jumped it twice, and she whipped him twice. But the third time, he snatched the whip and struck her across the face, leaving a welt. Then he walked off.

      KRISTIN:

      Is that what happened? I wondered.

      JEAN:

      Yes, that was the way it ended … Now what have you got for me, Kristin?

      KRISTIN:

      (serving him from the pan) Just a bit of

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