Mies Julie

Book excerpt: South African born internationally acclaimed director and playwright, Yaël Farber, sets her explosive new adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie in the remote, bleak beauty of the Eastern Cape Karoo. Transposed to a post-apartheid kitchen – a single night, both brutal and tender, unfolds between a black farm-labourer, the daughter of his master and the woman who has raised them both. The visceral struggles of contemporary South Africa are laid bare, as John and Mies Julie spiral in a deadly battle over power, sexuality, mothers and memory. Haunting and violent, intimate and epic, the characters struggle to address issues of reprisal and the reality of what can and cannot ever be recovered. Mies Julie is the winner of a number of awards including, the Best Of Edinburgh Fringe Award, an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and an Edinburgh Herald Angel Award. In December 2012, Mies Julie was listed in the Guardian's top ten best theatre picks of 2012 and in the Top Ten Plays of 2012 by the New York Times.