Miss Julie

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Data
Title: Miss Julie
Original title: Froken Julie
Genus: tragedy
Original language: Swedish
Author: August Strindberg
Publishing year: 1888
Premiere: March 14, 1889
Place of premiere: Copenhagen
people
  • Miss Julie
  • Jean
  • Kristin

Fräulein Julie [ ˈjuːli̯ə ] ( Swedish Fröken Julie ) is a tragedy by August Strindberg , which he wrote in 1888.

action

The chamber play is about the young aristocratic Julie and her servant Jean and their behavior and relationship to each other during a midsummer night and the following morning. It is set in the kitchen of Julie's father's manor in a small town in Sweden in 1894 and deals with class differences , the war between the sexes, and love and lust.

Julie tries to escape her socially normative existence and have some fun by dancing with the servants at the annual Midsummer Festival. There she feels drawn to the older servant Jean, who has been around the world and is both well educated and educated. Jean's fiancée, a servant named Kristin, is also often in the kitchen and sleeps there while Julie and Jean talk.

The plot addresses the different positions of power. While Miss Julie is above Jean because she belongs to the upper class and is a lady, Jean exercises power over Julie through his education and manhood. Julie's father, the Count, by virtue of his role as father, nobleman, and employer, exercises power over both Julie and Jean, although he never appears.

During the night, Julie and Jean's initial flirting turns into a perfect love affair. As the plot progresses, both struggle to control the situation and ignore each other's desires. In the end, however, Jean convinces Julie that the only way to get out of her predicament is to commit suicide.

people

Miss Julie
Daughter of the count. Her mother raised her to think and act like a man. However, that was not accepted by those around them. Due to the resulting conflicts, she has developed into a torn person who on the one hand knows how to get everything she wants, but on the other hand does not know what she actually wants.
Jean
Servant of the Count. He claims that he saw Miss Julie many times and dreamed of her at a young age. Since that time he has traveled widely in the world and worked in many professions until he saw what he wanted to achieve in his life: his goal is to rise in society. The first thing he would like to do is to open his own hotel. When he returns to the Count's estate, it does not take long before Miss Julie becomes part of his plan. He manipulates her and gets her to follow his wishes in the end.
Kristin
The cook in the Count's household. She is very religious and engaged to Jean. It symbolizes stability and stands for the role that a woman should play. It illustrates the discontinuities and changes in the relationship between Jean and Julie.
The Earl
The Count never appears on the scene. However, his gloves and boots on stage demonstrate his great influence on the two main characters Jean and Julie.

Performances

The world premiere took place on March 14, 1889 in Copenhagen , where Strindberg's then wife Siri von Essen played the leading role. Strindberg's actual theater was the Skandinavisk Forsøgsteater , but since the play had been banned by the censors, it was performed in closed company at the Studentersamfundet. Before the turn of the century, the play was performed in Germany and France, but in Strindberg's home country Sweden it was not until 1906 for the first time at the Folkteater in Stockholm . The first film was made in 1912 under the direction of Anna Hofman-Uddgren . Felix Basch filmed the subject in 1921 with Asta Nielsen in the title role. Another film adaptation took place in 1951 , this time directed by Alf Sjöberg . Over time, the material was filmed several times - also internationally - including in 1999 by Mike Figgis and in 2014 as under the same title by Liv Ullmann .

A ballet version of Miss Julie was produced by Birgit Cullberg , for which Ture Rangström wrote the music. The ballet was first performed in Västerås in 1950 .

A setting by Ned Rorem dates from 1965 , others by Antonio Bibalo and William Alwyn were premiered in 1973 and 1977. Finally, in 2005, the Belgian composer Philippe Boesmans wrote an opera under the title Julie , which was premiered in the La Monnaie opera in Brussels . The opera version Fröken Julie by the Finnish composer Ilkka Kuusisto was presented at the Vaasa Opera in 1994 .

Angelique Rockas as Miss Julie and Garry Cooper as Jean, Internationalist Theater, London

Miss Julie is one of Strindberg's most frequently performed pieces.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Gyldendals_Teaterleksikon/Teatre/Skandinavisk_Fors%C3%B8gsteater