Classic Stage Company presents two 19th-century plays by August Strindberg in repertory as part of its 2018-2019 off-Broadway season.
Yaël Farber's Mies Julie (adapted from Strindberg's Miss Julie) is directed by Shariffa Ali, whilst Strindberg's The Dance of Death is directed by Victoria Clark.
(Photos by Joan Marcus)
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15 images Yaël Farber’s fierce adaptation of Strindberg’s Miss Julie resets the classic play to a farmhouse in the Karoo of South Africa on the evening of the annual Freedom Day celebration. When the white Afrikaans landowner’s daughter, Julie, falls for her father’s charismatic Xhosa farm laborer, John, their erotic evening together erupts into a brutal battle fueled by gender, race, power, and ancestral domain.
In The Dance of Death, retired military man Edgar and his wife Alice have given up on any semblance of civility toward each other on the threshold of their 25th wedding anniversary. Due to their isolation, however, they are as codependent as they are hateful. Seething with cruelty, and punctuated by absurdity and humor, Strindberg’s electrifying play was ages ahead of its time in its bleak examination of marriage and the social institutions governing it.
The Dance of Death, now playing at the Classic Stage Company, made me think of the lyrics from Old Man River, "I'm tired of livin' and scared of dyin'". That is the plight of the two main characters in Conor McPherson's adaptation of August Strindberg’s play. The play opens with an actual dance by husband, Edgar (Richard Topol) and wife, Alice (Cassie Beck) showing the timeline of their... Read more
From the moment you enter the Classic Stage Company's theatre you have arrived on Freedom Day 2012 in a sparse farmhouse kitchen in Eastern Cape, Karoo, South Africa. Steamy, as mist wafts down from over the stage setting. There on all fours is Christine (Patrice Johnson Chevannes), a domestic worker singing softly as she painstakingly cleans the tiles of a kitchen floor with a rag and bucket... Read more
