Book Title:  Miss Julie

Author:  August Strindberg,

Adapted by David French

Publishing Company:  Talonbooks (www.talonbooks.com)

Year:  2006

# of Pages: 96

ISBN #:  10: 0-88922-549-4

ISBN #:  13:  978-0-88922-549-7

$15.95 Canada

$15.95 USA 

4 stars 

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner 

August Strindberg's play Miss Julie was originally published in 1888.  At the time, this story of a sexual encounter between a Count's daughter and his valet was deemed so shocking the play was banned throughout much of Europe.  This new adaptation by Canadian playwright David French was especially commissioned for the Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre in 2005.   

This one-act play is written in real-time, telling of a 90-minute view of life in the home of the Count, a character who does not appear in the play but whose presence is felt throughout it.  Three characters are present:  Kristin, the serving girl; Jean, the Count's valet; and Miss Julie, the Count's daughter.  The servants are engaged in a dance in celebration of Midsummer Eve.  Miss Julie joins in the dancing, taking Jean  as a partner.  Miss Julie is already quite the talk of the servants having just suffered a broken engagement.  Jean reports to Kristin he observed Miss Julie trying to “train' her fiance as if he were a dog, demanding he jump over her riding crop. 

Jean warns Miss Julie she should not dance with him again or the servants will talk.  There are definite lines between the classes of master and servant that should not be crossed.  As Miss Julie teases and taunts, Jean gives in to his own feelings, and they disappear for what soon is revealed to the audience was a sexual encounter.  Most shocking for the time of the play's origin, and a point that still takes the story to the edge, is the fact that this was an encounter not based in love, but purely lust. 

The aftermath brings Miss Julie's realization that the servants will talk, that she will be considered fallen, and Jean's attempt to assume the role of master and persuade Julie to finance his rise in station.  Kristin presents the other side of the serving class, one content in her position with her faith and her self-respect, deeming herself somehow above her fallen mistress.   

French's adaptation demonstrates Strindberg's work continues to be relevant, a commentary on social position and power struggles and the dangers of crossing lines.