Interpretation of Miss Julie (Fröken Julie) in the Contemporary Georgian Theater

Abstract

The dramaturgy of one of the founders of the new drama, August Strindberg cannot be attributed to any specific direction. He has created historical dramas, naturalistic and psychological plays, he used symbolic techniques and mystical elements. An experimenter by nature, he was constantly looking for new themes, new structures and forms of drama.

In his theoretical works, he argued the need to create a new drama and performing arts, which should combine the best traditions of the classics and innovation.

Strindberg sensed the beginning of the crisis in society and even seemed to predict its future. Technical progress was accompanied by the problem of human loneliness and alienation, lack of communication. Along with the development of life, a person confronts not the society (as in Ibsen’s plays), but another person, the closest to him, in whom he sees a competitor and tries to establish himself by fighting with him.

Gender issues exist in more than one of Strindberg’s works, including Miss Julie (Fröken Julie). The psychological and plot collisions, tension and intense energy of the play determined its popularity in different countries.

For several years, Levan Tsuladze has been exploring the problem of violence in society with his performances, in which violence against women and the issues of women’s rights occupy an important place. The Kreutzer Sonata, Crime and Punishment, The Marriage of Figaro - in the Marjanishvili theater, Othello and Miss Julie (Fröken Julie) - in the Theatre Factory 42.

Miss Julie (Fröken Julie) staged according to the interpretation of Levan Tsuladze, is a drama brought to the point of tragedy, with emphasis on human values, relationships between people, a woman and a man, a woman and a woman, parents and children, and the consequences of childhood traumas. Strindberg characterizes Miss Julie as a half-woman, a weak creature, a spreader of evil, who is not destined to have a long life. In the end, the playwright created the image of a strong person. And Christine, the cook, is described as a woman with a slave psychology.

The director, transforming the text of the play into a stage text, changed the images of Julie and Christine by shifting the accents. They are neither weak, nor „nature’s mistakes“, nor „monsters“. With their different origins, erudition, and methods, they fight for their rights and future. It is true, Julie kills herself, but this suicide is not equal to defeat, but to victory. Julie is the forerunner of those women who, shortly after her suicide, received the right to participate in elections.