When the personal is the political

A South African reimagining of the play Miss Julie has been wowing audiences around the world. Richard Fitzpatrick talks to the writer ahead of its Irish premiere.

THERE have been many versions of August Strindberg’s 1888 play Miss Julie, including a film adaptation in 1999 by Mike Figgis, and a recent Broadway production with Sienna Miller in the title role that relocated the action to post-war England.

Perhaps there is no better place to re-imagine the play, however, which was originally set in a Swedish count’s estate in the 1870s, and sprung from Strindberg’s uneven relationship with his aristocratic wife, than in modern-day South Africa. Certainly that’s the critics’ impression. Mies Julie has amassed more than 40 five-star reviews around the world since winning a Scotsman Fringe First award at last summer’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.