Class tension, lusty plights, and the persuasion of suicide – sounds like an Adam’s Family reunion gone sour. But it’s not. Instead, think of your classic servant-master relationship, capricious damsel not really in distress, and a quasi-tragic ending. Roll these elements up in a conscience effort to stray away from Shakespearian anything, and you’ll have enough parts necessary (more or less ) to assemble the naturalistic play Miss Julie. Such a task may be overwhelming, exasperating, exaggerated, and a little bit on the ridiculous side of art making. But in this post-post-pre-post modern post world we live in, someone has to make it work. Thus enters Classical Theatre Company.
Written in 1888 by August Strindberg, Miss Julie is considered a key play in the move away from magical poetic script of ghosts, God, and aristocracies, to a secular, prosaic format displaying characters of the bourgeois and proletariat classes.In the case of Miss Julie, Julie, the headstrong daughter of a local count, and his servant, Jean, must figure out a way to conceal their accidental affair from Jean’s fiancee and Jane’s father. Their plans of abandoning their current lives and running away together is threatened as the two begin to quarrel over Julie’s request to take her pet bird with them. While Jean is in the midst of solving the bird problem, his fiance intrudes. Discovering Miss Julie and Jean’s plan, she threatens to reveal their mischief. Endangered of being exposed to her father, Miss Julie seeks Jean’s advice. With no way out, Jean proposes suicide to his fallen counterpart.
With eight performances left, Classical Theatre’s production of Miss Julie has favored among attendees. Broadway World has declared Miss Julie as a production that “showcases Houston talent at the absolute top of their performance.”
Those who are interested, have until the October 14th to see Miss Julie. Tickets are available online at www.classicaltheatre.org/tickets. General admission is $18; teacher/student tickets are $8.
Classical Theatre is located at 3201 Allen Parkway.
