The Portrayal of Racial Relations in a Stage Performance
South African aparteid presented horrific soceital inequity that left the rightful, original landowners deprived of their property to the colonial brithish settlers during the twentieth century. Enslavement and siezing of property unfairly altered the habitat and lifestyle of the coutries indigince population. The historical reality is unquestionably a sad tale and the progression since the end of apartheid in 1994 is a subject still of frequent discussion. In a recent adaptation of a play, "Mies Julie," originally written by Strinsberg and performed in 1985 in Baxter, South Africa has emerged. The tale centers around the dynamic of several characters including Julie, the daughter of a family who has held land possession for several generations. A young African worker for the family, John, plays Julie's lover and the story traverses the undertones that such an untraditional relationship can entail.
The issue of the rigid societal lines between the privaledged owners and the enslaved workers takes fold as the cultural standard that existed during the time is presented in the play. Yet a humane coexistance between the two characters of Julie and John takes the audience through a plot of effection that was forbidden at the time. Interacial marriage and intercourse were illegal until 1985 and during that same year when the original play premiered, most viewers exited the theater during the performance.
The play's rendidtion has been directed by Yeal Farber, a third generation resident of Johannesburg. Differences exist between Farber's version and the original as Farber includes a more modern portrayal of the dilemna facing a people in possession of land rights against the country's original inhabitants who had their home taken from them.
A third main character of "Mies Julie" is Christine, John's mother, who plays a caregiver role to Julie during her upbringing. The closeness among the characters sprinkles a deeper, emotional bond among the two sided issue of injustice including some of the landowners moral remorse for their privledged existance. Mrs. Farber works to express the sentiment of the current situaion where the denouncement of the apartheid system prevails but no impactful efforts to reconstitute the original land claims exists.
The performaace has traveled to the St. Ann Warehous in Dumbo, Brooklyn after the theaters artistic director Susan Feldman advocated bringing the show to New York after having viewed it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer. Mies Julie is running currently until Dec. 2.