Director – James Ngcobo (South Africa)
(16+)
The Theatre of Nations welcomes its first-ever production by South African director James Ngcobo, Artistic Director of the Joburg Theatre, Roodepoort Theatre, and Soweto Theatre. Ngcobo is a multi-award-winning director whose style is characterized by complex yet engaging productions designed for sophisticated theatre audiences. For his Russian debut, he has chosen the tragic story of a valet and an aristocrat's daughter, *Miss Julie*, a work by Swedish playwright August Strindberg, one of the founders of modern drama.
"This play is particularly interesting to me because it touches on the important theme of relationships between people from different social classes. It reflects a situation where some people perceive their fortunate fate as commonplace, while others, perhaps less fortunate by birth, become dreamers full of ambition and aspirations. This phenomenon is timeless and universal; it is observed all over the world and reflects an important aspect of human nature. And, of course, this play contains everything that modern society struggles with – harassment, abuse, bullying… But whether there is love is something each viewer must decide for themselves after the performance," explains James Ngcobo
In its classic interpretation, *Miss Julie* is a play for three actors, but Ngcobo introduces six dancers who, in the manner of an ancient Greek chorus, act as silent witnesses and invisible judges of everything that happens on this mystical Midsummer's Eve. The presence of such a collective character was important to the director, because whoever you are in this life, there is always at least one pair of eyes watching you from the sidelines. This feeling of social voyeurism is especially familiar to the modern viewer living in the age of social media.
Performance gallery
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