Driving Miss Julie Down Town

Press release on the RP Dept. of Foreign Affairs website

2004-11-04T21:34:00.000+08:00

In the Original

2004-10-04T01:46:00.000+08:00

Read Strindberg's MISS JULIE in the original Swedish.

E-text courtesy of Projekt Runeberg.

Drumroll Tour 2005

2004-10-03T20:53:00.000+08:00

Should schedules and circumstances permit, Drumroll shall tour its inaugural production of Strindberg's MISS JULIE. The following cities are on our list:

a. Shanghai - Why, of course! We set the play there, right?
b. Manila - Because it's affordable.
c. Singapore - Because we want to see the "durian" building called the Esplanade
d. New York - Because our Divine Miss J lives there.

We welcome suggestions about venues, possible sponsors, and the usual information required to put up a production like this.

Thank you, all, for making MISS JULIE at the Fringe a success!

Thanks for the plug!

2004-10-03T08:43:00.000+08:00

TJ Legg, blog author of Daai Tou Laam, has written about us on his site. Have a look at the entry here.

Thanks!

Pick of the Day

2004-09-30T16:09:00.000+08:00

The South China Morning Post featured MISS JULIE as "Pick of the Day" on 29 September 2004.

Get your tickets at http://www.hkticketing.com/

Director's synopsis and note

2004-09-30T15:49:00.000+08:00

Take a young woman raised to take her status for granted even if her family no longer has the money to support that status. she has just broken off an engagement everyone thought to be a "suitable" match. Add to that a man who has travelled a little and has grown tired of working for the young woman and her kind. He wants to work for himself and he intends to succeed whatever the cost. Add to that the woman who would make him a suitable wife. Imagine the sexual and class politics of a society in which the self-made man is just beginning to emerge. Now, imagine these 'games' of domination played against the backdrop of the mid-autumn festival in shanghai in the mid-1930s.

The Freench Concession of Shanghai 1936 was by no means a geographically isolated country estate of the late 19th-century Northern Europe. Shanghai was a place of energy and excitement, opportunity and disappointment, revolution and vested interests. People came there from all over the world. What they had in common with the characters of Miss Julie were issues of class, race and--lest we forget--gender. These created then, as now, boundaries and isolation. Like Jean, Julie and Christine, many had dreams. Chiang Kai-Shek described Shanghai as "a furnace for making men." Presumably women merely tended the fires.

Strindberg's original setting, Midsummer Eve, is the Feast of St. John the Baptist, the herald of redemption. The Mid-Autumn Festival of this setting coincides with the Feast of St. Matthew, a tax collector who found Grace did, indeed, abound. But as Christine assures us that is no easy matter.

Original Soundtrack

2004-09-29T01:46:00.000+08:00

Drumroll's production of August Strindberg's MISS JULIE (Shanghai 1936) has its own soundtrack courtesy of David Liang. Visit his website.

Compact discs will be sold during intermission at the show.

Dramatis Personae

2004-09-26T03:13:00.000+08:00

Nancy Yao plays Miss Julie.

Arvin Robles plays Jean.

Armida Azada plays Kristine.

Have a look at some rehearsal photos:

Jean and Kristine in the kitchen
Jean in the foreground, Julie in the background
A reflective Jean, with Julie facing backstage
A fallen Julie and a sympathetic Jean

HK Magazine's Stage Listing

2004-09-26T02:08:00.000+08:00

HK Magazine is published by Asia City Publishers Ltd. For more information about weekend events, visit HK Weekend.

Drumroll will set one of August Strindberg's classics "Ms. Julie" (sic) on stage. This play is a study of social status and gender politics and has been adapted to set (sic) in multicultural Shanghai in 1931 (sic) during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Directed by Yvonne Webber, frequent theater-goers will recognize faces like Arvin Robles, who is one of the most active local theater performers.

Philippine ConGen supports Miss Julie

2004-09-21T01:25:00.000+08:00

On Sunday, Sept 19th, Drumroll's artistic director Yvonne Webber, Arvin Robles and Armida Azada attended at luncheon organised by the cultural staff of the Philippine Consulate General.

Later in the day, through the help of Consul Tess de Vega, Mida Azada was able to make a public announcement at the Cebu Pacific Hong Kong launch at Chater Garden.

Swedish ConGen in Hong Kong supports Drumroll

2004-09-19T02:40:00.000+08:00

Miss Julie is listed in the Swedish Consulate General's calendar of events. View the entry here.

The Swedish Embassy hopes to promote Strindberg in China next year. Details of the program here.

Article by Smiley Julve

2004-09-18T17:07:00.000+08:00

Read the article on The Sun, the Philippine community newspaper in Hong Kong.

Two Filipinos and a Chinese-American are the stars of August Strindberg's "Miss Julie," which will be shown at the Fringe Club at Central from September 29 to October 2, under the direction of the American Community Theater's President Yvonne Webber.

Strindberg's play, which is set during the mid-autumn festival in 1936 Shanghai, takes place on a sexual battleground marked by class. The drama focuses on the downfall of the aristocratic Miss Julie (Nancy Yao) who rebels against the restrictions placed upon her as a woman and as a member of the upper class. Her behavior is shown to alienate her peers and shock the servants.

After breaking off her engagement with her fiance, Julie gets into a mad fit and dances with her father's valet, Jean (Arvin Robles), and ambitious young man who wants to lift his status in society. For the period of the festivities, Julie and Jean make a connection.

However, Jean is currently engaged to the Count's loyal servant and cook, Kristine (Armida Azada). Tension builds as Kristine leaves the Count's estate and decides to give up on her relationship with Jean.

"Expect to be moved," said the Jamaican director Webber.

The two-hour play is in English with intermittent Cantonese, Mandarin and Tagalog.

Miss Julie will be shown at the Fringe Studio, The Fringe Club, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central on Wed Sept 29-7:30 pm, Thu Sept 30 - 10 am and 7:30 pm, Fri Oct 1 - 7:30 pm, and Sat Oct 2, 7:30 pm. Tickets: $190-adults, $145-concessions at HK Ticketing 31 288 288. Visit http://www.drumroll.tk/

"Missy Julie Misdemeanor": A Rehearsal Review

2004-09-16T14:21:00.000+08:00

First performed in 1889 and set on a remote Scandinavian estate, August Strindberg's Miss Julie is a naturalistic take on the class conflict and power struggle between an aristocratic young woman and her ambitious valet. While her father is away, Miss Julie seduces the engaged servant, Jean, an act catastrophic for more than one life. Surely a modern Hong Kong audience won't find much to relate to in this bleak European drama about outdated social systems? The latest production by Drumroll disagrees, boldly resetting the action during the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1936 Shanghai - just before the Japanese invasion - to highlight the tensions wrought by the close contact of people from very different backgrounds, all with powerful ambitions.

Armida Azada (who plays Jean's fiancÈe and household cook, Christine), is enthusiastic about the decision, because, while still distant enough in the last century for the feudal attitudes to make sense, "it's not too far to think about. There are still some survivors, perhaps even amongst the older members of the audience who might remember those frenetic times. For younger audiences, it reflects a class system extant today, not based on money and birthright, but on money and race."

The all-Asian cast sprinkles the dialogue with phrases from their native tongues, making this community all the more personal and believable ,because it's not unlike the Hong Kong of today. The setting also adds to the unsettled atmosphere of the family house, the precarious state of the city reflecting the soon-to-implode relationships. Believability is, of course, key to a Strindberg production, and director Yvonne Webber has run her actors through a gamut of realist acting exercises. She even dances Arvin Robles (Jean) to exhaustion before he has to dash onstage fresh from a ball.

Won't Strindberg's much vaunted misogyny be a problem for modern audiences? Webber concedes the point, but argues "the thing about a really good playwright is that if he is an honest observer of people, he will write real human beings. Miss Julie is a real person and a real product of her time. Jean is a prick but he is very human." Despite his own views, Strindberg produces an observation on clashes between people and classes that remains relevant and immediate.

Miss Julie will be playing at the Fringe Studio from September 29 to October 30 at 7:30pm, with a matinee performance at 10am on September 30. Tickets are available through HK Ticketing, call 31 288 288 or visit www.hkticketing.com.

Read the article on BC Magazine.

2004-09-14T11:52:00.000+08:00

This is the official blog of Drumroll's production of August Strindberg's Miss Julie. The play shall be staged at the Fringe Studio, The Fringe Club, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central from 29 Sept-2 Oct. Tickets on sale via HK TICKETING - 31 288 288. Visit the website to purchase tickets online.

The members of this blog community include:

Yvonne - director
Nancy - Miss Julie
Arvin - Jean
Mida - Kristine

We'll be posting our thoughts about the production soon. Do check back often!