Fräulein Julie

provocant and selfaware the drama blasted the brains out of the modest and partially already chalked up audience. Fräulein Julie, a naturalist skandinavian drama written by Strindberg interpreted newly, with catwalk instead of kitchen, a mixture of tecktonic jumpstlye and discodance instead of the traditional walz, and the implied love story, (ok, even in the text its quite clear whats happening) the story of lust, seduction and sex, is stripped down and carved out, fitting to the drift of the time.

Picture from http://www.staatstheater.stuttgart.de

Stripped is the right word. layer by layer the clothing fell. a panty under the rather short skirt was rather "normal". due to dancing im immune to such things anyhow. but soon the clothing fell. not only could you watch the actors change at the back of the "stage", the catwalk. but one of the coolest scenes, which really took your breath away was the final scene before it was clear the characters would sleep together: he still warns her: this is not good, stop whilst you can, im an arse. but she is the dominant one. Julie is superior, not only in class but in strongmindedness. her response is cool, calculated but still playful and highly seductive. she takes off her dress in front of him and cooly strolls off. he follows, also stripping on the way, with the same cool aprehension. like models on a runway, just that you know where theyve come from and where they are gong, theres more than that.

the end however still streched a bit. he loves me, she loves me, but he still only calls me "sie". she doesnt have as much money so she can go somewhere, hes an ideot that wanted to use me, but i still love him. no you dont yes you do yes i do. lets run away no i dont want to anymore, but i must, but i have money, but no not without my bird. forget him. no i wont go anymore, what will happen, you are cruel i want to kill you. inbetween some kissing some almost fighting, some vulgarities. but all in all it became brain overload. the firework of the beginning decrescendoed into wordy muddles of the soul that allowed the attention to dwindle away.

we all know the story in some way or another. the mutual affection is there, but somehow both dont really want to make it work. or one does and the other doesnt know or both dont really and think they do. the versions of love drama are numerous and neverending: the schoolfriend, the person everybody is gossiping about, at least if there is no better example the bollywood cheese. but i still think this story was packaged well. The director and characters had taken the original text and remodeled it, reinterpreted it and made it scandalous again, which is what naturalism was at that time. not that stripped people are something new in our time of playboy overload, but as always for some reason sex sells and works over and over again.