St. Ann's Warehouse (Artistic Director, Susan Feldman; Executive Director, Andrew D. Hamingson) extends the American premiere run of the Baxter Theatre Centre (CEO and Artistic Director, Lara Foot) production by two weeks, to December 16 (from the initially scheduled closing on December 2). This extension represents a triumphant opening of St. Ann's new theater at 29 Jay Street in DUMBO.
Mies Julie, written and directed by Yael Farber, adapts the August Strindberg classic, "Miss Julie," to post-apartheid South Africa. Produced by the Baxter Theatre Centre at the University of Cape Town in association with South African State Theatre, the play is set in the smoldering kitchen of a remote estate 18 years after the election of Nelson Mandela. A single night, both brutal and tender, unfolds among a white farm-owner's daughter (Julie, played by Hilda Cronje, in a performance The New York Times calls "simply astonishing"), her father's favorite black laborer (John, played by Bongile Mantsai, whom Theatermania calls "both intelligent and hyper-virile"), and the woman who has raised them both (Christine, played by the "excellent" (New York Times) Thoko Ntshinga).The visceral struggles of contemporary South Africa are revealed as a deadly attraction spirals out of control between John and Julie who battle over power, sexuality, mothers and the land. Haunting and violent, intimate and heartbreaking, the struggles take place among the characters and with their ancestors, laying bare questions of what restitution and freedom can really mean and what losses can and cannot ever be recovered.Videos