The tour continues when the production, titled title Mies Julie, transfers to the Edinburgh Festival in the UK from 2 to 27 August and thereafter comes to The South African State Theatre in Pretoria from 5 September to 7 October.

Farber has assembled a formidable cast led by Thoko Ntshinga as Christine with Bongile Mantsai as John and Hilda Cronje as Julie. Canadian brothers Daniel and Matthew Pencer perform and provide the music for the production with their unique sound, in collaboration with Tandiwe Nofirst Lungisa from the Ngqoko Cultural Group. The set design is by Patrick Curtis with lighting by Paul Abrams. The assistant director is Zoleka Helesi.

“I am very excited to be working with Yael again and it was time that she shared with local and international audiences her incredible vision and interpretation of this classic which she aptly sets in contemporary South Africa,” says Baxter CEO and artistic director Lara Foot.

She continues, “Yael has brought together a dynamic cast and creative team to present a fresh take on this play which made theatre history in South Africa in the 80s. We are grateful to and proud of our partnership with the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, the Edinburgh Festival and the South African State Theatre.”

When Miss Julie was performed at the Baxter and Market Theatres in 1985 in apartheid South Africa, starring Sandra Prinsloo and John Kani, it created much controversy. It was the cross-colour kiss on a South African theatre stage which sparked a national outcry by right-wing Afrikaners involving protests, death threats and immense pressure on the Censor Board to ban the production.

In true Farber style, the director, playwright and creator tackles the deeper complexities of our society head on and locates the play against the remote, bleak beauty of the Eastern Cape Karoo. Transposed to a post-apartheid kitchen - a potent convergence point of domination, domestic practicality and untenable sadness - a single night, both brutal and tender, unfolds between a black farm labourer, the daughter of his ‘master’ and the woman who has raised them both.

The visceral struggles of contemporary South Africa are laid bare in this domestic setting, as a deadly battle over power, sexuality, memory, mothers and land spirals out of control between John and Julie.

Farber’s probing adaptation looks at a post-traumatic society and the knot of inheritances and legacies that entangle lives in the aftermath. Haunting and violent, intimate and epic, the struggles between the three individuals reach to address issues of restitution and the reality of what can and cannot ever be recovered.

“The events that ignite overnight in the play, in this remote farmland kitchen, reflect the larger dilemmas of the nation and, indeed, today’s world. The tensions so central to Strindberg’s original text assume deeper, darker proportions in this adaptation,” explains Farber. “This is a Miss Julie for a world grappling to redefine itself. It is a disturbing yet mesmerising theatrical experience that reaches to address issues of restitution and the reality of what can and cannot ever be recovered.”

Mies Julie previews at the Baxter Flipside on 11 and 12 July, opens on 13 and runs until 26 July. Booking can be done through Computicket on 0861 915 8000, online at www.computicket.co.za or at any Shoprite Checkers outlet. For discounted corporate, block or schools bookings contact Sharon on 021 680 3962 and email [email protected] Alternatively, phone Carmen on 021 680 3993 or email her at [email protected].