Dec 30, 2009

Miss Julie | The Camera and the Aesthetics of Repetition Strindberg's Use of Space and Scenography in Miss Julie, A Dream Play, and The Ghost Sonata

Citing the playwright's background as a photographer and filmmaker, Rokem explains the stagecraft techniques employed by Strindberg in writing Miss Julie.

Strindberg succeeded in arriving at theatrical effects that resemble the way a photograph "cuts out" a piece of reality: not a symmetrical joining of one wall to the other walls in the house—the basic fourth-wall technique of the realistic theater—but rather an asymmetrical cutting-out. Furthermore, Strindberg used cinematographic techniques resembling zoom, montage, and cut, which are highly significant from the strictly technical point of view and for the meaning of the plays. Historically, photography and movies were making great strides at the time and were art forms to which he...