Julia

About

With the staging of Julia, Jatahy’s work includes the possibility of creating contemporary scenic dramaturgy by drawing on classic texts. In Julia, cinema and theatre coexist in full-fledged form and a new film is made on live at each new performance by combining previously filmed footage and scenes captured while the audience is present. Strindberg’s original text remains present, but is updated by the glance of the camera and by an adaptation to the present time. This way, a plot created in the nineteenth century provides the ground for dramaturgically discussing social and political issues of today’s Brazil. In fact, Julia, an adaptation of August Strindberg’s play Miss Julie, brings together theatre and film on stage. In Julia, the theatre becomes live cinema and the cinematic structures are exposed. By using pre-filmed footage and scenes filmed live, the film is built in the presence of the public on each day of the performance. It creates a permanent friction between theatre and film, between the classic and the contemporary. It reveals different levels of fiction from what can be only perceived with the presence of actors on stage and the detailed framing of cinema. This adaptation brings the conflict of the original play to the here-and-now, to the very day on which the public sees the play and asks themselves who they are and how they relate to Julia and Jean (named Jelson in this adaptation) in today’s Brazil. Where Strindberg used his 19th century dramaturgy to magnify the relationship between two human beings so different though so close, Jatahy has used a camera. Presence and permanent testimony break through and build together this contemporary encounter with the gaze of the public. In Portuguese with Czech and English surtitles Approximate running time: 70 minutes, no intermission.