Julie reworked for this generation

IT is more than 19 years since the stage kiss between John Kani and Sandra Prinsloo shook audiences in apartheid South Africa.

Now director Yael Farber has intensified the shock by reworking Mies Julie for today's generation.

The play, on at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, is an adaptation of Swedish playwright August Strindberg's 19th century offering.

It tells the story of the conflicted love affair between Julie, a white farm owner's daughter, and John, a farmworker.

It is a tight production with a cast of five, including Thoko Ntshinga as John's mother Christine, Bongile Mantsai as John, Hilda Cronje as Julie and Tandiwe Nofirst Lungisa as the ancestral spirit.

Through this tragic love affair Farber successfully translates the narrative of South Africa's troubled past and present. Besides racial conflict, the play also touches on land restitution. It is a story about being torn between transformation and a past that threatens to unearth the newly found peace.

Farber has refused to shy away from the insecurities of a democratic South Africa.

While John confesses that he has loved Julie since the day her mother brought her home from the hospital, he makes it clear that he wants to take back the land of his ancestors.

Julie is also torn between loving John, getting her father's approval and protecting the land from the squatters who have occupied it.

The play also shows that power inevitably changes hands and that the line between oppressor and victim is not as clear as we think.

The haunting music and the cracked kitchen floor, the master's leather boots and John's ancestor, who visits the farm every now and again, create the ultimate ambience for this troubled world.

Mies Julie is a reflective and a powerful statement.

Mantsai displays confidence and agility as he shifts from the caring lover and son to a defiant and somewhat aggressive young man.

The outspoken farm hand is always hard at work polishing his master's boots, but he never forgets to speak out about his people having been wronged by a cruel history.

Mantsai says playing the role of John is not easy.

"The last time the role was played on South Africa's stages John Kani played John. It was a big challenge for me to fill those shoes. To tell this kind of story you need to be tough," Mantsai says.

Mies Julie is his first lead role, a venture he describes as "a challenge that removed me from my comfort zone".

While Mantsai is keen on inviting his parents to see Mies Julie when it hits Cape Town in August, he says he will have to prepare them for it. He comes from a staunch Christian background and his father is the Bishop of St Paul's church in Stellenbosch. - mahopoz@sowetan.co.za