Monday, September 21, 2020

354. "MISS JULIE" and "THE DEATH OF LORD CHATTERLY." From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975

Mary Alice, Albert Hall.

“MISS JULIE” and “THE DEATH OF LORD CHATTERLY” [Dramatic Revival] D: Henry Pillsbury; S: Holmes Easley; C: Carol M. Gersten; L: Barry Arnold; M: Philip Rosenberg; P: Roundabout Theatre Company; T: Roundabout Theatre (OB); 7/31/73-8/12/73 (16)

“Miss Julie” A: August Strindberg; AD: Henry Pillsbury; “The Death of Lord Chatterly: A: Christopher Frank; TR: Henry Pillsbury

Strindberg’s classic one-acter, “Miss Julie,” about Miss Julie (Linda Carlson), a wealthy, neurotic young woman and her illicit relationship with an attractive male servant, Jean (Albert Hall), was here transplanted to an American Southern setting, with Julie portrayed as a plantation owner’s daughter, and black performers playing Christine (Mary Alice) and Jean. The result, said Howard Thompson, was “none too convincing.” There was now “too stark and obvious” a “psychological clash between Jean and Julie, because of the miscegenation idea. Mary Alice’s supporting performance was the best-played of the three. She would, of course, go on to a distinguished career.

The second piece, a short French farce, was an “amusingly bland” trifle about a butler and his mistress, whose husband is dying offstage. It starred Philip Campanella and Linda Carlson.