By SHARON EBERSON
Elizabeth Eliza Huffman wanted Pittsburgh International Classic Theatre to open 2025 with a classic, and had her heart set on Miss Julie, the 1888 play about power and desire among the haves and have-nots.
But which Miss Julie to choose?
The play by the Swedish writer August Strindberg has been revisited often, including the adaptation Miss Julie, Clarissa and John by Mark Clayton Southers, in a stirring American Reconstruction-Era production.
Huffman read many versions of the play before finding herself transfixed by the Hong Kong-set adaptation by Amy Ng, previously produced in London and Hong Kong, Courtesy of PICT, Ng’s Miss Julie gets its American premiere at Carnegie Stage, opening Friday, April 18, 2025.
One of Huffman’s goals in presenting international work, which is inherent in the company name, is “to get the various communities who are not often represented on our stages to come to the theater, and to also educate our regular audiences that there’s a whole other community out there of artists that need to be supported and seen,” Huffman said.
Once setting her mind to getting the rights to the play, Huffman’s work began in earnest – from finding an Asian cast, to researching the period of post-World War II in Hong Kong, when the play is set.
As in Strindberg’s version, there’s a celebration going on – in this case, Chinese New Year. Julie is the daughter of the island’s former British governor, newly released from a Japanese internment camp.
PICT further describes the plot as, “When her father is away for the holiday weekend, Miss Julie, who was raised in British colonial Hong Kong, comes downstairs to join the servants as they party, initiating a sexually charged power game with her father’s Chinese chauffeur, who is engaged to the kitchen servant Christine. What starts as a lark descends into a fight for survival as sex, power, money and race collide on a hot night in the Pearl River Delta.”
Huffman notes that there are “quite a few” differences to be found between the original and the adaptation, including the implications of it happening as the British Empire was collapsing, and at a time where there had been hope that the United States would oust the Japanese, and Hong Kong would become autonomous.
Instead, British rule continued into the 1990s, until Hong Kong was turned over to China, and today it is considered to be “a special administrative region” of China.
Informing this version of Miss Julie, said Huffman, “Racial tensions are high, and expectations from the people of Hong Kong were dashed. And so there is a tension already in the air that is not really existing in the original Miss Julie.”
Another difference is the presence of Auntie, “who is a sort of spirit that flits in and out of this production. Actually all three of them, Julie, John, and Christine in this version were basically raised by the housekeeper, Auntie who loved them, where there was no love in any of their lives anywhere else. So she’s a really important figure that is not in the original. And then going even further, we get to learn a lot about Julie’s mother,” Huffman said.
Julie’s father remains the dominant figure in her life, but her relationship with her mother comes more into focus here, and adds to what we know about her character’s craving to be loved.
To cast Miss Julie, Huffman invited an old friend, Trieu Tran, whose screen roles include the Netflix streaming series Altered Carbon (2018-2020) and HBO’s The Newsroom (2012-2014), to play John. Shelby Garrett plays Miss Julie, with Yan Pang as Christine and, as Auntie, Mimi Jong, who also has been among the consultants for the production.
Jong is an architect and an award-winning player of the erhu, an ancient Chinese string-and-bow musical instrument. Her first taste of acting came in 2021, via Quantum Theatre’s Chimerica, and she also performed in One Log Bridge, by co-star and playwright/composer Yan Pang.
“Having the Asian actors here has really been so helpful to all of us white people that don’t know a lot about the culture specifically,” said Huffman, who added that casting for different ethnicities in Pittsburgh hasn’t been easy, “and I intend to do a lot of international work.”
Since she took over as artistic director, helping to bring PICT back in a third iteration in 2018, one of the challenges, Huffman said, is getting the word out on auditions.
“I want to tell stories from almost every cultural diaspora, and I need the actors to surface,” she said. “And that’s the thing I’m really trying to put out to the community.”
Making connections within Pittsburgh’s Asian community has been among the blessings bestowed by the Hong Kong-set play.
Without giving too much away, Huffman offers that the show’s design is “stunning,” and based on extensive research by PICT’s creative team, but her deep dive goes beyond what you’ll see on the stage.
Among the many pre- and post-show events attached to the production is the pay-what-you-can Asian Cultural Celebration, a night of music, dance, desserts and an Asian art raffle, with support from the Opportunity Fund, on Wednesday, April 23.
On April 26, playwright Ng will be on hand for dinner and conversation at DeBlaze at 131 restaurant, across West Main Street from Carnegie Stage, and on April 30, PICT will hold a co-fundraiser with Southers and his Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company, including a talkback and video capture of Miss Julie, Clarissa and John. (Details on these and other events: https://www.picttheatre.org/.)
All of which brings us back to: Why Miss Julie, a play Swedish play from 1888?
“The themes are really prevalent today,” Huffman said. “The same situations that Julie and John and Christine find themselves in are very familiar to us and will have resonance, I hope, for our audiences. I think this is going to be quite a journey for audiences, from the minute you walk in.”
TICKETS AND DETAILS
PICT’s production of Amy Ng’s Miss Julie is at Carnegie Stage, 25 W. Main St., Carnegie, April 18-May 4, 2025. Tickets for the play and special events: https://www.picttheatre.org/ .
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Show Previews
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