... This was my first visit to the Theater of Nations. I have heard a lot about this venue and its artistic director Yevgeny Mironov, but never was able to see anything there. ... My first acquaintance with the theater was Miss Julie, a play starring Yevgeny Mironov and Chulpan Khamatova, an actress from the Sovremennik Theater.

The main character of this play, written by famous Swedish playwright August Strindberg in 1888, became a kind of symbol of the "new type" of heroine. In the late 19th century, the story of the "moral lapse" of a count's daughter, who for one night became the lover of her father's valet, was perceived as too realistic. In Sweden Miss Julie was censored until 1906. Today it is one of the Swedish playwright's most popular and most frequently staged works.

It is not the first time that well-known German director Thomas Ostermeier has attempted to look into the psychology of this type of character. Seven years ago Russian audiences had the opportunity to see Ostermeier's production of Nora, in which the heroine of the title abandons her "doll house" after shooting her husband. That production became a major event for Russian theatergoers and one of the highlights of the NET Festival in Moscow, at which it was shown.

The action of this play is set in contemporary Russia. All the main storylines are preserved, while the dialogue has been rewritten in modern language. The entire play is focused on the eternal triangle – Miss Julie, servant Jean and maid Kristina. The acting of all three actors is superb.

This performance is definitely not easy Friday evening theatergoing stuff and not something that you would probably want to see twice, but worth seeing nonetheless.