Farber - (Oberon Modern Playwrights) by Yaël Farber (Paperback)

About the Book

The first collection of plays from the award-winning South African playwright, featuring three fresh adaptations of classical theatre texts.

Book Synopsis

Molora - Based on The Oresteia by Aeschylus

In this reworking of Aeschylus' Oresteia, Klytemnestra and Elektra face one another in a dramatic confrontation. Attempts to come to terms with their violent past echo testimonies delivered in Apartheid's wake throughout South Africa during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

RAM: The Abduction of Sita into Darkness - Based on The Ramayana by Valmiki

Farber's potent revisioning of this age-old text is a raw and probing contemporary work which places the loss of the Feminine Divine, and thus our lack of spiritual and moral equilibrium, at its visceral core. This is a Ramayana for a new world.

Mies Julie - Based on Miss Julie by August Strindberg

Transposed to a post-apartheid kitchen - a single night, both brutal and tender, unfolds between a black farm-labourer, the daughter of his master and the woman who has raised them both. The visceral struggles of contemporary South Africa are laid bare, as John and Mies Julie spiral in a deadly battle over power, sexuality, mothers and memory.

Review Quotes

"It is impossible to come away from RAM or Mies Julie without feeling that the world must change; Molora points the way. Yael Farber's theatre will leave no participant unmoved." --Ingrid Rowland, from her introduction

About the Author

Yaël Farber is a multiple award-winning director and playwright of international acclaim. Her productions have toured the world extensively - earning her a reputation for hard-hitting, controversial works of the highest artistic standard. Her most recent work Nirbhaya (directed and written by Farber in India) earned rave reviews and three international awards at the 2013 Edinburgh Festival and has just completed a sold out run at The Southbank Centre. Mies Julie won a string of international awards at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival, was named one of the Top Ten Productions of 2012 by the New York Times, and Top Five Productions of 2012 by the Guardian. Yaël is the recipient of four Best Director Awards in her native South Africa, where she was named Artist of the Year (2003). She has won the Scotsman Fringe First Award, The Sony Gold Award, Best of Edinburgh Award and The Amnesty Freedom of Expression Award 2013.