Theatre Review - Miss Julie

Miss Julie, Katie Eldred [Mark Senior]

AFTER two acclaimed runs of Philip Ridley’s Leaves of Glass, Lidless Theatre return to Park90 with a compelling production of August Strindberg’s classic 1888 play about sexual desire, class hierarchies and misogyny.

Michael Meyer’s 1965 translation of Miss Julie amplifies Strindberg’s central themes, in particular the viciousness of the shifting power dynamic between the count’s daughter Miss Julie (Katie Eldred) and her father’s manservant, Jean (Freddie Wise).

Set on midsummer’s eve, the count is away and a party is in full swing. Miss Julie visits the servants’ quarters, and coerces Jean into being her dancing partner. This leads to a dangerous seduction and a battle of wills between the pair that can only end in tragedy.

Miss Julie exploits her beauty and class in an attempt to control the men she encounters. Eldred captures the fine balance between arrogance and vulnerability as she reveals her character’s snobbish disdain for those she deems beneath her and a fierce desire to be liked.

Jean, an opportunistic social climber, dreams of owning a hotel in northern Italy but is bitterly disappointed when Miss Julie tells him she has no money to her name. Wise plays him as a bully and a coward lurching between arrogance and obsequiousness.

Christine (Adeline Waby), the cook and Jean’s fiancée, watches their brief passion burn out with a barely concealed disgust for their recklessness.

It’s simply staged in-the-round by Max Harrison. The studio space adds to the palpable sense of claustrophobia that gradually envelops the two ill-matched lovers. The actors’ focus is impressive – they really listen and respond to one another and their truthful performances light up the production.

Once again, a local theatre offers first-rate entertainment for a fraction of the cost of the West End. Embrace and enjoy.

Until July 6
parktheatre.co.uk/

Originally published by Islington Tribune