After Miss Julie
By Patrick Marber
An updated version of August Strindberg's Miss Julie
Directed by David Green
The lady of the house descends to the servants' quarters as a passionate night of celebration turns to tragedy.
Patrick Marber relocates the drama of Strindberg's classic text to the night of Labour's landslide General Election victory in 1945.
While her father celebrates with the Labour hierarchy in London, Miss Julie dances the night away with the estate servants, including John, her father's chauffeur. Emma Martin, David Blood and Mia Chadwick star in this gripping story of lust and class division.
This passionate tragedy was adapted by Patrick Marber from Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Marber is best known for his string of acclaimed plays including Dealer’s Choice, Don Juan in Soho and Closer, and his BAFTA-winning films Notes on a Scandal and Closer.
Age gudiance: 14+
Warnings: contains references to sex, violence and self harm. For more detailed trigger warnings please contact the us directly .
Cast
Julie – Emma Martin
John – David Blood
Christine – Mia Chadwick
Running time approx 70 min
All performances 7.30pm
Tickets £12
Rehearsal Photos (c) www.momentsbyjoe.co.uk
Tour Dates - 2022
Thur 3 Nov
Wingfield Barns
Tel: 01379 384505
Fri 4 Nov
Fisher Theatre, Bungay
Tel: 01986 897130
Sat 5 Nov
The Cut, Halesworth
Tel: 0300 3033 211
Review - David Vass
Those familiar with Strindberg’s play, might be surprised by how much of it has remained intact in Patrick Marber’s updated version. Marber’s abiding message, by implication, is that nothing much changed in the sixty years between the original version and the post war setting of his iteration. The difference, of course, is that Strindberg was writing about modern characters living in an age of transition, whereas Marber was looking back from the nineties of Cool Britannia. Twenty five on, and Marber’s play is arguably of its time, as much as Strindberg’s.
Given the complexity of those layers, it was fascinating to see the direction David Green chose to take the play. Emma Martin had her moments of hysteria, but for the most part her wild mood swings seemed motivated by coquettish mischievousness. David Blood’s John brought to mind the cool headed stoicism of Ishiguro’s Mr Stevens – a mile away from the youthful swagger of Johnny Lee Miller or Phil Daniels in previous productions. Mia Chadwick ploughed her own furrow too, investing Christine with both quiet dignity and righteous indignation. Bear in mind that in that BBC outing, Kathy Burke played the part, in stark contrast to Geraldine Somerville’s Julie. In Open Space’s production, the line between the characters, and their purpose in the drama, is altogether more ambivalent, and arguably more interesting. To my mind, the tone was closer to the acidic ferocity of Tennessee Williams’s Brick and Maggie.
As always with Open Space, the play was simply, but effectively, staged, and was complemented by subtle yet fitting sound from Chris Martin. It zipped along, sometimes at breakneck speed, giving the audience little time to easily side with one character or another – arguably more in line with Strindberg’s naturism that Marber’s update.
Review - Audience Member
What a joy it is to have the Open Space Company back at the Corn Hall, as I have always enjoyed and deeply appreciated their interpretations of the classics.
Tonight, we had an adaptation of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie by Patrick Marber. What an intellectual challenge he must have had in creating this new masterpiece. I am sure that at some time I have seen the original but I am glad in some ways that the story came fresh to me in it’s updated format.
A simple and very effective set gave the cast plenty of room and enough variety of areas to give the impression of moving about a house. Costumes were excellent and I think quite authentic, there is such an interest in the 1940s that detail has to be accurate and many people in the audience will spot errors.
Once again, the Open Space Company have provided us with a terrific cast that is so well matched to their roles – must have been a fascinating audition process. In particular, I liked David Blood’s portrayal of John, he has quite long passages of dialogue and his particular skill is getting the pace right to make his words sound real. I think that this is as much to do with the pauses as the words, the pauses seemed to give the impression of a natural thinking process – very masterful. This doesn’t mean that the two women weren’t excellent as well. Emma Martin must have so enjoyed the mental (and I mean that in both senses of the word) flips that continued throughout her part. Also, I think that she had very difficult scenes to portray getting very physical and emotional, great acting and again very believable. For Mia Chadwick came the most difficult part, in some ways not the star but the feed without whom the plot could not progress. I think she was terrific as the conflict between her publicly projected image and her internal thoughts and emotions were presented brilliantly.
A good-sized audience for a play but room for more. Not an expensive evening and considering the difficulty in finding quality programmes to watch on the television I think more people should try live theatre and be challenged rather than be dulled by the current trend to reduce television to the lowest common denominator. I wish Open Cast every success with the rest of their run and look forward to their next production with great anticipation.
Meet the Team
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Emma Martin
JULIE
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David Blood
JOHN
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Mia Chadwick
CHRISTINE