After Miss Julie

Synopsis

Takes as its basis August Strinberg's 1888 class-struggle Miss Julie, which tells the tale of the passionate but ultimately destructive sexual liaison between a lowly footman and the sexual aristocrat Miss Julie. Marber's contemporary take on the idea moves the action from a Swedish estate at the end of the 19th Century to an English country house in July 1945, on the night of the Labour Party's victory over Winston Churchill's Tories in the General Election.

Our Review:

26 November 2003

In a recent interview, playwright/adaptor Patrick Marber stated simply of After Miss Julie that "it's a play about a fuck". Specifically, as in the Strindberg classic upon which it is based, it's about one that transcends class and social barriers, as Miss Julie, daughter of the lord of the manor where the play is set, goes 'below stairs' to the kitchen where she flirts, and then goes further, with her father's chauffeur John, while his fiancé, a maid of the household, looks on. Meanwhile, a society party is in full swing upstairs, from whence the sound of big band jazz is seeping through.

This version, first written for a 1995 BBC TV production, and now receiving its stage premiere at the Donmar Warehouse in a broodingly moody production by artistic director Michael Grandage, is according to Marber, "30 percent me, 70 percent Strindberg." Actually, he left out a majority percentage for Pinter's influence, which feels pervasive here in the pregnant paus...

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Latest User Review

USER: Whatsonstage.com (62.254.64.6) - 6 February 2004:

Another life-changing production from the wonderful Michael Grandage. Practically faultless, and Kelly Reilly is supremely talented and beautiful....

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