Miss Julie

The endlessly inventive and dynamic Faction Theatre Company have managed to pull off a hat-trick, completing their rep season with a fiery, passionate and intimate Miss Julie that seems perfectly moulded to the small space of the New Diorama Theatre.

August Strindberg’s play, an intense game of lust and power between two individuals, does not easily lend itself to the ensemble treatment, but Faction always have the power to surprise. As count’s daughter Julie enters a dangerous dance of seduction with servant Jean, the rest of the ensemble linger above, muffling whispered gossip from beyond the walls of the kitchen. In this imagining of Julie’s desperate predicament, the disgrace that threatens her is a powerful, audible presence.

Despite Julie’s pronouncement of "titles abandoned, rank forgotten", status is not discarded as easily as clothing. Power, class and gender are constant strands; Julia is Jean’s superior in class, but he holds the upper hand as a man. Strindberg’s erotic struggle for control is vividly evoked by the verbal and physical grapplings of the superb Leonie Hill and Cary Crankson as Julie and Jean respectively. Hill’s performance combines a playful awareness of her sexuality with a compelling madness and a brittle vulnerability as a woman of status who ultimately, in her own words, has nothing herself. 

Catherine Love

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