Review: Miss Julie

August Strindberg’s Miss Julie is angsty to say the least. It drips with such sexual tension so that the leading male, Jean, (Alexander Stutt) is caught mopping his brow at the mere mention of Miss Julie’s name (Sophie Ablett).

The play takes place on Midsummer’s eve, where servants Jean and Kirsten (Tanya Lacey-Solymar), a couple, are winding down in the kitchen after the celebrations. Then Sophie Ablett, elegantly convincing in pearls, long dress et al, swans in and the rest, as they say, is history.

Tensions are present from the beginning, signified mostly by Jean’s persistent brushing of his master’s boots and his restless behaviour; he darts around the stage as though playing a high-stakes game of musical chairs. A slightly more varied reaction might have been in order; anxiety can be expressed in other ways than frenetic movements. At first, the awkwardness of the mistress of the house arriving unannounced in the downstairs kitchen is enough to draw out Jean’s handkerchief, but when a bit of ankle is exposed, well…

The three man cast do remarkably well in maintaining the oppressive atmosphere the play requires. Miss Julie’s progressively more wild eyes are a case in point; they seemed capable of engulfing the entire stage. The intimate setting and short performance time captured this tension well.

The production team make a few additions to lighten some of the heavier scenes of dialogue. A dance around the kitchen is one successful example, although the second, a blackout midway through, diminishes the fast-paced dramatic effect which the first part of the play strove so hard to create. That said, there is some relief from the melodrama and Jean enlivens the play with moments of comical frankness.

The play asks some brutal questions, and offers some even more brutal solutions – involving knives and chopping boards. Kirsten, the character who spends most of her time closeted upstairs, asks ‘what do we have to live up to?’ Certainly this play had a lot to live up to; its preface is a Naturalist manifesto. Yet the question the audience is left with is: what is there to live for? Confirming that this is not a play for the faint hearted, the message is that everybody shits, however high and mighty you may think you are.

Miss Julie, directed by Chase Atherton and Joshua Phillips, BT Studio (19:30, Wed-Fri)
http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/btsstudent/