Peter Viney's Blog

By Laura Lomas
An adaptation of August Strindberg’s ‘Miss Julie.’

Directed by Holly Race Roughan
Set Design by Loren Elstein
Costume by Maybelle Laye
Music and Sound design by Giles Thomas

A co-production Chichester Festival Theatre, Headlong & Frantic Assembly

Chichester Minerva Theatre

Tuesday 7^th May 2024, 19.15

CAST
Rachelle Diedericks- Christine
Josh Finan – Jon
Nadia Parkes – Julie

with an ensemble of ten dancers

Miss Julie opened the Festival Theatre in 1965 directed by Laurence Olivier, in tandem with Black Comedy. Both were reprised at CFT in 2014. We saw it in 2014.  It’s a basic one act play with a cast of three. I will repeat that later. The original was written in 1888 and innovative on what became the basic Lady Chatterly and Mellors template when D.H. Lawrence finally got hold of it. When we saw it in 2014 I thought it was a polemic, ranting, boring play with a predictable end. However, Julie is a role female actors aspire to play. Strindberg wanted ‘a small stage where a new kind of drama might arise.’ He meant naturalistic dialogue, a small cast in an intimate space, and above all a 90 minute length with no interval. Interestingly for me, 90 minutes was cited in much teacher-training as the extent of full attention span. OK, some of August’s rules are broken here.

So it is dragged screaming into 2024 in this very loose ‘inspired by.’ An introductory scene has been added with just the two girls, Julie and Chrissie. They are 18 and planning a party in Julie’s dad’s luxury house. It centres on a large kitchen island unit (Strindberg’s setting was a kitchen). Some of the best bits come in the first five minutes when Julie thinks her dad is committing ‘incest’ because his new girlfriend is 24, so nearer her age. Chrissie tries to explain why it’s not incest, it’s clear that Julie is the cream of society – rich and thick, and Chrissie is not. The father is often mentioned but never seen, just like The Count in Strindberg’s original.

Chrissie is waiting to do an interview for Cambridge. Their default mode is hysterical teen. They do not have the letter T in words like later and matter. Or la’er  and ma’er. This is accurate 18 year old pronunciation for all classes, as is the negative ‘Noah!’ Rather than ‘No.’ And ‘Wire!’ Rather than ‘why?’ This was funny, well observed by the two actors. We then watched them downing tequila (shoplifted) before the party, and dancing and writhing around. It was a tad voyeuristic – the younger audience members were their parents’ age.  A few great-grandparents too. The rest of were grandparents’ age. So that’s what they get up to! Actually it’s depressing. The front-loading on alcohol before an event, the grim loud monotonous computer music, the idea of fun as getting totally smashed and jumping about till you fall down. 2024? Eighteen? Couldn’t they have worked something in about a generation who lost two vital years of teenage and were desperate to catch up?

Even so, it’s downhill from there, as we return to the bits August Strindberg thought of.

We had been wondering about the empty benches surrounding the set on all sides. Then suddenly, ten minutes or more in, the screen at the back opened and around forty or fifty audience members were led from the back area and led to sit on the uncomfortable benches and chairs. I had vaguely seen faces behind the screen but thought it was a reflection of the audience. The point? No idea. A Chichester audience really doesn’t add teen party visual ambience. Maybe Headlong’s other venues might. The direction certainly was not aligned to working in the round. Not at all.

Then as well as the three actors, they have an ensemble of ten dancers whose task is to race on and to leap dancing on and off the large fake marble kitchen island unit to mind-shattering thumping bass line about three times. They exude energy and leaping ability rather than honed technique. Great somersault and it’s the kind of leaping where you can really hurt yourself. I guess this is the Frantic Assembly team.

The three actors emote for England, and that’s the script. Jon has a Scouse accent, it does not help intelligibility. No holding back on effort and the teen angst convinced. Rachelle Diederick is on her third major role in three years after The Crucible at the National and A View From The Bridge at Chichester. Josh Finan has a strong RSC pedigree. Nadia Parkes as Julie looks younger and a new graduate. She will go far.

The story? Julie was dumped on her 18th birthday by text. Her wealthy dad has gone off with a 24 year old. Her best friend, Chrissie, has just embarked on a serious romance with Jon. Jon’s mum used to clean for Julie’s mum (before she left, and committed suicide). He always fancied Julie when he was a kid, helping his mum. Julie is totally out of control, and will pick up Jon.

I don’t like music rumbling along behind dialogue. I don’t like actors speaking over each other.

The thing is we have a three person small studio play with an accomplished cast, plus a mass of unrelated, expensive and unnecessary production ladled thickly on top of it. It’s National Theatre ‘loadsamoney’ style. The theatre is lined with fake marble floor and under- lit marble effect steps. The tap has running water. The ensemble are ‘the teen party’ shoehorned in. The onstage audience was completely pointless. Jon and Chrissie squeeze onto the sofa with the public … one woman then had to perch on the end. That was OK from where we were. A lot wouldn’t have been able to see it.

The first act runs 90 minutes. It felt interminable.

The added second act which is a new coda set ten years later, and is less than 15 minutes with no ensemble. The first felt longer. The second act is not worth doing, unless it was to prove these actors were not actually screaming teens but excellent actors (and they were) portraying screaming teens.

However for those few minutes,  a new kitchen sink drama (literally) set sits on top of that island unit and the area behind the screen has now become a cornfield for Julie to waft about in. Isn’t that Elvira Madigan? Well, it’s all as Swedish as Strindberg, Social security, Saab, suicide and Vulva. That last was not a spelling error for the now Chinese car manufacturer. The kitchen sink set inspires Chrissie to look back on the night of the party in anger. The ensemble have gone home. On stage blocking, from our slightly left of centre seats, we only saw Julie’s back in Act Two. Fortunately they all had head mic boosting. Inattention to effectively being in the round ran through the production. The play is a major example of trying to make a silk purse out of a pig’s arse by piling on overwhelming layers of production. The play is long past its ‘best before’ date. Updating does nothing to improve it.

I felt the added scenes were an attempt to make it long enough to stand alone rather than as part of a two one act play evening, as in 2014.

Overall? One of the very rare failed productions at Chichester. Let’s hope the blame lies with Headlong, not Chichester. I’m surprised because Holly Race Roughan directed a splendid A View From The Bridge at Chichester last year, and another resuscitated Scandinavian play, Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler changed to Hedda Tesman in 2019.

**

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

To be added (as will be photos)

LINKS ON THIS BLOG

Miss Julie / The Black Comedy, Chichester 2014

HOLLY RACE ROUGHAN (Director)
A View From The Bridge, Chichester 2023
Hedda Tesman, Chichester 2019

RACHELLE DIEDERICKS
A View From The Bridge, Chichester 2023 (Catherine)
The Crucible, National Theatre 2022 (Mary Warren)

JOSH FINAN
The Southbury Child, Chichester 2022
The Merry Wives of Windsor, RSC 2018 (Nym)
Macbeth, RSC 2018
Romeo & Juliet, RSC 2016 (Benvolio)