James Karas
Polly Stenham’s
credit as the author of Julie is followed with “after Strindberg”
and indeed the play owes much to the Swedish misogynist’s Miss Julie but it is also
a credible, modern re-imagination of the rich girl and the chauffeur. Julie
is now playing on the Lyttleton stage of the National Theatre in
London.
Stenham’s Julie
is set in a large house in north London in 2018. She is hosting a wild party
for her 33rd birthday and her father’s chauffeur Jean is helping the
cook Kristina with the service. Jean is a sophisticated black man who is
engaged to Kristina but Julie is attracted to him and they eventually have a
relationship.
Vanessa Kirby as Julie and Eric Kofi Abrefa as Jean. Photo: Richard H. Smith
We focus on
Julie’s complex character and Vanessa Kirby’s portrayal of her. At first blush,
Julie seems like a spoiled rich bitch who squandered every opportunity she had
in life. There is some truth in that. She has had too much to drink during her
party and decides to seduce Jean (Eric Kofi Abrefa) right under the nose of
Kristina (Thalissa Teixeira).
A careful look
at Julie reveals that she is a deeply troubled woman who seems to have
everything when in fact she has nothing. There is a wild, almost orgiastic,
party going on but she is not part of it. The guests are strangers. Her father
is having nothing to do with her, her mother committed suicide, she is coming
out of a broken relationship and she has had an abortion. She appears wealthy
but in fact has no money because it is tied up in some trust fund or something.
“Am I insane?” she asks and that may be a clue to her character.
Julie has
physical, emotional and psychological problems that seem to add up to serious
mental illness. She is drowning and has nothing to grasp onto except the straw
near her, the servant Jean.
The summary of
Julie’s character gives a good idea of the performance demanded of Kirby. She
snorts drugs, takes pills, tries to have a good time at the party in a pathetic
attempt at….at what? Kirby takes us through all the phases of Julie’s life in a
stellar performance.
Jean is black
and Julie crosses the racial, social and cultural divides to try and seduce him.
He is ambitious and dumps Kristina whom he professes to love when he sees his
opportunity to get money and move up the social ladder. The refined,
intelligent and manipulative Jean is a fine foil for Julie.
Thalissa Teixeira as Kristina and Eric Kofi Abrefa as Jean. Photo: Richard H. Smith
Teixeura is a
decent woman with a child and is perhaps looking for a way out of service but
the lifeboat that Jean seems to provide leaves without her.
Director Carrie
Cracknell does not miss a beat or a detail in her directing. Julie almost
always walks on top of the furniture so she can look down on the “servants.”
Julie’s deterioration from the woman having a grand party for her birthday to a
pathetic creature on the floor is brought meticulously before us.
The production
has two playing areas, the kitchen and the party room. Designer Tom Scutt has
divided the stage horizontally in two so that the kitchen is the dominant
playing area. But when we need to see the party, a panel goes up revealing the
party just above the kitchen.
An outstanding
production with a virtuoso performance by Vanessa Kirby.
__________
Julie by Polly
Stenham after Strindberg opened on June 7, 2018 and continues at the Lyttleton
Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank,
London, England. It will be
broadcast live from the National Theatre on September 6, 2018. http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/
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