This new version of Strindberg’s classic as presented by the National Theatre in London is intense and disturbing with sensational performances .
From 19th Century Sweden Polly Stenham and Carrie Cracknell have updated it to now in London with mobile phones,sex drugs and alcohol. It is a challenging production , brilliantly acted , that vexes and perplexes . It is not pleasant to watch and is not intended to be.It freshly examines the issues raised in the play of power , race , control and class divisions , from today’s perspective and also with a feminist slant .
Tom Scutt’s set (a huge , sleekly white kitchen) is in the basement , all clean white soft-close cupboards , large elegant blinds and softly , tastefully exposed concrete .We see Jean the black chauffeur and his Brazilian fiancée Kristina the maid tidy up,while upstairs Julie continues to celebrate her 30th birthday ( again )with a huge , heaving and pulsating wild rave party .The party is enclosed and framed , presented as if a photo , with tightly organised ,writhing choreography.
Breaking the barriers the coke-snorting Julie , in turmoil after a breakup with her partner, comes downstairs to the kitchen , and demands a dance with Jean starting a power game that, as in Strindberg, becomes a fight for survival and has disastrous results – .
When Kristina leaves wearily for the night,( or should that be early morning ?) the party still continuing in the small hours, Julie and Jean think their escape is in the other person and they sleep together.
The three main cast members give most impressive performances . Thalissa Teixeira’s exhausted Kristina is at first warm and bubbly , happy in her love for Jean – but then things change when she discovers their betrayal. .
Eric Kofi Abref gives a very strong performance as Jean .We see him as the responsible , level headed chauffeur hoping to climb his way up the class rungs but also we see him as a dreamer , fantasising about opening a restaurant and eloping to Cape Verde with Julie. He is caught between loyalty to Kristina and Julie’s imperious demands and his hidden long term attraction to her. At one point when Julie insists he join the party he stands on a plinth , checking the crowd , like a glorious handsome sculpture – are we meant to be seeing him through Julie’s eyes ?
Vanessa Kirby ( star of The Crown ) as Julie is magnificent , giving a shattering performance . On the surface she can be charming but she is cruel and horrible to Jean and betrays Kristina .Julie is still traumatised by finding her mother’s dead body, and is blocked. Her superficially charming manner and her shouting and crying reveal great psychological turmoil – she is unstable , deeply fragile and vulnerable underneath , daring us not to empathise with her at least a little even if we don’t like her.
The disintegration in the play is echoed by the way the kitchen becomes smeared , bloody , otherwise dirty and with smashed plants among other things .
Cracknell’s tense direction is striking in its attention to detail – like the way it repeatedly builds and the fractures Jean and Julie’s fantasy of eloping and the shocking way Julie deals with her pet finch. Stenham’s adaptation overall is extremely clever, but some of the lines can possibly sound a bit awkward .
This adaptation has many layers and can be a bit overwhelming and hard to process as it considers ( among other things ) guilt , trauma , racism , class divides .medication and depression , love and sex and generally the harshness of just trying to survive in our bleak world .
The NT Live screening of Julie from Sharmill Films runs at selected cinemas from 29 September .