Miss Julie – New Earth Theatre/Storyhouse + Southwark Playhouse, London

A review of Miss Julie, a 1940s Hong Kong adaptation by Amy Ng of the play by August Strindberg. The new setting adds layers of race and colonialism to the class and gender tension of the original. Does the play loses a little of its naturalism in the process?

Miss Julie – Strindberg’s Endlessly Adaptable Play

Miss Julie is not a play I have seen before. Perhaps this is surprising since it has apparently been staged somewhere in the world every year since its 1888 debut. It was written by Swedish playwright August Strindberg in the (then cutting-edge) naturalistic style. This boils down to believable characters with realistic motivations, and a meaningful yet straightforward plot. The play, both original and in this adaptation, ticks those boxes.

Miss Julie tells the story of an important man’s daughter (a Count in the original, Hong Kong Tai-pan in this version), who transgresses boundaries in her relationships with the household’s servants on a festive evening (Midsummer/Lunar New Year). She is drawn to chauffeur John, who is engaged to fellow servant Christine but attracted both by Miss Julie’s charms and the potential path to a new life she represents. Strindberg pitched this as a Darwinian survival of the fittest. The character of Miss Julie represents the dying aristocracy, while John (Jean in the original) is skilled and adaptable and represents change and evolution.

These big themes have seen endless adaptations of Miss Julie in almost all contexts over the years. Amy Ng brings the play to 1948 Hong Kong in an extensive rewrite (which debuted online before doing a tour of the York Theatre Royal, Southwark Playhouse and Belgrade Theatre, Coventry). The backdrop becomes one of a bubonic plague outbreak. There are refugees from communist action in China, recent memories of WWII internment camps, and the tension between East and West, tradition and Christianity. Layered on top of the social divides of the original are colonial racism and exploitation. It makes for a very powerful narrative.

Naturalism vs. Depicting Difficult Themes

There were many elements of this production which I enjoyed. The set design by Adam Wiltshire very simply transports Strindberg’s kitchen setting to an Asian context. I loved the smell of incense, which recalled memories of travel and far-off places. An interlude where actors Leo Wan (John) and Sophie Robinson (Miss Julie) perform a lion dance is an interesting representation of the struggle for supremacy amidst questions of gender and social position.

This is maybe where this production came a little unstuck for me, however. Miss Julie is a play which deals with sex, violence and death. In an age of heavy censorship, the original dealt with these themes through allusion and off-stage action where today we are more used to seeing such scenes acted out before us. This version, however, inhabits a middle ground, where unsavoury scenes are either treated metaphorically or glossed over in a moment. I felt it could have been stronger by choosing either to face things head on, or deal with them entirely off-stage (which can still be a very powerful thing).

Otherwise I thought it was quite effective. The new setting makes the play a little more accessible to a modern audience than it might be when purely based on a master/servant relationship. Jennifer Leong as Christine is very powerful; stoic and unflappable in the face of John and Miss Julie suddenly spiralling out of control. The title role is a particularly unlikeable character, but Sophie Robinson’s internal struggle between wanting to wield and submit to power is believable. Overall this is an evocative and tense drama.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3/5

Miss Julie now finished at the Southwark Playhouse, but on from 8-10 July 2021 at Belgrade Theatre, Coventry

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