Laura Lomas’ exceptional modern-day reimagining of the Swedish playwright August Strindberg’s 1888 text ‘Miss Julie’ packs an extraordinary punch, masterfully interrogating some of the most powerful issues in youth culture and broader society today, including the role of class, gender and trauma.
The setting: a house party thrown to celebrate the eighteenth birthday of Julie, a seemingly highly privileged girl whose narcissistic tendencies and naïve, contradictory outlook (“all property is theft”, she confidently declares early on whilst strolling around her father’s desirable townhouse, vigilantly guarding his alcohol collection) are brought out brilliantly by Synnøve Karlsen. With her are the only other two central characters, her best friend Christine, who receives an immensely sympathetic treatment from Bridgeton’s Sesley Hope, and Christine’s down-to-earth but sleazy boyfriend Jon (Tom Lewis), a fish out of water in the ostentatiously modern and trendy surroundings.
The stage seems to be set for a simple showdown between an out-of-touch, higher class Julie and her friends from more humble backgrounds, who have to balance worries of sick relatives and shortages of money alongside their respective dreams of attending Cambridge and achieving promotion. But in a production which always resists creating easy dichotomies audience loyalties shift like quicksand as we come to appreciate that all its characters, not least Julie herself, are nursing their own wounds, trying to hold themselves together and overcome deep, sometimes unimaginable traumas.
As will be familiar to readers of the source play, any lingering illusions this is merely an ordinary coming of age story are pierced decisively by a staggering act of violence, one which is viscerally shocking to witness on the stage, made all the more so by the masterful use of sound by Giles Thomas. This is a moment at which, as Movement Director Scott Graham, founder of the acclaimed theatre production company Frantic Assembly, would later tell me, what has up to now been a tale of more familiar, redeemable immorality is taken to another, horrifying level.
Although a brilliant pairing of Strindberg’s source text with judicious modern innovations, to focus only on the plot and script devised by Lomas would be to miss much of what makes this production so jaw-droppingly impressive. Frantic Assembly’s impact is clearly visible, with elements of physical theatre including dance being woven seamlessly but powerfully into the action in a way which only ever complements, rather than distracting from, the immensely accomplished acting of all three central cast members. The use of lighting and music is extremely impressive, and the staging is worthy of especially high praise, particularly the set’s innovation of a raised window through which members of the ensemble cast can be seen, enabling them to, at one especially potent moment, mirror the dialogue through physical movement.
At just 90 minutes running time, it is immensely impressive that The House Party manages to address so many deeply powerful themes whilst avoiding ever feeling scattergun or laboured. Much depicted in this play is bleak, but perhaps in its tentative suggestion of the power of friendship and love in its various forms to not just disrupt and fracture but heal, it also presents a more hopeful vision, whilst doing extremely well to avoid reaching for a reductive unambiguously happy ending.
Whatever ‘baggage’ you as an audience member may carry, associated with trauma – personal or generational, loss, or your relationship to class and gender will be sure to be challenged, provoked, and brought out into the open by the play; to be in its audience is very much to engage in a two-way exchange of meaning with the text and performance.
Capitalising so brilliantly on the uniquely evocative quality of an eighteenth birthday and its power as a window into the lives of not just the new adult but all who surround them, and ingeniously fusing the new, the old, and timeless themes as it does so, Leeds Playhouse’s faultless The House Party is necessary viewing.
The House Party runs at Leeds Playhouse until Saturday (1 March 2025). Full details and tickets at: www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk/event/the-house-party
This post was written by reader Claude Gillham in return for two free tickets, as part of South Leeds Goes To The Playhouse.
Main photo: Sesley Hope and Synnøve Karlsen – credit Ikin Yum
While you’re here, can we ask a favour?
South Leeds Life is published by a not-for-profit social enterprise. We keep our costs as low as possible but we’ve been hit by increases in the print costs for our monthly newspaper which have doubled in the last two years.
Could you help support local community news by making a one off donation, or even better taking out a supporters subscription?
Donate here, or sign up for a subscription at bit.ly/SLLsubscribe
