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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Jean played by Simon Hawkins and Christine played by Jenny Luke Miss Julie
The Nonentities
***** IT’S easy to see why Miss Julie, written
in 1888 by August Strindberg, would have created such a sensation to its
first audiences, causing it to be banned by censors even before its
debut. Strindberg’s work can be said to be the birthplace of Naturalistic theatre and Miss Julie certainly contains enough complex themes to keep a psychiatrist busy for a lifetime. The authors childhood was not an easy one and his
adult life troubled again by failed relationships and alcoholism, so his
vision here of the classes, sex, ambition and the church come under
sharp, dark scrutiny. Miss Julie is the daughter of a count and her own
life story, and that of her parents, has created an unbalanced demeanour. With a deeply rooted dislike of men yet a sexual
urge to control them, she has come to favour her father’s valet Jean.
Jean is from a poor local family and having secretly spied on Miss Julie
when they were children, he now has bitter yet ambitious plans to
conquer and use her to his own ends Completing the threesome is Christine, another
household servant. She is an upright church abiding and virtuous woman
with high ideals and plans to marry Jean, even overlooking his known
infidelities. Taking the characters in order of severity we start with Christine played by Jenny Luke. Christine seems at first to be nothing more than a passenger in the complex web of the relationships. Marika Farr as Miss Julie Eventually though it is she who adds the
third ironic pillar of reason into what has finally become a surreal
situation. It’s perhaps the easier role of the three but was delivered
with assured confidence by Miss Luke who sadly is moving on to new
pastures after this play. Next in line is the valet Jean played by Simon
Hawkins. It’s often not exactly a compliment to say an actor can play
such a despicably cold character so easily, but his rendition of the
part is quietly evil and suitably uncompassionate Jean is a strange mixture of servitude to his
master and revulsion at their family’s wealth and position. His dreams
are of climbing the social ladder to an eventual title of his own. To
achieve this he eyes Miss Julie as his ticket to wealth, controlling her
obsession with his own. Mr Hawkins performance was very much in keeping
with Strindberg’s own insistence for a natural delivery of the lines and
devoid of over dramatic gestures. Finally at the top of the complexity pile is Miss
Julie played by Marika Farr. Miss Farr shows great understanding of her
craft and delivers a towering performance. Swaying from latent sexuality
to disgust for Jean and then submission and final passionate breakdown
is a task that needs careful consideration. To see her and Hawkins play
out the intense exchanges of their roles only a couple of feet in front
of you was both brave and expertly done. With this production being staged in the studio
then if there was one small critism in the direction it was that a vital
and emotional point between Jean and Miss Julie was lost. With her face
smeared in blood, a meat cleaver in her hand and threatening Jean in an
angry exchange the engagement is played out in the corner of the room
with her back to the audience and I genuinely would have liked to have
seen her face so intense was Miss Farr’s delivery. With the story played out on the simple set of
the Manor Kitchen you will find there is no escape from the intensity of
the action. Under the cool direction of Hugh Meredith the
Nonentities have once again blurred the lines between amateur and
professional theatre and these three actors deliver a combined
performance that even Strindberg would be proud of. To 14-11-15 Jeff Grant
09-11-15 |
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