Fraulien Julie Review

After August Strindberg

At the Barbican, in a version by Katie Mitchell

There are currently two adaptations of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie playing in London,  both as different from the original play as they are from each other. At the Riverside Studios, a barbaric and raw Mies Julie, written and directed by Yael Farber, stuns its audience with the post-apartheid vital and violent relationship between Boer Julie and John, one of her father’s black farm labourers.

On the other side of London, Katie Mitchell has co-created Fraulein Julie. Where in Mies Julie subtlety is stripped away, Fraulein Julie is, at times, subtle to the point of inertia. However despite its soporific pace, the Barbican’s production was a more powerful portrayal of the story.

In a typically Mitchellesque fashion, the behind the scenes work is brought to the forefront, leaving the action veering towards the wings. Whilst initially irritated by what I considered, unkindly, to be mere gratuitous gimmickry, this reversal of prominence of actors and production created a more profound performance. In Mitchell’s interpretation, the reversal of prominence is mirrored as the night’s unfolding is seen from the eyes of the cook Kristin, a character so anonymised she is played by two actresses, her voice removed yet further by being given by a third.

Mitchell places above the stage a screen showing real time film footage of the serenely beautiful domesticity inhabited by Kristin. The perfectly composed still life like images are evocative of Vermeer and serve to emphasise the passion barely contained in the muffled and abbreviated glimpses of drama.

Whilst almost irritatingly studiously unhurried, Jean and Julie’s intense and ferocious liaison is heightened by its elusiveness in this fresh adaptation of the Swedish classic.

Did anyone else see the play? What were your views?

Camilla Norton