Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
Thurs 17 June
****
This stunning adaptation by Welsh company Living Pictures Productions skillfully distorts a monumental and timeless piece of modern theatre, pushing it back to the foundations of drama through the incorporation of a haunting Greek chorus while simultaneously rendering it specific to a modern welsh audience.
Miss Julie, written by August Strindberg in 1888 and no doubt inspired by his parents’ class shattering marriage, plots the downfall of a Count’s daughter over the course of Midsummer Night. As her teasing and flirtatious actions take her to a point of no return, the reckless Miss Julie’s powerful class position becomes irrelevant next to her inferior status as woman.
This is a play heavily characterised by longing, presenting a society that is incompatible with the unquenchable drives of the heart. What’s left is a shattered Romantic vision, where characters still long to be free yet their constant awareness of the consequences of movement surround them like a murky cloud. Ragna Weisteen brings these notions of forbidden sexuality into full power. Dressed like a Disney princess turned vagabond, she swings from gracefully alluring to a sobbing wreck who follows her destiny to become a passionate victim of misguided aspiration.
In this adaptation, the disciplined dozen of the choir function to expose the omnipresent concern with the opinions of others. Mirroring us in their arrangement on stage throughout the entire production, their eyes are constantly fixed on the three characters and their eerie chants and persistent rhythms portray the unseen murmur of societal expectation.
The Welsh language inclusions also work to bring an unquestionable tension to the piece. Folk songs not only add to the timelessness and universality of the tale, but also audibly reinforce the class polarisation that is key to Strindberg’s work. According to director Robert Bowman, such translations work to stress ‘the divide between the upper and lower classes.’ While Welsh functions as ‘Iaith y Gegin’, or kitchen language, English is positioned as ‘the language of success’. By picking up local influences and histories in its discussion of hierarchy, this adaptation roots itself very firmly in Welsh culture.
The drama throughout comes from a subtle balance between Strindberg’s modern classic and its tailoring for an audience in Wales. Like the status positions we fleetingly adopt, the Living Pictures adaptation sees a break from the typical representation of this play while carefully maintaining a certain compatibility with its age-old themes.