“Miss Julie” at the Royal exchange

Photo from Royal Exchange Flickr page – click picture for slideshow

We went to see the Royal exchange’s production of Strindberg’s “Miss Julie”, a new translation by the playwright David Eldridge, on Tuesday. It was coming towards the end of its run but it had had some very good reviews so we wanted to catch it before it finished. We hadn’t been to the theatre for a while, so it was a good treat.

The plot is summed up on the Royal Exchange’s website

Sweden, 1894. Midsummer night’s celebrations are in full swing but the Count’s daughter, the beautiful and imperious Miss Julie, feels trapped and alone. Downstairs in the servants’ kitchen, handsome and rebellious footman Jean is feeling restless. When they meet a passion is ignited that soon spirals out of control. Strindberg’s masterpiece caused a scandal when first produced – and has been hugely popular ever since – for its searingly honest portrait of the class system and human sexuality.

There’s been a revival in interest in “upstairs, downstairs” dram on the TV with two series of Downton Abbey and a revival of Upstairs Downstairs on the BBC. Although these series have been very popular I’ve found them unrealistic. Although I enjoyed much of the first series of Downton, mainly due to the excellent acting, I thought the storylines started to get rather silly towards the end of it’s run and never bothered watching the second series.

Miss Julie paints quite a different picture of relationships between the classes and sexes in 19th Century Sweden. At the beginning Miss Julie very much has the upper hand as would be expected. She’s the aristocrat and Jean is a household servant. Of course, this is a reversal of the usual relationship between the sexes in that period, where the woman is subservient to the man. Class trumps sex. However, very quickly the tables are turned and by the end of the play the servant is very much in control. From a socialist perspective the situation is ambiguous though. It’s good to see the worker on top, but, on the other hand, the man’s treatment and subsequent domination of the woman is disconcerting to say the least.

The play is, effectively, a three hander. There are three roles – Miss Julie, played by Maxine Peake, Jean, the valet and his fiancé, the cook, Kristen. There was no interval and the two main actors were on stage for almost all of the 100 minutes duration. They must have been exhausted by the end, particularly given the very intense nature of the play.

All three actors were very good. And I thought Maxine Peake was magnificent. She really got across the character. Dominant at the beginning, broken, confused and subservient by the end.  And I’d have to agree with Jean’s comment early in the play – Miss Julie was a very handsome woman.

Juno and the Paycock at the Abbey Theatre

A couple of weeks ago, while I was working in Ireland, I drove into Dublin to see a Preview performance of the Sean O’Casey play Juno and the Paycock. It’s a joint production with the National Theatre of Great Britain and  features a star studded cast with Sinéad Cusack and Ciarán Hinds in the lead roles. It was my third visit to the Abbey and the second O’Casey play that I’ve seen there.

I’ve never been to see a play before it officially opens before. But it was only two days to the official opening and the theatre was pretty full (only a few empty seats).

The Abbey has a long association with this play. It was first staged there in 1924 and the current production is the 39th. It is set  in the early 1920s, during the Irish Civil War and tells the story of the Boyle family who live in in the working class tenements of Dublin.

For me, it was a good production. Hinds and Cusack were excellent as was Risteárd Cooper as Joxer.  During the interval the man sitting next to me told me that Cooper is very well known in Ireland. His comic timing was excellent.  My neighbour thought that Sinéad Cusack was too young to play Juno. Perhaps he’s right but I thought she came across well. I thought Clare Dunne, who played the daughter, was also very good. She’s a relative newcomer and so watch out for her in the future.

Being an O’Casey play, and set in working class Dublin, the accents were very broad. Luckily, after several visits to the city, I’m getting to grips with the Dublin accent, but, like when I saw “The Plough and the Stars” last year there were some moments when I didn’t completely understand what the actors were saying. I don’t know how the large group of young Germans sitting on the first couple of rows coped!

Study of Sean O’Casey by Dublin artist Reginald Gray. (New York Times. 1966) source: Wikipedia

O’Casey was a Republican and a Socialist, and his take on the story of Irish independence is quite different to that told by the Republican movement and the Irish state. He is sympathetic to the working class and the labour movement, but doesn’t paint them in a romantic fashion, being prepared to show their flaws.

The play tells the story of how a working class family living on the breadline, with a feckless, workshy father, hear the news that the father is to receive an inheritance from a relative who has recently died. They go out and “spend, spend spend” relying on the more than willing credit of shops and their neighbours. But when it becomes apparent that they’re not going to receive the legacy the shops are only too quick to come and recover their goods and their “friends” show their true character by demanding repayment of the loans they were only too willing to provide as soon as it becomes apparent that the legacy won’t be appearing.

It’s a fable relevant to our times, paralleling the economic crisis which has particularly affected Ireland and was due to similar reasons – the extension of credit on the basis of false promises.

There are sub-plots involving the son and daughter, both compounding a tragic ending, with the son executed by the IRA, the daughter pregnant and deserted by the father. In the final scene Jack is left alone, drunk and senseless in a house denuded of its furniture, deserted by his wife and daughter.

Blithe Spirit at the Royal Exchange

Last Saturday we went to see the production of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.

This was the third Coward play we’d seen at the Royal Exchange. I didn’t really enjoy the first one – “the Vortex” about 3 years ago, which included Will Young in the cast. There was too much mincing around and luvvy duvvying for me, and I thought the plot was weak – particularly the ending. So I wasn’t particularly looking forward to “Hay Fever” in the summer of 2008, but I went along as we had a season ticket. I wouldn’t have gone otherwise, which would have been a pity as I thoroughly enjoyed  this production. The play was funny, the cast was excellent and it was well produced. As a result I was quite keen to see “Blithe Spirit”.

The play was written by Coward in 1941 while he was staying at Portmeirion in  “the Fountain”. We stayed next door in “the Anchor” during our short break there last year. It also had its début in Manchester in 1941 in a production directed by Coward himself. So I guess we felt some connection with the play.

I enjoyed the play, although perhaps not as much as “Hay Fever”.  As usual with the Royal Exchange, it was a good production and a good cast. The main comic character, Madame Areati, was played by Annette Badland – one of the Slitheen from Doctor Who – who was excellent. She was quite tiny (smaller than I expected) but gave a big performance, with good timing and an element of slapstick.

Suranne Jones was good as the rather posh Ruth. I’ve seen her on TV several times and she usually speaks with  a distinct Lancashire twang, so it was unusual to hear her speaking in  a “refined” accent.

Nelly Harker played Elvira in a less “etheral” way than the part is usually performed. Initially, until the “pranks” started, you wouldn’t have realised she was a ghost. She was made up a little pale, but her manner was’t much different from the other “living” characters, although her “flapper” dress was probably meant to indicate that she was from a slightly earlier period than the year when the play was set.

Like the other Coward plays we’d seen, “Blithe Spirit” started quite slowly. He seems to need to spend a few scenes establishing the background and the characters before the plot – and the comedy – get going. The latter really only developed fully during the second half of the play.

Widowers’ Houses at the Royal Exchange Theatre

Widowers’ Houses at the Royal Exchange Theatre.

Went to see this play by George bernard Shaw at the Royal exchange last night. I’ve never seen a play by GBS before and had never heard of this one. I gues, like most people, I associate him with Pygmalion, Major Barbara and Saint Joan. In fact, I’ve never seen a GBS play  before – certainly not live.

The production was, as usual with the Royal Exchange, excellent and well acted. The lead was played by Roger Lloyd Pack, better known as “Trigger” from Only Fools and Horses and “Owen” from the Vicar of Dibley.

It started as a “boy meets girl” story but the underlying theme was about how wealth is aquired and how even those capitalists with liberal leanings are caught up in the web of exploitation.