ALTHOUGH they were written one hundred years apart, in 1772 and 1888 with one throwing the spotlight on French nobility and the other on Swedish society, there are many parallels between Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses and August Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Both feature debauched nobility corrupted by money and the absolute power that their class of society had over those in the lower social orders.
There have been many adaptations of both stories over the years, set in what was then present day society, but, because the multi-layered society that wielded so much power up to the beginning of the Second World War has changed out of all recognition as we enter the 21st century, bringing the stories into a modern day setting presents the adapters with a whole new set of challenges.
Cruel Intentions (based on Les Liaisons Dangereuses) tried, with only mixed success, to do so, using music and lyrics from the 1990s. The House Party, based on Miss Julie, makes it a much more personal battle as the three principal characters fight for supremacy in a modern and classless society.
Miss Julie [Synnove Karlsen] still lives in the “ivory castle” constructed for her by her father’s wealth, but there is no longer the threat of exclusion from the powerful high society that can make or break someone at its will. The wild partygoers who invade her stark modern flat (expertly designed by Oren Elstein and lit by Joshua Pharo) come from all levels of society. Their depravity is underlined by loud bursts of music composed by sound designer Giles Thomas. He also supplies an incessant underlaying throbbing sound as a background to the verbal battles between Julie, her much abused loyal friend Christine (Sesley Hope) and the handsome local Lothario Jon (Tom Lewis), a man quite willing to swap horses in mid-stream if he believes it to be to his advantage.
As they lay their inner thoughts bare, Christine is pushed aside and a power struggle evolves between Julie and Jon, with the advantage swinging to and fro like the pendulum in a grandfather clock. When at last Miss Julie begins to realise the great harm her evil manipulations have caused, the tale takes a violent turn as she ritually kills her pet dog and then hightails it off to her own room, bent on suicide.
Having spent 90 minutes (the play is performed with no interval) building the intensity, tension and drama, adapter Laura Lomas suddenly changes tack completely adding on a sentimental epilogue. Set ten years in the future, Christine, now a poor-but-contented wife and mother, is visited by a surprisingly contrite Miss Julie, offering no real explanation as to what happened behind that closed bedroom door through which she disappeared brandishing the same bloody knife with which she had killed her dog.
Instead we discover that Jon has changed sides from fiery radical to conservative reactionary. I wonder what the independent minded Strindberg would have made of that ending? You can make your own mind up about its worth by visiting the Bristol Old Vic before 3rd May.
GRP
Images from the original Chichester production