Dominic Hill and the Crisis of Masculinity

Miss Julie @ The Citizens

 Although Strindberg's Miss Julie is recognised as an important moment in the development of 'naturalism' in theatre, Dominic Hill's direction of Zinnie Harris' updating owes as much to Brecht and classical models of tragedy. The sparse, neutral set and the broad characterisations of the central couple, servant John and the daughter of the master Julie firmly define the story as the tragic destruction of a woman, drawing out both the proto-feminism of Strindberg's source script and the oppressive society that defines individuals less by potential or personality than by their status.

The heart of the plot lies in the seduction of Miss Julie by the servant, John: although Louise Brearley plays Julie with an initial haughtiness, Harris' John is clearly in command, his changes of mood less capricious than the calculated attacks of a bully intent on getting his way. There is a palpable lack of sexual frisson between this John and Julie: Keith Fleming performs John with a consistent brutality, rarely swaggering, never sensual. That Julie can be seduced by a braggart and a bully  - his confession of love for her is unconvincing but calculated to appeal to her romantic dreams - is alienating and uncomfortable.

It is here that Hill's Brechtian influence is most evident.  In his attempt to make theatre that has a socialist

message, and can promote political change, Brecht developed the idea of an audience that is more intellectual than emotionally engaged. By encouraging a distance between the performance and the audience, Brecht hoped to exposed the structures beneath the action, and allow the audience to observe how the events could have played out differently. With Fleming's brutish performance, it becomes difficult to understand why Miss Julie would be erotically fascinated by the servant: his kisses are rough, not in any animalistic sexual manner, but like an attack. When he suddenly drops her, after having had her, it is clear that he is interested in her as a means to satisfy his own ends.

Without the sexual chemistry that has made Miss Julie a morally ambiguous study of sexual and social power-plays, it is clear that Brearley's Miss Julie is not seeing the same John as the audience. Her clumsy flirtations in the early scenes suggest less maturity than she claims: the scripts descriptions of her father's savagery and Julie's treatment of her fiance imply that she is familiar with violence and is attracted by her seducer's thuggishness. From his scenes with his fiancee Christine (Jessica Hardwick), John is revealed immediately as arrogant and chauvinistic. Even before John confesses his love of Miss Julie - which he describes as a virus in a bluff, antagonistic complaint - it is clear that he is a bully.

Hill's production exposes Miss Julie's mistake: and it is here that the plot takes on a tragic tone. Miss Julie does follow some of Aristotle's 'guidelines' for tragedy: there is a unity of location, time and plot, and there are three actors, just as in the golden age of Athenian drama. Miss Julie's story  - like a tragic heroine, she is high-born - follows the predictable path towards her doom. Her failure to recognise John for what he is become her 'tragic flaw' (hamartia).

By presenting Julie as naive, and John as vicious, Hill's production both highlights the tragic line of the plot and alienates the audience from an easy emotional engagement with either character. It's a remarkable trick: Brecht regarded his approach as an antidote to the aristocratic bias of Aristotelian tragic theory. Naturalism - a theatrical movement led by Ibsen and Strindberg (which concidently overlapped with their mutual interest in the role of women in society) - is less of a bridge between the two modes than a specific response to the rise of science in the nineteenth century, rejecting supernatural interventions (like the gods of Greek tragedy of Hamlet's father's ghost) and following Darwin's ideas about evolution (exposing human personality as a product of natural selection).

This naturalism is a far cry from the 'gritty realism' of contemporary drama, and Harris' adaptation builds on the psychological depth of Strindberg's characterisation to explore the specific dilemma of a woman, like Miss Julie, who has been encouraged to act like a man (by her mother) and beaten (by her father). By delineating this characterisation so precisely, Harris reveals Strindberg's talent for expressing the motivations of his characters and allows the production to create the emotional distance between audience and performers without forcing the actors to slip into caricatures.

By updating the play into 1920s Scotland, during a strike, and recasting the Lord as a mill-owner determined to break a strike, Harris doesn't so much lend a contemporary relevance as locate the sexual battle within a wider set of social changes. John, like many bullies, is cowed by the master's presence - suggesting that his attitude towards women is based in insecurity - and Christine voices a conservative and religious faith in the rightness of hierarchy. Off-stage, the striking mill-workers celebrate (and are defeated): a reminder that the upsetting of the sexual hierarchy expressing in the tryst reflects wider conflicts.

It also adds to the claustrophobia of the final scenes, when Miss Julie realises that she cannot escape. Strikes
are preventing travel, and the father's guards are poised to prevent her leaving the estate. Both the old and new social orders are restraining Miss Julie: that John talks proudly of the workers' resistance (while failing to actively support them) is a reminder that supposedly radical political change may not address the oppression of women.

True to the tragic influences, the unfolding of the plot is pessimistic: only through death can Miss Julie escape. But Fleming's John provokes her suicide, turning back into the lowly servant on the return of his Lordship and using the threat of his wrath to terrify Julie. The lack of compassion from both Christine and John isolates Julie - Christine's sudden aggression is an explosion of emotion from beneath the placid acceptance she displays in the early scenes. It is only in the final moments that the mesh of Brecht, naturalism and tragedy is betrayed: the suicide is presented as a sudden black-out, Brearley holding the knife to her throat in a melodramatic pose.

The final is an act of bad faith in Hill's sophisticated direction: the subtle interaction between the subtext of the seduction and the performances is undermined by crass emotionalism. Fleming's John is reduced to a melodramatic villain, and Julie is stripped of her dignity as a tragic heroine. Throughout the play, there are shocks - the rough kisses, the sudden reversal of John's enthusiasm when he realised that he can't use Julie to fulfil his fantasy of being a businessman. Yet the last image is contrived to surprise, to present horror rather than fear and pity (as in Aristotle's strictures) or intellectual analysis (per Brecht).

Miss Julie @ The Citizens

I tend not to know about such things -  I'm no TV, all theatre - but Dominic Hill's direction of Zinnie Harris' version of Miss Julie has got one of the stars of BBC's Sherlock in it. I do know that Harris relocates Strindberg's classic tale to 1920s Scotland, right in the middle of a strike against Miss Julie's capitalist father, and that it doesn't end well: the social and sexual tension between Julie and her dad's man-servant leads to fantastic dreams that end in a nightmare.

Press release begins:

Star of the BBC’s Sherlock Louise Brealey makes her debut on the Citizens Theatre stage .Prior to appearing in the Gorbals in the title role, Louise Brealey will be part of the nation’s festive viewing schedule when she stars as Molly in the eagerly-awaited third series of the BBC’s hit TV show Sherlock on New Year’s Day. Brealey has also played long-standing character Nurse Roxy Bird in the BBC’s Casualty and has appeared at the Bush Theatre, The Royal Court Theatre, the Young Vic and Bristol Old Vic.

Citizens Theatre Artistic Director Dominic Hill directs Zinnie Harris’ 2005 adaptation of August Strindberg’s thrilling tale of an upstairs-downstairs liaison, relocated to 1920s Scotland when the economic toll of the First World War was being felt, and the working classes were striking against falling wages and the privileges of the upper classes. 

Joining Brealy on stage will be Scottish actor Keith Fleming, who recently won praise as Macbeth in a new co-production by Horsecross Arts and Tron Theatre Company, and who starred in Dominic Hill’s award-winning Peer Gynt in 2007. Completing the cast is Citizens Theatre Actor Intern Jessica Hardwick, who appeared on the Citizens’ stage as Sonya in Hill’s 2013 production of Crime and Punishment.

Set in the oppressive heat of summer, Miss Julie follows the dangerous flirtatious games played by Julie and her father’s butler, John. As the night wears on, the couple from opposite ends of the social spectrum tease and fight towards an explosive conclusion. 

Harris’ version of the European classic, first created for National Theatre of Scotland, looks at the politics of the play through a new prism, setting the power-games played by Julie and John against a backdrop of wider social unrest. Harris has written extensively for theatre and television including the acclaimed The Wheel, Further than the Furthest Thing, Midwinter, Fall and the BBC’s Spooks.

Director Dominic Hill said: “This is a play about sexual politics: the battle of the sexes, sexual desire and the way men and women negotiate and manipulate to get what they want. For me, this is what makes the play truly timeless. I’m pleased that we’ll be presenting this landmark text on the Citizens’ main stage for the first time.”

Strindberg’s play defined a new naturalism in theatre when it was first premiered in 1888, with its shocking realism leading to it being censored. Since then, the universal nature of the themes contained in the play has lent the gripping story to a variety of settings, from the sectarianism of 19^th-century Northern Ireland to the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.  A major film version directed by Liv Ullmann and starring Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton is scheduled for a 2014 release.

  

Citizens Theatre presents
Strindberg’s
MISS JULIEA new version by Zinnie Harris
Directed by Dominic Hill
Designed by Neil Haynes
Lighting Design by Stuart Jenkins
Cast: Louise Brealey, Keith Fleming, Jessica Hardwick (Citizens Theatre Actor Intern)

Dates: Thu 6 – Sat 15 Feb, 7.30pm (no performances Sundays & Mondays)

Events:
Post show discussion and Q&A with Director Dominic Hill
Tue 11 Feb

Schools Workshop Miss Julie: Inside the Rehearsal Room
Wed 12 Feb, 5.00pm – 6.30pm (followed by show at 7.30pm)
A practical insight into the making of this production led by the Assistant Director. Supports writing about ‘a play seen in production’ for Higher and Advanced Higher Drama pupils.
To book contact Louise Brown 0141 418 6273 / louisebrown@citz.co.uk

Miss Julie: An Afternoon with Strindberg
Sat 15 Feb, 12.15pm (followed by show at 2.30pm)
Tickets £10 + ticket to the show. Price includes buffet lunch and refreshments. Tickets to the show sold separately.
Director Dominic Hill in discussion with playwright Zinnie Harris and academic of Scandinavian literature Peter Graves.