The Minerva’s last production of Miss Julie, in 2014, was a version by Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Strindberg’s study of sex, class and power has since become more commonly adapted by female playwrights – Polly Stenham, Amy Ng and Kaite O’Reilly among them. Laura Lomas’s new version is a specific corrective to the misogyny blatantly expressed in his preface to the 1888 original.
Like Stenham, Lomas reframes the story as a debauched modern-day birthday party held by newly single Julie in her minted father’s townhouse. Lomas’s major change is to expand the role of the cook, Kristin, who becomes Julie’s BFF, Christine. They dance around the kitchen’s marbled island to songs by Beyoncé and Fred Again, pausing to pose for selfies and anticipate the guests’ arrival (“not that many – 100”).
