There is a scene in After Miss Julie at the Park Theatre involving a pet bird, which had the audience gasping and some covering their mouths.
It is a shocking moment in a play that exposes an uncomfortable conflict between the classes and genders.
Writer Patrick Marber has taken Strindberg’s play Miss Julie and set it decades later, in 1945, after the war has ended and Labour has swept to victory in the election.
A party is in full swing in an aristocrat’s house, but down in the kitchen, tired cook Christine (Charlene Boyd) and her unofficial fiancé, chauffeur/valet John (Tom Varey), have their work interrupted by the toff’s daughter Julie (Liz Francis).
She’s recently been jilted and is in a flirtatious mood. Her mother, we learn, tested gender boundaries and like her, Julie feels the repression of her sex by the patriarchy and, fueled by drink, fights against it.
Working-class John is well-read and has travelled, and wants to do more with his life.
Despite his relationship with Christine, he is receptive to Julie’s attention, spying an opportunity.
Both Julie and John begin to test the boundaries and power dynamics of their respective class and genders, and Christine is not the only potential collateral damage of their behaviour.
The intimate staging in Park Theatre’s studio space creates a pressurised setting, particularly with the unheard, unseen yet referenced presence of party-goers beyond the kitchen.
Ruinous discovery looms over Julie and John.
Liz Francis’s Julie is both manipulative and vulnerable, while Tom Varey’s obedient John struggles with bursts of aggression.
However, the play has been trimmed, leaving little space for subtlety, which can make the emotional gear shifts between the two central characters clunky. It also means the motivations behind those gear shifts aren’t always clear.
Conversely, there are overly long sequences in which we see the house staff doing busy work, which makes the pacing uneven.
Final thoughts
The tragedy of After Miss Julie feels embedded in how little of the gender dynamics has changed, in certain respects. The easy disposal of passions and the implied route out, like the fate of the little bird, is a horror in waiting.
But the choppy pace and lack of subtlety don’t support deeper connections with the characters.
I’m giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️.
After Miss Julie, Park Theatre
Written by Patrick Marber
Directed by Dadiow Lin
Cast: Liz Francis, Tom Varey and Charlene Boyd
Running time: 70 minutes
Booking until 28 February; for more information and to buy tickets, visit the Park Theatre website
Recently reviewed:
Mrs President, Charing Cross Theatre booking until 8 March ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Woman in Mind, Duke of York’s Theatre booking to 27 February, 2026 then on a national tour ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Video review: Man and Boy, National Theatre, booking until the 14 March ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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