Miss Julie review

Written in 1888, August Strindberg's Miss Julie is a tense exploration of class, power, and desire, centred on the fraught relationship between an aristocratic woman and her servant during a single, volatile night. Company 16’s adaptation relocates the story in a contemporary setting on the eve of Greek Easter, set inside a bustling restaurant where Miss Julie is the daughter of a wealthy restaurateur, John is an intense sous-chef, and Kristina is the determined head chef. This modernisation aims to highlight the rigid hierarchies and simmering tensions of the hospitality world through the lens of cultural tradition and family expectations. While the concept offers a fresh and immersive perspective, the production grapples with fully capturing the complexity and affective nuance to make for a compelling story.

Making her acting debut, Annalise Gelagotis captures the eponymous character's surface-level frustration and defiance, but is unable to thoroughly explore Julie’s internal conflict and shifting status. What’s missing is a deeper layer of subtle vulnerability and psychological tension that would allow us to connect with her downfall. As it stands, the performance feels too obvious and leans into melodrama.

Adam-Jon Fiorentino delivers a solid John, effectively conveying the strain of his turmoil and the weight of his ultimate undoing. His portrayal brings a necessary clarity to his changing motivations, grounding his scenes with a believable and restrained intensity. Izabella Yena is given very little to work with as Kristina, which is unfortunate. While she is portrayed as a talented chef on the verge of a breakthrough, the depiction comes across as overly loud and one-dimensional. Additionally, Kristina’s interplay and reactions to John and Julie lack consistency, and as the narrative progresses, her behaviour becomes increasingly trickier to comprehend.

These uneven portrayals and restless energies reflect the challenges in Harry Haynes’ direction and adaptation. His effort to transpose Miss Julie into the pressure-cooker, hierarchical world of a professional kitchen is conceptually eye-catching, but the execution falters in bringing emotional coherence to the relationships. Although Haynes succeeds in creating an engaging physical space and shaping the ensemble’s movement with precision, the direction could benefit from clearer articulation to fully ground the play’s complex relationships. 

Movement Director Mathew Wernham does a great job having the rest of the chefs act as a silent Greek chorus, representing the collective conscience and societal gaze without words. Their movements are slow, rhythmic, and purposeful, and their quiet presence during set changes adds to the unease, while their combined deep breathing elevates the intimacy and urgency of the story.

Angelina Daniels has constructed a functional kitchen for the show, featuring moveable stainless steel counters and benches. Georgie Wolfe’s lighting design heightens both the physical vigour of the kitchen environment and the dramatic nature of the play. However, the frequent rearrangement of set pieces, with sinks, counters, and benches moving unpredictably, disrupts the sense of a cohesive commercial kitchen, adding to the inconsistencies that detract from this staging’s flow.

Despite instances of strong individual work and an immersive design, this modernised production struggles to find the psychological connectedness and focus required to consistently engage the audience. The adaptation’s shift to a restaurant kitchen introduces interesting parallels but also contributes to unsteady character dynamics and tone, leaving the narrative unsettled. As a result, Miss Julie’s timeless themes don’t resonate as powerfully as intended.

Show Details

Venue: fortyfive downstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Season: until 17 Aug | Tues - Sat 7:30pm, Sun 5pm
Duration: 80 minutes

Tickets: $55 Full | $40 Concession
Bookings: fortyfive downstairs

Image credit: Matto Lucas