THEATRE REVIEW: Julie ★★★

Julie

National Theatre

Saturday 21st July 2018

Set in modern day London, Polly Stenhams’ adaption of Stenham’s Miss Julie centres around the titular character celebrating her 33rd Birthday upstairs in her townhouse whilst downstairs her fathers chauffeur, Jean, monitors and cleans up along with his fiancé Kristina. Directed by Carrie Cracknell, this updated production explodes onto stage with a 10 minute opening rave in the upstage section to embody the lifestyle that Julie leads with the drunken party-goers, but as the production progresses, the hype soon deflates like a balloon, seeping out all the air, much like the slow moving iron that falls over a long period at the climax of the action.

Vanessa Kirby portrays Julie, the outgoing and adventurous 30-something who is still living her youthful years, and in my opinion is cast perfectly. Kirby showcases a real talent and keeps you hooked on her attributes and imaginative ways of storytelling, which is more than could be said for her co-star Eric Kofi Abrefa in the role of Jean, who takes a while for the audience to really warm to as a character, but is ultimately a forgettable performance when challenged against Kirby. Thalissa Teixeira puts in a safe performance as Kristina, who stumbles onto stage fleetingly for most parts of this unsteady production.

Tom Scutt’s design is visually stunning, though bleak, and captures the loneliness within the characters portrayed on stage with the large dining table stretched out across the playing field. The ensemble of party-goers are merely for dressing the stage, though put in a performance which wants to make you leave the theatre after the performance ends and continue the night with the same atmosphere that comes across in this 90 minute, one act production.

Overall, though Julie shows early potential from the beginning and Vanessa Kirby ensues a blinding performance worthy of a nomination, the whole production fails to bring the whole auditorium to laughter at the more light-hearted moments, with heads turning in confusion from across the stalls and circle, and leaves you wanting more.