“Now kiss my shoe as a sign of respect!” These words define the conflict at the heart of Patrick Marber’s After Miss Julie. In one light, they reflect Julie’s assertion of class over her subordinate, in another- her repressed sexual desires.

Marber’s take on August Strindberg’s Miss Julie (1888) displaces the action to July 1945, to the evening of the Labour Party’s landslide election victory. Miss Julie descends to the servants’ quarters in pursuit of her father’s chauffeur John. What follows is a psychologically charged series of events as the characters grapple with their sense of identity and place within society.

First performed on stage at the Donmar Warehouse in November 2003 when growing disillusionment with Blair’s government provided a fitting background for the play, Michel Grandage’s production received positive reviews and Kelly Reilly’s performance was deemed “astonishing”. After Miss Juile was revived in March 2012 at The Young Vic where Natalie Abrahami’s vision for the play was both striking and highly effective.

The affiliation of After Miss Julie with stage success is no coincidence. Not only has Marber’s remodelling produced a poignant and captivating play, it has provided a platform for actors to truly display their talent. With only three parts, After Miss Julie requires commitment and stamina. It is exactly for these reasons that director Aoife Kennan has chosen to take on this difficult work. Kennan explained the possibilities that the play has for in-depth characterisation and, more particularly, female characterisation “This play has two great female parts, it is a problem in Cambridge that there are so many great female actors and not enough roles for them.”

It is clear from speaking to the cast that they have a comprehensive knowledge of the complexities of their respective characters.  Making his Cambridge Theatre debut, Jonah Hauer-King, explained John’s plight with the class that he has been born into and the implications that come with it “he is constantly grappling with the person that he wants to be and the person that he perceives himself to be”. Whilst Rose Reade expressed that Miss Julie is not inherently bad but disturbed from her turbulent upbringing and social expectations. Here assistant director, Orlando Gibbs concludes that the play is “a sequence of what-do-I-want?”

The Corpus Playroom will serve to heighten the play’s psychological facets whilst placing a degree of pressure on an already intense performance. Aoife Kennan expressed her aim to provide a human, raw character piece; “I want people to be sucked in” — I fully anticipate that we will be. 

After Miss Julie is on at the Corpus Playroom from Tue 4th - Sat 8th November at 9.30pm