Julie reviews at the National Theatre ★★★

"Polly Stenham's modern take on Strindberg misses the mark"

"The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby impresses but this updated version of the class-conscious tragedy is overblown."

"Carrie Cracknell’s production and Tom Scutt’s design are similarly overblown. Whatever his misogyny, one of Strindberg’s insights was to realise that his play demanded “a small stage and a small auditorium”. Here the play has to occupy a big theatre."

"Fortunately, the acting is good. But in Stenham’s version I never felt that the tragic outcome was dictated by an inexorable dramatic force.”

"Vanessa Kirby shines, but the dramatic stakes are lowered in Polly Stenham's update of Strindberg."

"The play looks at the hypocrisies of middle class liberals in relation to the ill-paid immigrant work-force on whom their moneyed lives depend."

"Carrie Cracknell's production of this 80-minute piece is surprisingly low on sexual tension, though, and it makes some bad misjudgements. The pet canary in the Magimix, for example – a bird that makes not a peep of protest when Julie obeys Jean and pops it into the blender. The resulting red liquid looks like the basis of a new cocktail (a Canary Wharf, perhaps)? It says a lot for Kirby that her portrayal survives this “inventive” directorial flourish.”

"Provocative and profound"

”Provocative and profound update of Strindberg’s classic with a blinding central performance from Vanessa Kirby.

August Strindberg’s classic, in the hands of Polly Stenham and Carrie Cracknell, updated and enriched, is a piece that pulls in polar directions. It delights and distresses and aggravates all at the same time. It’s not pleasant to watch, doesn’t want to be, nor should it be."

"Problematic take on Strindberg lacks danger"

”Carrie Cracknell’s production has a strong look, with Tom Scutt’s design revelling in the contrast between domestic wholesomeness and chaotic decadence. Yet it’s oddly inert. In part this is down to a lack of chemistry in the central relationship. The passion between Julie and Jean should erupt spectacularly, but there’s no spark."

"Stenham’s take on Strindberg is also a problem. Despite promising bold thinking about inequality, racial prejudice, sexual stereotypes and liberal hypocrisy, it proves colourless and slight. There’s an impulse to provoke, but no real sense of danger.”

"Vanessa Kirby is great as a disintegrating posh girl in this nightmarish production"

"All the iconic/grim moments of the Strindberg original are there (bird lovers beware), but they’re smartly rationalised by the intoxication.

Cracknell’s production is viscerally effective where Stenham’s adaptation feels soft focus. Certainly there is a lot of stuff about class – and, indeed, race – that simply doesn’t get examined here. But maybe that’s besides the point: the physical sense of a life accelerating out of control is both exhilarating and horrifying, like being forced to watch somebody else’s nightmare, or seeing a rollercoaster accelerating faster and faster and faster until the inevitable occurs.”