Yorkshire Theatre Newsletter: What's On This Week (Jun 25-Jul 1)
Hijinks In Hong Kong and A Little Night Music.
Bad things happen to animals in Amy Ng’s adaptation of August Strindberg’s 1888 play Miss Julie (York Theatre Royal, to Jun 26, £20). Most of it happens off-stage and none of it to real creatures. But I did spend much of the opening night worrying about Miss Julie’s poor dog, a pedigree bitch who sealed her own unpleasant fate when she followed her base desires and mated with the Pekingese next door.
This tells you everything you need to know about the plot of Miss Julie, which in New Earth Theatre’s relocated production features a Hong Kong Governor’s daughter who sets her sights on her father’s Chinese chauffeur, John, in the aftermath of the Second World War.
This isn’t a love story. Sophie Robinson presents the young Julie as a brittle, borderline personality who, out of a self-acknowledged emptiness, plays increasingly savage games of dominance and subservience with a domestic who is, unlike the eponymous…