Smoke - Southwark Playhouse Borough, Little Stage
Feb 1, 2023 22:28:30 GMT
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joem likes this
Post by Steve on Feb 1, 2023 22:28:30 GMT
Caught this tonight, and it's at once a two hander about sexual power games and status, as well as an updated commentary on Strindberg's Miss Julie. I really enjoyed it for the excellent moment to moment performances of husband and wife duo, Oli Higginson and Meaghan Martin.
Some spoilers follow. . .
The play feels like "Venus in Furs," (a BDSM game) but it takes all its significant beats from "Miss Julie" (genuine underlying psychological savagery).
Consequently, the memory of Natalie Dormer hung heavily over this show for me, as I saw her in the former play at the Haymarket and I saw her in Patrick Marber's version of the latter play at the Young Vic. This play does not come close to feeling as dangerous as Dormer did in either of those plays.
Where those plays served up danger with a side helping of fun, this modernised version of Miss Julie serves up fun with a side helping of danger.
And the chemistry between the light, breezy but knowing Higginson and the curious playful ingenue, Martin, is moment to moment magical, always on point, even if ultimately you're not quite sure what it all adds up to.
If you have seen or read either Miss Julie, or Marber's "After Ms. Julie," you will have the additional fascinating layer of wondering, as each of Strindberg's plot beats is parallelled, how much of the psychological torture of the Strindberg characters lies beneath the surface of this ostensibly fun, teasing, potentially romantic encounter.
Anyhow, even if the destination of the encounter is (intentionally) underwhelming, the journey to that destination was pure pleasure, for me, thanks to all the back and forth moments, conjured by the actors' chemistry, along the way.
4 stars from me.
Some spoilers follow. . .
The play feels like "Venus in Furs," (a BDSM game) but it takes all its significant beats from "Miss Julie" (genuine underlying psychological savagery).
Consequently, the memory of Natalie Dormer hung heavily over this show for me, as I saw her in the former play at the Haymarket and I saw her in Patrick Marber's version of the latter play at the Young Vic. This play does not come close to feeling as dangerous as Dormer did in either of those plays.
Where those plays served up danger with a side helping of fun, this modernised version of Miss Julie serves up fun with a side helping of danger.
And the chemistry between the light, breezy but knowing Higginson and the curious playful ingenue, Martin, is moment to moment magical, always on point, even if ultimately you're not quite sure what it all adds up to.
If you have seen or read either Miss Julie, or Marber's "After Ms. Julie," you will have the additional fascinating layer of wondering, as each of Strindberg's plot beats is parallelled, how much of the psychological torture of the Strindberg characters lies beneath the surface of this ostensibly fun, teasing, potentially romantic encounter.
Anyhow, even if the destination of the encounter is (intentionally) underwhelming, the journey to that destination was pure pleasure, for me, thanks to all the back and forth moments, conjured by the actors' chemistry, along the way.
4 stars from me.
