Theatr Clwyd, Mold
Kaite O’Reilly relocates August Strindberg’s classic to a Welsh stately home in postwar, post-pandemic 1921
‘What do you know about magnificence?’ asks Christine the cook of John the valet as a pan is slowly brought to simmer above a burning flame. Presented in a strong north-east Welsh accent, Kaite O’Reilly’s Missing Julie relocates Strindberg’s Miss Julie to a stately home in Wales in 1921. Christine and John are the walking wounded, seeped in postwar and post-pandemic grief. This is a world of chapel and working-class nonconformity, where aspiring to magnificence is met with caution.
Following Hedda Gabler at the Sherman in 2019, this is another classic of the European canon directed by Chelsea Walker and starring Heledd Gwynn in the titular role. Missing Julie is similarly staged with a sophisticated and exact vision, and Gwynn’s performance is gripping. Her Julie is an unruly mixture of dangerously appealing contradictions. We think we know how it ends, but throughout she flirts with the possibility that this time it might be different.