Miss Julie (NHB Classic Plays)

By August Strindberg

Midsummer's Eve, Sweden. A night when the sun doesn't set. A night of drinking and dancing. A night to break the rules.
When Julie finds herself alone on her father's estate, she throws caution to the wind and gate-crashes the servants' party. In the sultry heat of that long, light night, she finds herself in a dangerous tryst with her father's manservant, Jean. What begins as a flirtatious game, as the two vie for power, slowly descends into a savage fight for survival.
August Strindberg's Miss Julie was written at a time of industrial and social unrest, a ground-breaking masterpiece that still provokes and shocks audiences today. Award-winning playwright Howard Brenton brings Strindberg's genius to life in this brilliant adaptation premiered at Theatre by the Lake, Keswick, in July 2017.
'riveting... as real and sensational now as ever and as socially and politically pertinent'- Guardian

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Aug 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781780019345

August Strindberg

August Stringberg was a novelist, poet, playwright, and painter, and is considered to be the father of modern Swedish literature, publishing the country’s first modern novel, The Red Room, in 1879. Strindberg was prolific, penning more than 90 works—including plays, novels, and non-fiction—over the course of his career. However, he is best-known for his dramatic works, many of which have been met with international acclaim, including The Father, Miss Julie (Miss Julia), Creditors, and A Dream Play. Strindberg died in 1912 following a short illness, but his work continues to inspire later playwrights and authors including Tennessee Williams, Maxim Gorky, and Eugene O’Neill.

Book preview

A large kitchen.

Shelves edged with scalloped paper and crammed with pots and pans of copper, iron and tin.

Glass double doors set in a large stone arch, through which can be seen a fountain with a cupid, lilac bushes in full bloom and the tops of Lombardy poplars.

A large tiled stove with a chimney hood.

A servants’ pine dinner table, painted white, with a few chairs.

An icebox, a sink, a scullery table.

A large, old-fashioned bell above the door and a speaking tube fitted to its left.

On the table there is a bouquet of lilacs in a large Japanese spice jar. The stove is decorated with birch leaves. The floor is strewn with sprays of juniper.

KRISTIN is standing at the stove frying something in a pan. She is wearing a pale cotton dress and a kitchen apron.

JEAN enters. He is dressed in livery and is carrying a pair of large riding boots with spurs. He puts then on the floor in a conspicuous place.

JEAN. Miss Julie’s gone mad tonight – again. Raving mad.

KRISTIN. So you’re back.

JEAN. I drove the Earl to the station then, coming back, I passed the barn. I fancied a dance, so in I went – and there she was: middle of the floor, all eyes on her, spinning round and round – with the gamekeeper! But when she sees me she leaves him stranded, rushes up and says: ‘Jean! Waltz! Now!’ And then, oh God, the way she waltzed – I’ve never felt anything like it, the woman is insane!

KRISTIN. Always has been. But it’s been really bad this past fortnight since her engagement went up in smoke.

JEAN. What happened there, a decent enough man, wasn’t he? Even though he was broke. Ah well, choosy lot, the upper classes.

He sits down at the end of the table.

Still, it’s strange for such a refined young lady – humph! – to be alone at home with the servants. You’d think she’d go with her father, visiting relatives.

KRISTIN. She’s embarrassed about the bust-up with her fiancé.

JEAN. I don’t want to let on but he had some nerve – I saw something.

KRISTIN. Saw what?

JEAN. Ah!

KRISTIN. Oh, come on.

JEAN. It was evening. They were out in the stable yard and Miss Julie was training him.

KRISTIN. She were what him?

JEAN. Training, that’s what she called it. She was making him jump over her riding crop, as you do when you teach a dog to jump. He tried it twice and ‘smack!’, she caught him each time. Then he grabbed the crop from her, broke it in half and stormed