For our scene study project this term we are working through scenes from After Miss Julie by Patrick Mauber (author of Closer and Dealer’s Choice). A rewrite of Strinberg’s Miss Julie, and relocated from 1888 to 1945, Mauber’s After Miss Julie, like the original is about sexual power struggle played out between Miss Jullie, daughter to the Master of the house, and the chauffer/valet, John. Set on the night after the British Labor Party had their landslide victory, this piece touches on sex, class, politics and more.
I was a little dissapointed to find out that in the scenes I got I was playing Christine, John’s long term, sort-of fiance. A cook in Miss Julie’s household, Christine is the moral touchstone of the story. Compared to the wild Miss Julie, I thought Christine would be a piece of cake, but the more work I put in, the more of a person Christine becomes and I can see that it’s no small task. It really brought home for me that I should not dismiss a part because I do not find it particularly exciting. It is up to me to make it so.
Dude! I just did a scene from this show in one of my acting classes. I was Christine, too.
It’s an interesting play.