Adapted by Christopher Grobe from August Strindberg,
Organic Theater Company at Mullady Memorial Theater, 1125 W. Loyola Ave.,
Phone: (847) 675-5167; $20
Run through Sept. 26
Watching moneyed gentry duke it out with ambitious commoners provides great drama, especially in August Strindberg's Miss Julie. Strindberg's 1888 classic 'Upstairs, Dowstairs' play not only deals with class warfare, but with vicious male/female sexual politics as well.
It all makes for a ripping yarn filled with passion, manipulation and betrayal. Too bad that Organic Theater Company doesn't entirely fulfill Miss Julie's promise.
The 'raison d'etre' for the production is the Organic's commission of Christopher Grobe's new adaptation. It mostly succeeds at sweeping away the affected sound and stuffiness of previous Miss Julie adaptations. The fact that it is Miss Julie's 'time of the month' is treated more delicately in other adaptations. The outburst of cursing from the ambitious servant Jean is also something I don't recall.
Grobe's adaptation is crystal clear about Sweden undergoing its screaming fits in transition from an oligarchy to a democracy, and in the growing push for women's rights. It is also instructive on how Strindberg's Miss Julie heralded in a naturalism to the theater that was shockingly new.
Alas it's Miss Julie's demand for naturalism and period detail that undermines the Organic's production. Everything looks like it was done on the cheap, from some ill-fitting and grimy costumes to the thrown-together look of the skeletal kitchen set. And who can believe Jean is a 19th century manservant when he sports a pricey-looking haircut with the same kind of blond highlights that are seen on top of many heads parading up and down North Halsted?
At least the dangerous high-class/low-class flirtations between Miss Julie and Jean are in the very capable and attractive hands of Cheryle C. Caplinger and Equity actor Ryan Kitley. Their unconvincing desperation may go over the top near the tragic end, but Caplinger and Kitley's cat-and-mouse verbal sparring is entertaining throughout most of the play.
Steering the relationships of Miss Julie's characters is an extremely difficult task, and director Ina Marlowe doesn't succeed at entirely shaking her three actors' tentativeness to the material. Actress Christy Koesters looked to be having the worst time with things. Instead of feeling at home in the kitchen setting and shoes of the servant Kirsten, Koesters' hesitant body rhythms looked uncomfortable in what should have been her character's invaded domain.
Miss Julie probably would not end so tragically nowadays. Just look at socialite Paris Hilton and her infamous porn tape—it only brought her more celebrity instead of a shameful downfall.
Yet Miss Julie still entertains and pushes audiences to think, even if the Organic's less-than-stellar production doesn't showcase Strindberg's classic to its best.