Miss Julie

August Strindberg's play is the ultimate in love-hate relationships, a claustrophobic view of a man-woman duel rooted in sexuality and complicated by class difference. The place is late-19th-century Sweden, where Julie is an aristocrat and Jean her male servant. Driven by different impulses, they abandon briefly their respective statuses and conditioning, and she in particular must pay a terrible price.

The third character is Kristin, house cook and fiancΘe to Jean. Knowing her place, she keeps her head when the others lose theirs. Julie may forget her rank and obligations, but she is still employer and patron, not to be challenged. He, with his foolish ambitions and presumption, may yet make a superior kind of husband, better than the serfs in the fields. What Kristin has, she holds.

This is a play that can profit from intimacy of the kind offered by this tiny theatre. The focus is on the acting, and Douglas Rankine is a convincing Jean. Helena Lewin, a Swedish actress, plays the key role of Julie, and here the production stumbles and falls. She is physically small and slight, not an authoritative figure. This may, of course, be compensated for by inner conviction, but not here.

Sue Mythen directs for the new Dionysos Theatre Company, which aims to give a Swedish feel to this universal play. I do not understand what this means, but it is at least clear that substance is more important than feel - and is inadequately achieved in this production.

Runs until June 23rd; Diploma Show 2001