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National Theatre's rendition of 'Julie'


☆☆☆☆☆


This exquisite piece of art is a play I feel truly passionate about. In my opinion that everyone should go to see Julie. It explores the themes of loss and bereavement, drugs, addiction and infidelity. It dips its toes into ideas of responsibility, trust, growing up and the internal wars some people suffer with. It shocks the audience in a beautiful dance, tossing us around and swaying us up and down in a romantically terrifying way. The way in which actor Vanessa Kirby waltz’s around the stage barefoot in her sparkling skirt and loose jacket, acting with every inch of her body down to her twitching toes, enraptures the audience into this internal whirlwind she is struggling against. Kirby’s acting ability outstanded me and made me believe with my whole heart that she was suffering against her mind.

****

To begin loud song blasted, dancers were throwing themselves in and out of dishwashers with artistic and symbolic flare. The sounds then muffled as we were introduced to each character in turn. Focusing on Julie’s maid, and friend, and this maid’s husband. Although, it was clear from the start that Julie had other intentions for herself and him. Eric Kofi Abrefa plays this dangerous Jean who dabbles in infidelity and swims in the excitement of young Julie’s twisted head. He is ignited by her dark mystery which pulls him in but ends up spitting him out after all when the nanny realises what they have done.  This dance rages into a power game and eventually a fight for survival as both end up alone after all.





The dancers are used artistically throughout to give the ‘party’ setting a livelier feel. They increase in pace, volume and visibility when the emotions run higher and are slow and muffled by a white screen when the setting changes to the kitchen, or when softer; more mundane topics are brought into the space. These sycophants bend and twist not only themselves, but the story as they follow us through this whirlwind. There is a moment which stuck in mind where the dancers crawled from the dance space and into the kitchen. They descended onto the table tops and bent themselves over into the dishwashers; consuming themselves inside the surfaces; then to just disappear. This had my mind spiralling at its relevance; when in actual fact it’s clear to me now that the play and the directing is symbolic of Julie’s mind. Making us feel as disillusioned as she does. It could connote the fear inside Julie which causes her to crawl inside herself and give in to her minds dark tunnels, just as the dancers crawl back into the darkness. In some instances this abstract approach would have ruined another script. However, director, Polly Stenham, uses the trauma of Julie finding her mother’s dead body, and the deep psychological scars caused by this, to create something as abstract and driven as her inner turmoil’s.


The shock factors performed and conveyed to the audience kept us on the edge of our seats; ready to topple into a void of psychological theatre. An instance which had the audience in a mix of frantic laughs and muffled cries was when Julie took her pet bird and placed it in a food mixer; continuing to whizz it alive. This to me was her breaking point. The audience is now visibly aware of the significant struggle she is going through. Her brains brick wall had finally broken but instead of letting people in, it crumbled in their faces; leaving her alone. We are dared and teased to dislike her; to hate her and feel disgust towards her actions. However, Vanessa Kirby’s soft movement of hand to chest and face, the sweep of her dress and even the delicate manner in which she decomposes gradually bit by bit on stage draws us in and makes us feel longing to help her and give her the comfort we feel she deserves. This leaves us in the position that when it comes to the scene in which Julie overdoses, we have rope tied to our chests and are tugged and pulled onto the stage beside her.
The play ends with loss and grief; the theme of bereavement is circulated as the maid now feels grief and guilt as she finds Julie dead, after an argument about Julie’s affair with her husband. The cries of the maid and her frantic move to ring for help are hopeless as we realise that Julie is beyond the point of help. The play ends with her cries and the body, covered in Jean’s hoodie that Julie had borrowed from earlier, tied up around her face and neck, conveying his relevance in her ending; Julie’s feet finally still.



This epic display of conflicting, provoking and truly mesmerising artwork continues to live within me and remains imprinted in my mind as I replay the beauty and dark shock of the performance over and over in my mind. I am inspired by this flame of exquisite acting and directing ability and will continue to endorse in this story through the physical play, stage, and theatre screened into cinemas. In addition, actor and director Q and A’s and so forth; excited to see what will come from this play in the future.



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