Lesson Plans

Miss Julie by August Strindberg: Play for study

In each issue of D&T we bring you a teacher or academic's guide to a play for study with your students. Here, Nick Smurthwaite introduces August Strindberg's Miss Julie
 James Sheldon and Izabella Urbanowicz in Miss Julie, Jermyn Street Theatre, 2017
James Sheldon and Izabella Urbanowicz in Miss Julie, Jermyn Street Theatre, 2017 - Tristram Kenton

Even though he died more than a century ago, the influence of the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg is still being felt today. The play for which he is probably best known is Miss Julie, a visceral take on lust, class and the battle of the sexes that has seen many reinventions since he wrote it in 1888.

The reason why it lends itself to different interpretations, and updatings, is that the premise is a simple one: Julie, the rich, entitled daughter of an aristocrat sets about the cold-blooded seduction of her father's attractive but low-born valet, Jean, who is at once beguiled and repelled by her.

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