Review: THE HOUSE PARTY, Rose Theatre

Sex, power, gender and class: August Strindberg's Miss Julie may have first been performed in 1889, but its themes live on. In Laura Lomas's vivid reimagining of the play, The House Party, a seemingly happy event becomes the chaotic centre for a night where misogyny and the insidious creep of social media has a devastating impact upon the lives of the teenagers involved.

It’s Julie’s 18th birthday, and she’s throwing an impromptu party in her father’s extravagant house. Her Best Friend Christine is trying to keep things on an even keel after Julie's boyfriend has dumped her by text. As the night ramps up and the shots are downed, Christine and her boyfriend Jon become enveloped by Julie's disturbed personality. Split-second decisions are made and the effects will ripple further than the trio could ever imagine.

The production stays loyal to the rampant sexism of the original play; Julie is 'a slut', 'easy, 'a slag', 'too much'. With more than a hint of Saltburn, the class wars are less blatant, but deftly suggested through Julie's entitlement and throwaway attitude to her money and privilege and Jon's character who is both Northern and the son of Julie's cleaner. Christine aspires to a life beyond the council estate on which she lives; a life that Julie does not see any obstacles to attaining.

Originally staged by Headlong at Chichester Festival Theatre last year and now on a national tour, director Holly Race Roughan really captures the manic intensity of a teenage party; there is wild dancing, high-pitched shrieking, irresponsible drinking. People shout over each other, others sneak into bedrooms. Lomas adds the vehicle of revenge porn to the toxic mix, where the teenagers' lives can be determined through trials by social media.

Synnøve Karlsen, making a brilliant stage debut, is horribly convincing as the entitled and spoilt Julie. Karlsen makes Julie hugely unlikable, but is also vulnerable, mentally fragile and captivating enough to persuade us of her magnetic powers over people. At her heart she is a girl who is desperate for love and attention.

As Christine, Sesley Hope (also making a very assured stage debut) puts her own future on the line due to her slavish loyalty to Julie. She is endlessly suppportive of Julie, playing the surrogate mother to her. Together Hope and Karlsen really convey the intensity of some female teenage relationships that can verge on toxicity.

Tom Lewis as Jon is conscious of his class and where he fits into Julie's world. Lewis shows discomfort in his body language, constantly wanting to leave. And yet, he more than happy to jeopardise his relationship with Christine for a taste of Julie's world. 

Contrary to the theory that most people are always in the kitchen at parties, director Race Roughan uses Loren Elstein's expansive and expensive-looking kitchen as the place where intimate conversations happen, where Christine clears up, with the occasional drunken entrance from partygoers.

The production is in association with Frantic Assembly, a company renowned for its use of physical theatre. Scott Graham's movement direction does indeed bring huge physicality to the production, particularly through the fluid dance routines to Azealia Banks and Beyoncé songs on the vast marble island. Accompanied by Joshua Pharo's atmospheric lighting design, the night feels hedonistic, energetic and suitably edgy.

It's debateable whether an epilogue of sorts is necessary, but this is a production that makes use of every one of its 90-minute running time. Vibrant, highly credible and well performed.

The House Party runs at the Rose Theatre until March 22, and tours around the UK until 10 May.