First look images for the World Premiere production of Kaite O’Reilly’s Missing Julie which opened last night at Theatr Clwyd.

Chelsea Walker returns to Theatr Clwyd to direct Kaite O’Reilly’s Missing Julie which has been freely adapted from Strindberg’s Miss Julie. In the title role of Julie is Heledd Gwynn and she is joined by is Tim Pritchett in the role of John. Completing the cast is Catrin Aaron, who returns to Theatr Clwyd as Christine.

The production opens in the Emlyn Williams Theatre on 21 September with previews from 16 September until 9 October.

Playwright Kaite O’Reilly said today, “The lived experience of disability is seldom portrayed in plays, especially in our classics - disabled characters are usually stereotypical figures of fun or pity, with no agency. So when I conceived a new version of Strindberg’s Miss Julie from a radical disability perspective, I knew the theatre I had to take it to was Clwyd. I’ve been working within disability culture as well as the mainstream for many years and it is an incredible pleasure to reinvent such a renowned character and play through a disabled lens.

I set the play just after the First World War-a time of radical politics and renewal, along with grief and mourning. It was a time when disability was common as the injured men returned from the trenches and also when society yearned to ‘build back better’. I feel this has great resonance with the times we live in. We have opportunities to create a more inclusive and diverse society, where all voices and lives are portrayed and valued.”

Named by The Stage as the 2020 Regional Theatre of the Year, Theatr Clwyd continues to strive to increase access to creative roles within the theatre industry. Chelsea Walker was recruited as the production’s director through an open call, in partnership with #OpenHire.

THEATR EMLYN WILLIAMS
WORLD PREMIÈRE
MISSING JULIE
by Kaite O’Reilly
Freely adapted from Strindberg’s Miss Julie

Director: Chelsea Walker; Designer: Georgia Lowe; Movement Director: Cathy Waller
Lighting Designer: Elliot Griggs; Sound Designer: Jasmin Kent; Fight Director: Kenan Ali
Intimacy Coordinator: Jess Tucker Boyd

16 September – 9 October
Press night: 21 September

Miss Julie, the heiress of a Welsh stately home, finds herself in a world radically changed by The Great War. Robbed of marriage after the carnage in the trenches, she is one of the ‘surplus women’, facing the possibility of a solitary life. In one night of desperate liberation, it seems that the old hierarchies may be over… Will she dare to break all taboos with her servant, John?

Freely adapted from Strindberg's play about class and social Darwinism, Missing Julie gives the controversial classic a twentieth century twist.

Kaite O’Reilly is a playwright, radio dramatist, writer, and dramaturg who works in disability arts and culture and mainstream culture. Her work includes The Beauty Parade at WMC 2020, And Suddenly I Disappear: The Singapore/UK ‘d’ Monologues’ (Elliot Hayes Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy honouree), Lie With Me, Woman of Flowers, The 9 Fridas, The Echo Chamber, Told by the Wind, peeling, The Almond and the Seahorse (Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist), Persians (winner of Ted Hughes Award for New Works in Poetry), I Fall to Pieces, In Praise of Fallen Women, Speaking Stones, Silent Rhythm, Henhouse, Perfect (winner of Manchester Theatre Awards’ Play of the Year), andYard (winner of Peggy Ramsay Award). O’Reilly received two Cultural Olympiad Commissions for In Water I’m Weightless and Leaner Faster Stronger, during the 2012 London Paralympics/Olympics. Her first feature film The Almond and the Seahorse will be released in 2022 starring Rebel Wilson and Charlotte Gainsbourg, from Mad as Birds films.

Chelsea Walker directs and is an award winning theatre director. In 2017, Chelsea won the prestigious RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award, and toured her critically acclaimed production of A Streetcar Named Desire across the UK in a co-production between Theatr Clwyd, NST and ETT. She has twice been a finalist for the JMK Award and was awarded the runner up prize in 2016. In 2017 she was a director on the Old Vic 12 and has been nominated for Off West End awards for her productions of Low Level Panic and Cougar. Her credits include: Hedda Gabler (Sherman Theatre), Cougar, Low Level Panic (Orange Tree Theatre), A Streetcar Named Desire (UK Tour), Yous Two (Hampstead Theatre), P’yongyang, Chicken Dust (Finborough Theatre), Klippies (Southwark Playhouse), Lean (Tristan Bates).

Catrin Aaron plays Christine. She is an Associate for Theatr Clwyd, where her work includes Orpheus Descending, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, All My Sons, The Light of Heart, Aristocrats; Salt, Root and Roe; Humbug, God of Carnage, A Doll’s House, Roots, Taking Steps, Gaslight, Dancing at Lughnasa, A Small Family Business, Festen, Mary Stuart, Twilight Tales, Macbeth, A Toy Epic, Tales from Europe, The Timeless Myths of the Mabinogi, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, The Voyage, The Way It Was, Flights of Fancy, Hobson’s Choice, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Silas Marner. Her other theatre work includes The Wizard of Oz (Sheffield Theatres), As You Like, Hamlet (Shakespeare’s Globe), Henry V (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), The Forsythe Sisters (Gaggle Babble), Sex and the Three Day Week (Liverpool Playhouse) and What People Do and London: Let’s Get Visceral (Old Vic Tunnels). For television, her work includes The Indian Doctor, The Bastard Executioner and First Ladies; and for film, Apostle.

Heledd Gwynn plays Julie and her recent theatre credits include Hedda Gabler (Sherman Theatre), A Provincial Life (National Theatre Wales) and Richard III (Headlong). Her television credits include The Pact, Ordinary Lies and Enid A Lucy.

Tim Pritchett plays John. His theatre credits include Short and Stark (Southwark Playhouse), Cat in Sieve (Theatre503), Hospital at the time of the Revolution; A New Play for the General Election (Finborough Theatre), Being The Actor (Royal Festival Hall), Manchester (Soho Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing; The Canterbury Tales (Royal Court), The Exeter Blitz Project (The Bike Shed Theatre), Cuddle, In the Blood and Great Expectations (Arcola Theatre), The Boy I Love is Up in the Gallery (Hoxton Hall), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Earl's Court), Dead Dog at Dry Cleaners (Pleasance Theatre) and Our Town Story (Exeter Northcott Theatre/Millennium Dome).
Television credits include: Black Mirror (Netflix); Howards End; Doctors (BBC) The Vessel (Fyrian Films). For film his credits include Wonder Woman (Warner Bros), Time is Forever (NFTS), Jenny and Vinny Uncut (JEU Productions), The Sanctuary of Collell (Driver Productions), Gospel of Thomas (Polygram) and Goddard and Others (New Troy Productions).

LATEST NEWS