The décor may change but class barriers stay the same: The House Party at The Belgrade
- Annette Kinsella
- May 9
- 2 min read
The House Party by Laura Lomas, directed by Holly Race Roughan at The Belgrade Theatre from 7 - 10 May 2025.
Review by Annette Kinsella
You’re never more than a few Daily Mail headlines away from your next moral panic, so the saying goes (…kind of). From Elvis Presley’s thrusting pelvis to devil-worshipping rock music, there’s nothing more the buttoned-up, pearl-clutching tut-tut-tut brigade loves than to get into a stew over the latest craze to hit the country. And – especially in summer when the end of exams are nigh – fear of feral teens is often thrust into the public eye. Especially feral teens who throw uncontrollable house parties racking up thousands of pounds worth of damage and irreparable relationships with neighbours.
This kind of spiralling debauchery is the setting for the new play at the Belgrade Theatre. Called – unsurprisingly – The House Party, the inspiration for the destruction is actually far old than today’s Insta and Jagerbombs generation, having been inspired by August Steinberg’s 1988 play Miss Julie.
The action of Laura Lomas’s modern reimagining of the classic transports the action from a Swedish manor house to set designer Oren Elstein’s clinical chill of a British modern home of polished concrete, green-veined marble and glowing quartz kitchen islands. The titular character of the original becomes Julie (Synnove Karlsen), an overprivileged teen living in the shadow of her troubled parents, who throws the party when her absent father lets her down on her 18th birthday.
Synnove Karlsen. Photo credit Ikin Yum.
The dynamics of class and gender unfold through her interactions with best friend Christine (Sesley Hope), who dreams of escaping her working class background by winning a place at Cambridge, and Jon, her boyfriend (Tom Lewis), whose cavernous chip on his shoulder caused by his status as the son of Julie’s cleaner puts in train a catastrophic car crash of cruelty and confusion. In the words of comedian Katharine Ryan: most men are only one stupid mistake from ruining their lives.
The young cast give a polished performance and coherence to a complex plot, skilfully underscoring the instability of modern masculinity and the precarious status of women subjected to an unforgiving male gaze. The dialogue is sharp and authentic, although if I’m being hyper-critical it’s unlikely that drunken drugged-up 18-year-olds would be so articulate.
Although the conclusion of the modern-day version is slightly more optimistic than the discomforting original, the overall message is that – disappointingly – class constraints and expectations of gender remain steadfastly unchanged since the 19th century. It appears that we can change the kitchen décor of the party venue, but not the weight of society.
For times and tickets go to: https://www.belgrade.co.uk/events/the-house-party/
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