Guest Blog: Charlotte Hamblin Talks MISS JULIE at Theatre by the Lake

I was 12 years old when I first picked up a copy of Strindberg's Miss Julie. I'm glad I didn't understand subtext at that age, but I'm eternally grateful that my mother casually left a copy lying around the house. From then on I was determined to play this zany, frenetic, iconic human.

So when I read Tom Littler was directing a new version by Howard Brenton for the 2017 Theatre by the Lake rep season, I immediately contacted him asking to audition. Luckily, Tom had seen me play a crackers mad woman in the play I wrote, For Those Who Cry When They Hear The Foxes Scream, at the Tristan Bates Theatre last year, so I managed to convince him to see me.

Playing someone with severe mental health issues is always something any actor would approach carefully. Julie is riddled with self-loathing, hatred and an inability to control her own sexuality; there's something of the Lolita about her. It's been a bit of a learning curve with this part, how to firstly protect yourself, and secondly preserve energy across the performance. She flits so quickly from one emotion to another it's sometimes hard to keep up.

The play is predominantly between Julie and Jean, played by James Sheldon. What we've discovered is that, no matter what Julie and John are doing, the two of us have to work together and be on each other's side at all times or it quickly unravels. Tom has continually pushed us to find the light in the performance, and there's no director better at setting up a world then Tom. He has the fantastic Izabella Urbanowicz cooking up a storm at the beginning!

It's wonderful working on new version with a writer so open as Howard has been. His adaptation is as close to Strindberg as you can get: incredibly brutal and exposing, yet laced with a great deal of humour, which initially caught me off guard. Howard refuses to let Julie become a victim, which I adore, and she does not fall into any of the Biblical categories of Mother, Virgin, Whore, which is so refreshing as a female actor to play.

Alongside Julie, I am also playing Helen in Rattigan's After The Dance, directed by the marvellous Philip Wilson. Helen is the opposite of Julie: she's single-minded, driven and doesn't rely on anyone to get what she wants. Helen has the ability to remove emotion from almost any situation, whereas Julie is overwhelmed by feeling, which eventually suffocates her.

What is so joyous about doing a rep season, which are so rare now, is the ability to play such as variety of roles. I didn't take a traditional route into acting - I trained on the Foundation course at RADA and then went on to study English, Drama with Education at Cambridge University - so the Theatre by the Lake season feels like a form of training, and I think I will continue to learn and develop until the end of December.

Conrad Lynch has put together a wonderful female-led season, on stage and off. There are phenomenal parts for women ranging from 20 to 75. That is so rare and I hope other artistic directors take a leaf out of his book! Being up in Keswick is amazing. As a writer as well, I know I'll have a wonderful setting to develop my current TV and theatre projects, and wonderful actors who are willing to workshop them. I'm not sure I'll want to come home...

Find more details on the Theatre by the Lake season here

Photo credit: Mark Douet

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