The veteran Guardian UK critic Michael Billington is writing about the fierce rivalry between the two fathers of theatrical naturalism, August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen, when he offers up this perfect comparison: Ibsen is writing about the lust, love and fragile hope that lead to a one-night stand, he writes, whereas Strindberg is trying to capture the “acrid taste of the morning after.”

Strindberg forces his characters into the harsh light of day to reckon with their choices. If they find clarity a jagged and bitter pill to swallow, they only have themselves to blame for sharpening its edges.

The question of choice is top of the menu in Company 16’s erratic staging of Strindberg’s 1888 classic tragedy Miss Julie. And I mean literally ‘top of the menu’ – these ambitious newcomers have done away with the script’s original aristocratic Swedish mansion setting and transformed fortyfivedownstairs into the open-plan kitchen of a Greek restaurant on the eve of Greek Easter. It’s Strindberg via The Bear.

Company 16’s Miss Julie. Photo © Matto Lucas

Julie is no stranger to reinterpretations like...