The House Party (NHB Modern Plays)

A wild party. A friendship. A cherished pet. And a night that changes everything.

It's Julie's eighteenth birthday, and she's throwing a party in her father's extravagant townhouse. Her boyfriend has just dumped her and her long-suffering best friend Christine is trying to pick up the pieces. As the revellers pile into the booze, down in the kitchen Christine and her boyfriend Jon – son of Julie's cleaner – clear up and dare to dream of the future.

But as the volume goes up and the shots go down, Julie concocts a twisted cocktail of privilege, desire and destruction.

Laura Lomas's play The House Party spins Strindberg's classic play Miss Julie into intense, fizzing life for today's generation. It was first performed at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 2024, co-produced with Headlong in association with Frantic Assembly, and directed by Holly Race Roughan.

'Dazzling… brings Strindberg's classic searing into the 21st century, a blazing hot ménage à trois that transforms the stage into a cauldron of desire, resentment and revenge' – Broadway World

'Fresh, ferociously intense and visually striking… this searing, emotionally charged adaptation puts a convincing contemporary twist on the dark story of class conflict, self-destruction and seething sexual tension' – The Stage

'Ferocious… blows the roof off the theatre… Laura Lomas has brought the classic play bang up to date… bracingly relevant and searingly shocking' – WhatsOnStage