Cast
- Countess Alice de Janzé
- Pernille Johansson
- Alice de Janzé’s maid, Christine
- Rebecca Langley
- Lord Erroll’s butler, Jean
- Michael Omoke
Production dossier · 2021 premiere
Miss Julie’s Happy Valley
A reimagining of Swedish icon August Strindberg’s classic Miss Julie (1888), transposed to the colonial Kenya of the 1920s.
A reimagining
Desire crosses rank. Empire enters the kitchen. What begins in perfume, ceremony, and flirtation hardens into surveillance, flight, and ruin.
Alice de Janze: “Why are you wearing uniform on Happy Valley’s Mid-Summer night when everyone else is losing them? Take it off at once.”
Scene I
Polish Before the Fall
JeanAfrica. Home at last.The last continent with a soul of its own.
Soft mist of the Aberdere mountains. The White Highlands of British Kenya. No place like it.
ChristineAltitude, Alcohol and Adultery.
Scene II
Games of Rank and Desire
JeanCharming that smell of violets.
Alice de JanzeGood pertinence so you know about perfumes too? Why are you wearing uniform on Happy Valley’s Mid-Summer night when everyone else is losing them? Take it off at once.
JeanThen I must ask your lady to step outside for a moment, I keep my coat here.
Alice de JanzeSince when did my presence embarrass you? Can’t you change your coat with me here? Well you better go to your room then… No, stay. I’ll turn my back.
Gesture studies
Ceremony, invitation, service
Scene V
The Last of the First
AliceJean just tell me this … the first shall have their share of grace too.
ChristineWith all my heart Countess. As true as I stand here, and that’s my faith from a child … where the sin is exceedingly great, there grace and his mercy shall overflow.
JeanCountess Alice de Janze you are no longer among first.You are among the last.
AliceThat’s true.I am beneath the very last; I am the last of all.
Act II dreamFlight as class fantasyA private Switzerland imagined at the very edge of scandal.
Featured still · escape fantasy
A Deluxe for Deluxe People
AliceWhat can we do? Travel, yes, but where?
JeanGo away.Travel far away from here.
Switzerland. Have you never been there?
Ah. It’s majestic. Lavished with Art Nouveau, the Baroque.
I’ll start a hotel.A deluxe for deluxe people.
Press & Reviews
A small selection of responses to the production.
The Creative Team That Brought Miss Julie’s Happy Valley to Life
Behind the fever stood a company of artists who carried this reimagining from page to stage.
Cast, team, and premiere details
Premiered at Folketeatret, Copenhagen on 26 August 2021.
Creative team
- Playwright
- Michael Omoke
- Consultant Director
- Anna Maria Blicher Skanborg
- Scenography & Costume Design
- Mia Fasmer Schønemann
- Production Manager
- Ida Marie Krog
- Sound Design
- Fredrik Hjulmand
- Lighting Design
- Lasse Søgaard Kristensen
Further credits
- PR & Marketing
- Emilie Bisgaard
- Director’s Assistant
- Eyja Sigriður Gunnlaugsdóttir
- Visual Development
- Aïcha Haidara and Elisha Ngoma
- Translator
- Eva Ferre Winkel
- Photographer
- Anis Dhiman
Original production soundtrack
Sound & atmosphere
Sound design for the production by Fredrik Hjulmand. To keep this ACT dossier visually disciplined, fast to load, and free of duplicated heavy media, the full eight-track listening experience remains on michael-omoke.com.
Folketeatret, Copenhagen2021 · 8-track original soundtrack
- 01Flirt with Danger
- 02Trembling
- 03Party (red)
- 04The Hunt
- 05Lord Erroll
- 06Dark Pistol
- 07Switzerland madness
- 08The End (Home)
The full soundtrack appears on Michael Omoke’s website within the Miss Julie’s Happy Valley section.
Graphic World
A parallel visual language developed around Miss Julie’s Happy Valley, extending the production into poster design, public programme imagery, and the wider artistic universe of the work.
Graphic concept and visual artwork: Elisha Ngoma & Aïcha Ngoma · Ida Marie Krog · Stylist: Mia Fasmer Schønemann
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