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 longsuffering 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.
The House Party spins Strindberg’s classic play Miss Julie into intense, fizzing life for today’s generation. Laura Lomas’s play was first performed at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester, in 2024, and then toured the UK in 2025, 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
‘Crackles with energy… Laura Lomas’s contemporary take on Miss Julie is a zesty tangle of desire and resentment… a compelling dance towards disaster’
— The Times
‘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
‘Laura Lomas has done an excellent job of creating a unique and contemporary adaptation aimed at a Gen Z audience… a rollercoaster evening… The House Party isn’t afraid to tackle issues that teenagers are faced with today’
— Theatre & Tonic
‘A bang-up-to-date reimagining… exhilarating’
— LondonTheatre1
‘Fast-paced and full of tension… brings into sharp focus the original’s themes of class, power, and privilege that remain as relevant today as ever… poignant and devastating… a triumph’
— All That Dazzles
